If you've ever written fiction--or even just considered it for a minute--you've probably spent some time brainstorming the names of your characters. There's a lot of pressure on coming up with the perfect name, right? It has to fit them, be understandable, and, ideally, not remind you of an unpleasant acquaintance from your own life.
So you hit up all the baby name websites and convince your search engine algorithm that you are with child, and, for an hour or two, it's almost fun! Should your character be labeled with a secret meaning? Will their moniker hint at their Greek roots? How is it that replacing an 'i' with a far more exotic 'y' somehow changes your heroine's personality entirely?
And then, if you're me, you hit a wall.
When I first sat down to write Restore Me, I found that the story locked and loaded in my fingertips couldn't wait for me to slog through the christening process. As a result, the majority of my characters were marked "(insert name here)" for most of the first draft. It's not everyone's process, obviously, but it worked for me. Instead of having these big, meaningful names that my characters would then have to live up to, or worse, be their only defining characteristic, I was able to get to know them a little at a time. At then end, naming them was easy; I knew precisely who they were.
I will say that three characters would be the exception to this practice. Their names were chosen right away, for a reason, and stuck.
1. Vera: My protagonist needed a name, and I chose this one for several reasons. To start, I'd never known a Vera, and thought it sounded unassuming enough to not weigh her down. It also comes from the Latin word for truth, which was, and is, the whole point.
2. Waylon McCabe: Vera's sinner-turned-born-again great-great-great-etc. uncle needed a name to fit his story, so I based him on the father of Outlaw County, Waylon Jennings.
3. Hallie: Remember Hallie? While only mentioned a few times as Hector's girlfriend, I had a really strong idea of the type of woman she would be. A life with Hector would always revolve around the outdoors, so she would need to be someone adventurous, not to mention capable of handling his temper. In the end, I named her after Hallie Daggett, the first female to serve as a US Forest Service Fire Lookout.
Writing my first novel, Restore Me, was such a learning process. Now that I'm on the cusp of beginning its sequel, I'm making sure to review those lessons. So, for those of you embarking on your own novel adventures, are you finding yourself bogged down by Aprtonym Apathy? Or are you christening your characters with care?