Thanks to all who contributed to the discussion last time of the fat woman getting a massage. She turned out to be a more minor character than I anticipated owing to a medical crisis with another minor character nicknamed Flip. You can’t always control your characters when writing a novel.
But in discussing her name (Camilla, BTW, with no nods to the Duchess of Kent), I revisited another name that is far more important, and thus more problematic: that of the hero.
When I originally wrote the synopsis, my hero’s name was Josh Murphy. For reasons I cannot now recall, I altered it to Dave Murphy when I started writing Bridging Two Hearts. I’m sure I had a good reason, but it’s not working.
I’m writing this 50,000 word book fast–I’m nearly done after a month–but I keep stumbling over Dave. Somehow it just doesn’t seem right and I keep having to stop and ask myself, “What’s his name again?”
Obviously, there’s a mismatch here.
I thought about going with the Irish trend–maybe Patrick? Sean? But those names don’t match either. Josh seems a better choice for several reasons.
Let me tell you why.
Names are important, as any parent contemplating a baby name book will tell you. With our diminuative last name, I scanned all the names in the baby book we had and made special note of the three syllable names–because to my English-major musician trained brain, the scansion–the beat–of saying the names sounded better when the rhythm went DA-di-di DA.
Say them aloud with me CHRIS to pher ULE, JON a than ULE, NICH o las ULE, CAR o lyn ULE. Hear that?
I loved the meanings, too: Christ bearer, Beloved of God, Victorious, Little woman.
Joshua, a perennial favorite, particularly in the 1980s when my hero would have been born, means “the Lord is my salvation,” and the Biblical character was a brave warrior. My hero is struggling with fear, even though he’s a brave Navy SEAL. The name just works better, even with Murphy as a last name.
But what comes to mind when you hear the name Josh, or even Josh Murphy? How do you picture the character?
According to the dictionary, the word josh means “to tease, to say humorously, to banter.” That fits my character’s personality very well.
Josh is short, to the point and can be stretched to the magic three syllable JOSH u ah, if need be. Perfect.
Of course it’s been a popular name for thirty years and so Josh Murphy sounds pretty bland and almost run-of-the-mill. But you know what? My SEAL doesn’t want to stand out. He wants a name that comes and goes and doesn’t stick in your brain.
I just did it. Opened up Word, went to “Find and Replace” and typed in Dave and Josh. It feels so much better–369 times better, in point of fact.
How about you? How would you decide to name a character? And does a name make that big a difference when you read a book?
Hello Michelle.
When I was looking for names of characters in my (as yet unfinished) novel about Daniel the prophet, I had to find some Babylonian Character names.
Nerd that I am, I forked over a bundle on the Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles translated from the ancient stelas, not only to get some historical perspective, but they provided me with a wealth of Babylonian names.
I made a list of first names, middle names and third names (there were no real surnames). When looking for a character name, I would choose one from each column. Fun stuff.
I was looking for some Arabic-sounding names for an unpublished novel that takes place in Iran. I went to a baby name site and scrolled through, looking for names that reflected the character and if possible, the looks of some of these bad guys. It was interesting to see all the variations and they sounded so different than what I’m used to. The women’s names were beautiful, but it was funny how many started with the letter A!
Ancient names like what you sought (and WHEN will that book be done?????), must be even more challenging!