Names

Names are important.

Think about your favorite character. For example, Eustace Clarence Scrubb, from Narnia. Would he be as effective a character if his name were Owen? Of course not, because Owen is not a horrible name, and Eustace Clarence Scrubb — well, it really is.

My name holds value to me, and has played a significant role in my life. (I suspect your name is important to you, too.) When I was around seven, my parents legally changed my name. Pronunciation? Exactly the same. Spelling? Wildly different. I have suspected for a long time, however, that this name change fed into certain events which happened when I got a little older.

Agnès. That is my name, if you don’t know. It has an interesting meaning: lamb. I’m named after my dad, and most importantly, after Jesus, who is my savior and my king. It calls back Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (1 Cor 5:7, John 1:29) every time I hear it. But the name has also affected my life in ways which it probably wouldn’t have had I been named, for instance, Celeste.

In the same way, a character’s name can affect them heavily. But it can not only affect them heavily: the name most likely will affect the reader’s perception of the character.

Think of my favorite character, for example, Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment. Snotty, aloof, arrogant, full of himself. But most importantly, throughout the book, not once is he … not divided by the actions he has made. He is constantly torn, and full of guilt, and extremely bitter. He is, in a word, full of chaos. (Yes, that was three words. Don’t nitpick.) The name Raskolnikov (besides being fun to say) is very discordant. (You could call it, to use fancy poetry language, cacophonous). And the character himself is discordant! 

The way you name your character affects the way people see them, especially if your reader is listening to an audiobook. I, personally, find myself disliking characters whose names I can’t pronounce. (Seriously, please give your fantasy characters names which can be spoken.)

Character names are important. Pay attention to them while you write.

(Of course, you have my full permission to rename characters halfway through and confuse your readers. I have, of course, definitely never done this.)