Names… names are important things. In mythology it’s believed that if you know someone’s true name, you gain control over them. Ok, so maybe that’s taking it a little too far, but the point still stands – names are important.
The reason I wanted to talk about names, and specifically in terms of short story or novel writing, is because in many cases names can imply a lot of hidden meaning. I remember one particular creative writing class I attended way back in my first year at university. As we were doing our weekly read-through of the work for discussion, one particular student read out a story involving a secret agent, a car chase, and a mysterious suitcase. All well and good, I thought to myself – sounds interesting enough. Doubtless much better than whatever I had produced that’s for sure. Imagine my horror then when I discovered one of the “lackeys” in the story was called… Igor!
If I were to say the name Igor to you, I imagine most of you would imagine a character similar to the one I imagined: a tall, lumbering, Transylvanian, straight out of 1950s horror movie. The fact we’re all imagining a grotesque Frankenstein-esque character is because the name Igor is quite a powerful one in our 21st century Westernised minds.
And it’s not just names like Igor that can assign (possibly unintended) traits upon characters. What about Adolf? Or Wayne? Certainly names such as Wayne will probably lose their associated chavviness when Mr Rooney retires and is no longer a major part of the public consciousness, but even before he came along it’s often been a name attributed with a certain, shall we say, “demographic” of society. Any other Brits remember Harry Enfield’s Wayne and Waynetta?
Chav prejudices aside, I hope you will all agree that names can often assign characters with attributes that may or may not be intended by the author. It’s important to remember when writing, the power that a name can hold. It’s also important to remember that names that are popular now, may not be popular in ten, twenty, a hundred years’ time. Names such as Courtney, Sharon and Cindy for all inspire a certain range of feelings and emotions in us that probably won’t apply to readers half a century from now. We can’t help it – it’s modern society that’s done it to us!
I’ll always remember the time when I first started writing major fiction when my best friend Sean walked into my room to find me perusing a baby name book:
“Mike is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No, why?”
“Don’t you need to have a girlfriend first…”
While it may have seemed a bit strange for Sean to find me perusing a baby name book, it really was with good reason. As I hope you will agree, names contain an awful lot of power and hidden meaning, and must be chosen with extreme care – especially in genre fiction. You might be surprised to learn that I’ve been known to spend days stuck on a single name. Unless I have a name absolutely right in my own mind, then I just can’t write any more! Thankfully the last name I had any major problem with resolved itself fairly quickly; I borrowed from Percy Shelley in the end!
Until next time,
Mike
