Naming Characters

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare penned those words a long time ago for his play Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare was born in the sixteenth century. When he named his characters, he used names familiar to that time.

The popularity of given names changes. What's popular today was not in vogue twenty years ago. As a teacher of young children, I saw name trends come and go. There was one year when I had three little girls named Jennifer in my class!

When writing historicals, I roam around on the internet seeking names appropriate for the time period. There are some writers who roam through graveyards to find names for their characters, but the internet is quicker. Besides, I'm not really fond of walking through cemeteries.

There are several genealogy sites, which are helpful, but most of them charge a fee. https://familysearch.org does not charge a fee. It is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is an excellent resource.

Currently, I'm writing a romance set in the 18th century. I found the Connecticut State Library has an interesting list of nicknames for the eighteenth and nineteenth century at http://www.ctstatelibrary.org/node/2329

Another good blog post on male names for 1800 is at http://historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com/2012/02/whats-in-name-top-fifty-male-names-in.html

There's a fun post on oddball names, too, at http://www.nancy.cc/2013/07/31/oddball-english-names-17th-18th-centuries/

For English names of the Renaissance era I found http://www.peiraeuspubliclibrary.com/names/renaissancenames/RenaissanceEnglishNames.html

Of course, there are plenty of names an author can borrow from literature. Take a look at http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/822841/unique-baby-names-from-classic-books

What would you name your historical characters?

My Imaginary Friends

Yesterday, I spent some time making up a chart with the main characters in my new work-in-progress. The chart looks like this:

This is the bare bones stuff, but I find it handy. I don't want anyone's eye color to change mysteriously during the story.

I spent a considerable amount of time naming my imaginary friends. (That's what Daughter #1 calls them.) I had borrowed a book from the library which contained the names of many of the original families who settled in this county, which is the setting of this novel. I did not want to use any of those names in the book because my people are fictional.

Still, they had to have fairly common names for the time period, 1778. Of course, everything is subject to change. If a better name floats into my head for a character, I will use it. The heroine in my last book had another name at first, but when I realized I had too many names starting with the letter m, I changed her name. It isn't difficult with a computer. :^)

I set up this chart in Word. I can add lots more people simply by adding more rows to my table. I do much of my writing by the seat of my pants, but even I need some organization.