Sneaky Meaningful Names

[marycatelli]

Always wise to watch your character names.

Google it if you have to, but it is generally advisable to know what their meanings are.  Or other connotations.  Because just because you don't know what the meanings are, doesn't mean they aren't meaningful names when you use them in the right situation.  If you decide that your hero Thomas will turn out to have an Evil Twin, the choices are renaming him and having people say, Oh yes Thomas means twin so that was a clue there.  There may not be many of them -- the same stuff which ensure many readers will not pick up on intentional Meaningful Names will also protect them against accidental ones -- but they will exist.

Last names are worse because a lot of them wear their meanings on their sleeve:  Greene, Smith, Meadows, etc.  Some don't, of course, but it's a lot harder to fill up the list without any of them.  And worst of all is when a first name vaguely suggests something, and the last name is needed that harmonizes without pushing the whole thing over the top.

Comments

[kriz1818.livejournal.com]

Annnd there's always the possibly apocryphal story about the writer who innocently named a character "Chlamydia" ...

[marycatelli]

There's a book out there with a character named "Tylenol". His mother liked the sound of it. I've heard a lot more urban legends about mothers giving their children nice-sounding names.

Then there's "Anesthesia" in Neverwhere but Richard thinks he didn't hear it quite right. I suspect it's Anastasia. (Which may or may not turn out to be Meaningful if Gaiman does do the sequel that he might do.)

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

I named a character "Takyon" when I was a kid, but now I know better...

[marycatelli]

There are times when I am glad that my juvenilia are mostly handwritten in my ghastly handwriting.