Brought To You By the Letter X
X is a nifty letter. It has a great sound. Go ahead and say it aloud. X. Nifty, huh? It has punch and it’s kind of sexy. Probably because it’s in ‘sexy’, but still. X….
Anyway, when my current novel idea jumped inside my head, it was followed closely by Leigh Baxton. Leigh herself is punchy (just ask the boys in the story), and sexy (just ask the boys in the story). Did you notice the X in her last name, by the way? That’s no coincidence. She’s also built like a twig and short, kind of similar to her first name. The name fits the character. The character fits her name.
The name Leigh Baxton just came to me. I didn’t have to think too hard. I didn’t have to go here, though that’s a great starting point. What about the rest of you? Where do your character names come from? Do they have the letter X in them? Should they?
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As odd as it may seem, I just kind of role sounds around in my head until they turn into syllables, and then let them bounce around until they congeal into a name. There is no rhyme or reason to it. I have a feel for what each race has for stylistic sounds, and they just sort of pop into my head.
I don’t have anything cooler than that, I’m afraid.
Hmmm… this is a good one – one that I wanted to do a blog post about (the whole creation of characters thing – I still will).
Well, this is how I do it – I first imagine the person that has to get a name. What does he/she look like?
Then, I run all the first names I know through my mind until I find out that seems to fit. I usually go for simple names, easy to pronounce, and though some may argue, I do not have a thing for the letter J (though in my YA novel I had 3 characters named with J – okay, five, but two were not important enough to mention)
After I decide on a first name, I try to match it up with a last name that would fit. (and, if I need to, I even give them middle names)
As it happens, I do have a name with X in it. My NaNo project male MC is called Daniel Paxton. – so I kinda giggled at Leigh’s last name. If she and Daniel ever got married, she’d only have to change one letter in her name 😀
Weirdest names I came up with? Freider and Mizrelle by far :p Though none of them are MCs.
You ladies are amazing. I have no process for naming my characters. I start thinking and writing about them until I find a name that just feels right. 🙂
I’ve had Caliphany in mind for years. Loved the ring of it, even used it for characters in computer games (spelled Caliphane, a Greek spelling), but lots of people thought it was pronounced like cellophane, so I added the y at the end to make sure it rhymed with “Tiffany” and not plastic wrap 🙂
Very interesting! We all seem to have different ways of naming our characters. I love to see the varied ways writers create characters/stories. It just goes to show you there’s no one “correct” way to do it!