WHATS IN A NAME?
I have an obsession with finding the right name. As a child my friend, Jean and I used to collect them from gravestones in the churchyard: two little girls wandering far from home just writing down names. Some of those have stood me in good stead. Lemody Rebecca, Melody, Christmas Day, Jerusha Fox and many others, allgarnered from crusty lichen headstones.
You would think choosing names for a character was easy but so often the name can elude us. At first it's as if you can hear them whispering faintly from a far. Then a few possibilities appear. Is it Anna or Agnes or Annice or Innes? Then something magical happens and they whisper firmly in your ear I am Agnes.
Sometimes I go for chapters of narrative before I find this happening. This can be frustrating but worth the patience. With the name comes the whole person warts and all. I can see them in my mind's eye as real as if they were someone I know and this means the story journey has really begun.
Reading the names off the back of lorries is one good source and the credits from a movie produce some corkers. Uriah Jagger, Archie Tybalt, Miles Fox drive down the A65. Hiram Sorotin, Linzi Krisp etc. I read them off and picture the character. The best, of course, are those spontaneous eruptions of inspiration. Tizzy Widdup in Trouble on the Wind was one such and Ewan Mackinnon in Song of the Heart both came fully formed.
Getting the name right for the period is important too. Audrey, Shirley and Beryl will probably be in their sixties and seventies now. Names go up and down the social scale with time. Biblical names once given to slaves have come and gone. Getting it right is worth the effort. It shows you care. If in any doubt look at the wonderful names Dickens gave his characters, Betsey Trotwood, Ebenezer Scrooge, Estella.
Enjoy the hunt for the right names of places, make them up. Take real names and twist them a bit. Read about the origins of place names too. That will help you get the right endings for your towns and villages. Good hunting. Jan 2005
