Linda or Olivia?

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I love names. When I was growing up my parents had a baby name book in the house. My sister and I had a favourite game, where we’d open the book at random pages and whatever name our fingers landed on would be the name of a character we’d act out. In our view, the weirder the name the better--and the book had plenty of them outside of the Lindas, Debbies and Susans who populated our classes at school.

Nowadays, when I'm writing a story and a character appears, my usual process is to assign him or her the first name that pops into my head. I keep writing and get a feel for how the name works, or not. Somewhere along the way, I'll move from feeling to logic. If the character isn’t someone my age or from a similar background, I go to the Internet and look up popular names for the year the person was born and for his or her heritage. In fact, for a person quite different from me I might do this before I start to write, since I simply have no idea for the name.

Of course, a person might have a name that doesn’t fit her era. I knew an Emily about my age, but her name was unusual for the times. This says something about her parents who chose it and parents' personalities and values influence the child's character. So do other children who respond to a classmate with a name they find old-fashioned. In contrast, a young Emily today might feel her name is too common. In my school classes, I was always Susan C to distinguish me from the inevitable other Susan or two.

In addition to the era and ethnicity, I consider the sound of my characters' names. During revision, I take a take a piece of paper, write the letters of the alphabet down one side and list my character names by starting letter. If too many begin with “B” I’ll change the name of the less important one. Sound also relates to how we hear a name and the number of syllables. Once, an author who reviewed a story I wrote noted that all my men had single syllable names, which prompted me to give one of the males a two-syllable moniker. Likewise, I once changed a character named Gareth to Garth when I realized Gareth sounded too much like the name a main character, Eric. But while my naming can fall into a rut, about half the time the original name that popped up is one I stay with in the end. Intuition can work.

Charlotte Bronte - Charlotte, an old-fashioned name now hugely popular due to William's and Kate's daughter Charlotte. 

In those childhood games with my sister, we used those random names as a springboard to developing our imaginary characters through dialogue and actions. This is pretty much my writing process today. The name itself generates personality traits. Lucinda feels like a different type of person than Jane. Harold, Harry and Hank are equally different, since these men have had the choice of which name to go by.

When my mother cleared out her house, one item I requested was her old baby name book. It is dog-eared, literally, since it looks like our family dog chewed a corner. For fun, today I opened the book randomly to pick names for a girl and boy. My finger landed on Ardelis and Rayburn/Reyburn.

The book also provides name origins and meanings, which I sometimes consider when naming story characters. Ardelis (Latin) means zealous or industrious; Reyburn (Old English) means from the roe, or deer, brook.

I like the names Ardelis and Reyburn and am already thinking of a story for these characters.  

My first grandchild - Vivienne - born July 31, 2017