The Wrong Name

So I’ve been brainstorming this new project, and one of the things I do as I get to know my main character is name him or her. I do this for two reasons:

1.     The name needs to fit with the story and the character’s personality. (Because, like it or not, we associate names with types of people or cultures—or worlds if we're talking fiction.)

2.     I can avoid writing “the MC” or “the girl” in all of my notes.

I didn’t say I was good at this.

For my current WIP, I named my main character Wren while brainstorming, but when I went to write the novel I realized she was really an Alex. I think I know why I’m so indecisive on the name front.

I blame my parents.

See, I was named Jessica. Even before I was born, my parents were sure: I was Jessica.

When I was born, my parents ooohed and ahhhed over baby Jessica. My grandparents brought stuffed animals and blankets addressed to baby Jessica.

Yet a couple days later (back in my day, the hospital didn’t throw you out on your butt a day after delivery), they decided that, nope, their baby definitely wasn’t a Jessica. She was a Tracey.

We stayed in the hospital an extra day as the paperwork was shredded and fixed. They got to know me as Tracey. I’ve never been anything else but Tracey. Still, I wonder if my personality would have been different had I been a Jessica (along with every other baby in the ’80s).

Or did my parents see my personality in those first few days and realize—like I realized with my character—that the personality didn’t fit the name? I’m not sure. (And I’m quite aware I just compared my baby self to a fictional character.)

There’s one downside to this baby story, though. I’ll spend my life explaining that Tracey has an e.

No one misspells Jessica.

What's In A Name?

I don’t have any children, but if I ever do, I hope I spend as much time considering their names as I did the names of the characters in my book.

(Although, naming children freaks me out a bit. At least with characters, you know the personality you’re attaching to the name. You can slap an Egor on a smokin’ hot dude and know he’ll turn out OK. For kids? Choose the wrong name and you could doom them to a lifetime of misspellings—see Tracey versus the ever-annoying Tracy—or worse. Fifteen years down the line you could be crying at night, Why didn’t I just stick with Kate?!?)

But, right, characters. I knew I had a point here. When I started brainstorming and taking notes on my current WIP, I knew the main boy character’s name would be Eli. When I got the spark of the idea, he was there as Eli. I never considered he might be a Mark or Luke or anything else. He was Eli.

My main character? She kind of went through an identity crisis. In all of my notes, she’s called Wren. I liked the name. It seemed to fit her. But as I went along, I realized she was not a Wren. In fact, I couldn’t even think of her as Wren anymore—it just didn’t fit. (That’s why half of my notes talk about her as Wren and the other half reference her as Alex—not to fool would-be idea thieves, as you might imagine.)

Once I switched her name to Alex she seemed real.

And it’s important. As much as I’d like to think I could name my goody-goody character Lucifer without having readers think of Satan while reading my book, I don’t believe that’s the case. We all have certain memories attached to names that color the characters before the author has a chance to.

That’s why it has to be perfect. That’s why it needs to be deliberate.

That’s why Wren didn’t belong in my story.

How do you choose your characters’ names? Ever misnamed one by accident? Even more important: Ever named your child something and wanted a takeback?