tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post2174923543483813271..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: What's In a Name? - Quite a Lot When you are Writing a Children's Book - by Emma BarnesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-54066709739213009902016-10-18T12:30:36.371+01:002016-10-18T12:30:36.371+01:00Really interesting post, Emma. I do agree, names ...Really interesting post, Emma. I do agree, names are SO important (can't believe the writer Becca mentioned who said any name would do!) I also find that while some characters come complete with their names, others I have to struggle over to find exactly the right one. I love the sound of your book, and your reasons for choosing the names for the girls (and you're right, Chloe and Cleo conjure up completely different images, even though the names look so similar.)Lynne Bentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14412874594191347503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-24007154280046796842016-10-18T08:49:09.172+01:002016-10-18T08:49:09.172+01:00Becca, it's interesting to hear your process! ...Becca, it's interesting to hear your process! Sparrow Jones is a fabulous name, easy to say and really memorable. Tekla sounds vaguely familiar...I wonder if I read the same 1930s school story?Emma Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02718171070716804800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-41530824265556039932016-10-18T00:03:12.255+01:002016-10-18T00:03:12.255+01:00I remember having a discussion about character nam...I remember having a discussion about character names with a friend. I was trying to come up with a suitable name and he asked why it would matter, when any name would do. Apparently he just calls characters whatever he feels like. But names are so important! They can tell you so much about a character's background/heritage/parents/ if you let them. I used the argument that my mother was called Jean, and HER mother was called Jean, and her paternal aunt was also called Jean...so she was determined to call me anything but that! Her mother suggested that it would be nice to call me 'Ilean' after my (Irish) paternal grandmother (a common Scottish naming convention) and my dad thought 'Nova' would be a nice name, but in the end I was called 'Rebecca' after a very old English lady who was the first person my mother looked after when she began her nursing training...simply because she'd always thought it was a lovely name.<br /><br />Some countries (Germany, I think) have stricter laws on baby names, so maybe a character born there would have a name that was used by many other people too. And if there isn't much variety in names then people can turn to nicknames to identify a specific person, leading to things like Jack of the Mill, Young Jack, Old Jack, Big Jack, etc.<br /><br />Ugh, rambling. And it's nearly midnight. Um, my character names tend to swim around in my head for a while until I 'fix' them. A character doesn't feel right until I've set on a name, and I get inspiration from all over. For instance, Sparrow Jones came about because I wanted a name that suggested indomitability with an undercurrent of fragility (and in my story there was a fad for 'nature names' when Sparrow was born, so some of her classmates are Mica, Fern and Minnow). I chose Jones because an outlandish first name needed a down to earth surname, and I didn't like the sound of Sparrow Smith. Sparrow's younger sister is called Tekla, and gets called Tickles as a nickname. I got Tekla from a 1930s school story that I read years ago, and thought it was unusual enough to fit into my futuristic setting. <br /><br />Becca McCallumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09339982441409936532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-18120498002464633112016-10-17T16:52:07.667+01:002016-10-17T16:52:07.667+01:00It's a strange process, picking names, isn'...It's a strange process, picking names, isn't it - I wander about the options in a similar way to you!Joan Lennonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15763862159032836768noreply@blogger.com