I love naming characters. LOVE it. A name tells so much about a person: where they are from, where their ancestors are from, the time they live in, the values of their parents, perhaps even religion or spiritual beliefs. The sound of the name as another character speaks it aloud can add so much melody to the story.

(You, as the reader, are audiating one character speak another character’s name aloud, by the way… Apologizies – I’m kicking into music teacher mode as another school year begins.)

Audiation: The comprehension and internal realization of music by an individual in the absence of any physical sound.

You can even audiate passages in the voice of a specific person. Please allow these two gentleman to help you audiate passages from “The Ripple of Stones.”

The harmony or dissonance of the name beside another character’s name lends itself to the story. Take “The Ripple of Stones” for instance. Brigid and Gabe sound different in your mind than Brigid and Gabriel. And yet, the name meaning of Gabriel is “Hero” or “God is my strength.” Depending on your background, you may also think of the archangel Gabriel, whose story tracks with our Gabe Sherland.

I love the name Benjamin. It’s one of my favorite names. However, Brigid and Ben don’t work as well because said together, they have a “ba-da-da-DA” sound coming off the tongue. The short vowels and crisp ending consonants in each name gives their combination finality. Practicality. Brusqueness. Not qualities you want in star-crossed lovers. Brigid and Benny sound like A. a ripoff of “In the Heights” or B. a Disney Junior sitcom.

Brigid and Lynn do not blend or flow. You have to make completely different shapes inside and outside of your mouth and stop your vocalization entirely to get from the end of the name “Brigid” to the beginning of the name “Lynn.” But they do have the exact same internal vowel sounds. This was intentional.

(Also, the name Lynn comes from the Welsh and means “lake.” If Lynn were a surname, it would be of Old English or Gaelic origin, meaning family who lived near a body of water. This was also intentional.)

In the Prequel, I currently have nine main characters. My characters begin in a fictionalized version of an area in Quebec and migrate to Michigan. They are of English/Scottish/Irish/Welsh ancestry. The women’s names should harken back to Celtic Godesses. (See: Brigid) Finally, I am basing some of the plot on the life events of my great-great grandmother, so family names need to be represented. Given this criteria, you may imagine that my pool of name choices was more of a puddle.

False. (Did you audiate that in the voice of Dwight Schrute?? I bet you did.) I researched more than forty names for my nine characters. Thank you to my Facebook readers who helped!!

Do you know, I sat down to write a blog post about mapping out a plot, but considering that I spent two weeks figuring out character names, I believe this part of writing a novel deserves its own post. So… here’s a worksheet for you as you begin to name your characters:

1. Write down some names you just LIKE.

2. Circle any that do not belong to anyone you know.

3. Where is the setting of your novel? Do you want the character’s names to reflect that setting? (Writing about a guy named Patrick O’Flannagan in a novel set in Buenos Aires would have implications)

4. Research names having to do with the setting and time period. Look up social security records for ideas (Thank you, Corynn for that suggestion!)

5. Begin making lists. Do you like the way the name looks in writing? Typed out?

6. Read the names aloud. How do they sound? How do they sound together?

7. Once you’ve settled on some, begin researching name meanings – that is where the real fun begins!! Do you have a dark and brooding guy? Perhaps the name Cole would do. How about the guy-next-door type who loves dogs? Try Connor.

8. Decide on some. Leave it for a few days.

9. Come back and rethink. Do you like this name enough to write it for like… years?? If you’re doing anything overly dramatic to your character which you will because #plot, can you take that seriously with the name you chose? (Love scenes, death scenes, pain scenes… if you’ve named a character going through this drama after your grandmother to whom you were incredibly close, are you going to be able to write honestly? Think long and hard. Your grandmother’s name. In a love scene…)

10. Just with baby names, once you’ve decided on the best name for your character, do NOT ask the opinions of others. They are your characters, it’s your book, you’re going to have to bring these names to life, and no one else needs to get in your head about your choices.

11. Unlike baby names, you can change it if you want as you write the story. : )

Good luck and feel free to reach out if you need some ideas or assistance!

P.S. – the image at the beginning was taken at the Dune Climb, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Now, there are a myriad of reasons behind this actual place name, but the whole landscape would not seem as sweet if it were called The Achilles-Killer at U.S.A.’s Mound of Sand. My apologizes to Billy Shakespeare…