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lkh_lashoutsLink: Choosing Character Names, part 2
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.
Names are where characters begin to take shape for me, and its always been that way. I bought my first baby name book when I was fourteen, the same year that I decided that maybe, just maybe I could be a writer. I remember the bookstore clerk that checked me out glancing down at my stomach, and then quickly up at my face. I realized that she thought I was pregnant and looking for names for a real baby. I didn’t try to explain that I needed the book to help me name fictional characters. I was painfully shy, and had finished one story in my entire life. How was I going to say out loud to an adult that I was spending money on a book to help me write stories that I hoped to sell to real magazines, and earn real money, and maybe eventually make a living at this. I couldn’t explain, so I said nothing and let her think what she liked. I still have that first baby name book, Name Your Baby by Lareina Rule, and I still reference it constantly when creating new characters. The cover has actually come apart, but I saved it, kept it with the book. The pages are starting to yellow, but I still love this book. From the very beginning of my career when I knew the name, I knew the character. Sometimes the name comes first and a character just magically forms around it. Sometimes I have a character in mind, but it’s not fully formed so I’ll search through all my baby name books and makes lists of names. That’s how I named, Micah, Nathaniel, Doyle, just to name three. Sometimes characters choose their names without me looking anything up, like Anita and Jean-Claude. Anita chose her name and I knew enough to know it was originally a Spanish name, so she chose half her ethnicity without me deciding anything consciously. Though since all the people I grew up with that were Hispanic came from families that were originally from Mexico that’s where Anita’s mother’s family had to be from, because it was more familiar to me. Jean-Claude on the other hand, I wanted to be Spanish, because no one had done a master vampire from Spain as a main character. At that time I spoke and read Spanish. I wasn’t fluent, but I could get by. (Please, do not speak Spanish to me now, I’m so rusty it’s embarrassing.) But he insisted he was French, which I didn’t speak, couldn’t read, and my accent is still horrible according to my French translator. I tried so hard to force him to be what I envisioned and the character just didn’t work at all. Finally, in desperation I let him be French and suddenly he chose his name, his personality, and stepped on stage almost fully formed and just, well, Jean-Claude. I’ve been informed since then that it is not an elegant name in France, and not sexy enough, but he came with the name, this one I did not choose. Of course, it’s not the name that he was born with in France, but one that he acquired after he became a vampire, but that’s a story for another day.
Two other name books stay in the reference drawer with Rule’s book. Beyond Jennifer and Jason, by Linda Rozenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran. I found the book by accident in the grocery store over ten years ago. It has lists for boyish names, ambisexual names, handsome names, pretty names, names for standing out, names for fitting in, macho names etc . . . I don’t agree with every name on every list, but I find them all useful in their way. Multicultural Baby Names by M. J. Abadie is rare find, because it’s literally what the title promises, names that aren’t just white Anglo-saxon, Northern European, or German, which is the predominance of most English baby name books. There are chapters on Arabic names, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, African, Hindu, Native American, and more. I try very hard not to have my fictional characters seem like they stepped out of a “Dick and Jane” kid’s book where everyone is middle to upper class and living in a white bread America that never existed for most of us outside of sitcoms from the 1950s and 60s.
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.
Names are where characters begin to take shape for me, and its always been that way. I bought my first baby name book when I was fourteen, the same year that I decided that maybe, just maybe I could be a writer. I remember the bookstore clerk that checked me out glancing down at my stomach, and then quickly up at my face. I realized that she thought I was pregnant and looking for names for a real baby. I didn’t try to explain that I needed the book to help me name fictional characters. I was painfully shy, and had finished one story in my entire life. How was I going to say out loud to an adult that I was spending money on a book to help me write stories that I hoped to sell to real magazines, and earn real money, and maybe eventually make a living at this. I couldn’t explain, so I said nothing and let her think what she liked. I still have that first baby name book, Name Your Baby by Lareina Rule, and I still reference it constantly when creating new characters. The cover has actually come apart, but I saved it, kept it with the book. The pages are starting to yellow, but I still love this book. From the very beginning of my career when I knew the name, I knew the character. Sometimes the name comes first and a character just magically forms around it. Sometimes I have a character in mind, but it’s not fully formed so I’ll search through all my baby name books and makes lists of names. That’s how I named, Micah, Nathaniel, Doyle, just to name three. Sometimes characters choose their names without me looking anything up, like Anita and Jean-Claude. Anita chose her name and I knew enough to know it was originally a Spanish name, so she chose half her ethnicity without me deciding anything consciously. Though since all the people I grew up with that were Hispanic came from families that were originally from Mexico that’s where Anita’s mother’s family had to be from, because it was more familiar to me. Jean-Claude on the other hand, I wanted to be Spanish, because no one had done a master vampire from Spain as a main character. At that time I spoke and read Spanish. I wasn’t fluent, but I could get by. (Please, do not speak Spanish to me now, I’m so rusty it’s embarrassing.) But he insisted he was French, which I didn’t speak, couldn’t read, and my accent is still horrible according to my French translator. I tried so hard to force him to be what I envisioned and the character just didn’t work at all. Finally, in desperation I let him be French and suddenly he chose his name, his personality, and stepped on stage almost fully formed and just, well, Jean-Claude. I’ve been informed since then that it is not an elegant name in France, and not sexy enough, but he came with the name, this one I did not choose. Of course, it’s not the name that he was born with in France, but one that he acquired after he became a vampire, but that’s a story for another day.
Two other name books stay in the reference drawer with Rule’s book. Beyond Jennifer and Jason, by Linda Rozenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran. I found the book by accident in the grocery store over ten years ago. It has lists for boyish names, ambisexual names, handsome names, pretty names, names for standing out, names for fitting in, macho names etc . . . I don’t agree with every name on every list, but I find them all useful in their way. Multicultural Baby Names by M. J. Abadie is rare find, because it’s literally what the title promises, names that aren’t just white Anglo-saxon, Northern European, or German, which is the predominance of most English baby name books. There are chapters on Arabic names, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, African, Hindu, Native American, and more. I try very hard not to have my fictional characters seem like they stepped out of a “Dick and Jane” kid’s book where everyone is middle to upper class and living in a white bread America that never existed for most of us outside of sitcoms from the 1950s and 60s.
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no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 08:27 am (UTC)If names are so important to her, why does Merry's son have the same name as Merry's rapist from Kiss of Shadows?
names that aren’t just white Anglo-saxon, Northern European, or German, which is the predominance of most English baby name books.
I don't know if this is the case in America, but in the UK it's really easy to find baby name books that cover cultures other than "white European." I only own one baby name book and it's packed with names from history, mythology, other languages, other cultures...And nowadays, sorry, just type "Country X baby names" into Google and watch the results flow in.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:28 am (UTC)I have to admit though, that many of my stories start the same way, with a character forming. There's usually a voice or an appearance or a name, then a sense of the world they live in, then the story.
I wonder, though, when LKH is looking up names, whether that ever leads into researching those cultures or backgrounds. Even if a character is born and raised in the US Midwest, if they have a name clearly stemming from a non-European/Western culture, it wouldn't hurt to get a sense of that culture and see if some of it informs the character (not to the point of stereotyping, but to add some complexity to the characters. It's not enough that they are all cookie-cutter figures, and the only difference is name, hair color, and eye color).
Ugh, I think I am just left wondering what her point is in these posts (a part 2, for goodness' sake). "Where do the names come from?" "Answer part 1: Baby name books! And sometimes the characters insist! Answer part 2: Baby name books! And sometimes the characters insist!"
(Dagonista, I actually did the Google bit a few days ago. Tons of information and options.)
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 08:04 pm (UTC)For most writers, there is sooo much information that goes into creating a character, so much background on their family, culture, the folklore and stories they grew up with, that all inform their actions and choices in the story. But a lot of the time, all the reader sees are the actions and choices. It feels like sometimes, LKH doesn't do any of this research; and other times, she does the research and then feels the need to stuff it all into story. If she knows it, the readers should, too.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 08:38 pm (UTC)Or LKH does the research and has things happen off-screen, like Haven's Schrodinger Wife or there's suddenly a sithen that appears in LA. You'd think these things would be more significant and have a greater impact on the cast/plot, but nope. It's such a pity because there are good ideas in there, just glossed over or destroyed by exposition. She's really bad at conveying pertinent information.
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Date: 2014-07-16 11:21 am (UTC)Plus, Anita isn't exclusively Spanish. It's also Portuguese, Croatian, Slovene, English, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and Polish. Just wanted to point that out.
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Date: 2014-07-18 01:00 am (UTC)Even in the 'white Europe' there are dozens of different cultures to explore. Hell, Russia alone is a melting pot - point randomly at the map and you'll find something different every time.
But then I get a feeling that LKH is not really paying attention if it's not the 'right' kind of 'exotic' and 'shmexy' >_>
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 03:06 pm (UTC)But everyone is still, of course, white.
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Date: 2014-07-16 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:29 pm (UTC)That is SO perfect for her and this post
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Date: 2014-07-16 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:52 pm (UTC)All of them have awful, crappy, ill-paying jobs working for JC. They should have money problems but, possibly because their author is comfortable, they're all magically comfortable. And the world is filled with willing snacks. They don't have money personally - either by work, previous work, or inheritance. But, by authorial laziness/fiat, they don't need money either - not for rent, food, clothes, or fun since JC seems to automatically provide all of that stuff to them. Fun, of course, is not to be had within Anita's purview.
(And it could make a fascinating economic plotline, but LKH isn't interested in the mechanics of JC's empire.)
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 10:01 pm (UTC)(Which, as you also said, could be a really interesting plot in itself, but LKH just does it so she doesn't have to worry about ~boring~ stuff like bills)
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Date: 2014-07-16 10:40 pm (UTC)(It's weird because I don't remember ever being worried about how people made their money in my stories before I was sixteen. But! After I got my first job, it became a super fascinating thing to me. So it seems like a staggering oversight on her part... it seriously boggles me.)
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Date: 2014-07-16 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 10:44 pm (UTC)Anita gets offered those jobs, but she never takes them. Or if she takes them, she either doesn't show up or kills the client, which is going to make it super difficult to collect. I agree that I'm supposed to see her as "self-made" and "loaded", but I tend to see her as "deluded" and "kept",
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Date: 2014-07-18 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 03:30 pm (UTC)And I seriously doubt JC was so "insistent" on being French. I bet it was more like this - she stared writing him as Spanish, but then someone told her that Mexico and Spain have different cultures. And rather than actually research Spanish culture to fix it, LKH just fell back on the model created by Anne Rice. Because there's a hell of a lot more to being Spanish/French/whatever than just being able to speak and read the language.
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Date: 2014-07-16 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 11:38 pm (UTC)Also, I'm totally stealing that whole "SS vampires" thing. Because come on - Nazi vampires. No, I don't care that Hellsing already did it, that's a perfect combination of bad guys to not feel guilty about killing.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 04:02 am (UTC)Jean-Claude is a CLONE of Jean-Pierre in that video!
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Date: 2014-07-17 08:12 am (UTC)http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButNotTooBlack
This trope sprang to mind....though I don't know if But Not Too Foreign or But Not Too White might have been more accurate to apply to Anita and some of the cast....
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Date: 2014-07-16 09:13 pm (UTC)Also, those books look ooooollllld.
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Date: 2014-07-16 09:20 pm (UTC)So I just can't figure out what even a fan is supposed to get from this.
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Date: 2014-07-17 08:30 am (UTC)If she was going to, say, pick a character from the Merry series like Cathbodua and explain the roots of the name, the folklore/myth associated with it and then explain why she included such a character in the series and how she handled bringing a former war/death goddess into the modern world, that would be interesting. Instead she's devoted two blogs to saying, "I picked it from a book."
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Date: 2014-07-17 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-17 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 05:23 am (UTC)Also, I second the comment that she probably got the inspiration from the Army of Lovers video. Except LKH would probably choke on her own pagecount before she ever described her perfect French pretty-boy as having oodles of torso hair, but c'est la vie. (Can we have Asher playing on minature pianos and strumming guitar, though? Please?)
I'm tempted to just send her a link to behindthename.com after these two posts. Would save her much time.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-01 06:21 am (UTC)...okay but what does the name of the character have to do with that? XD