Spiky names and round names – Alex English

Shortly after writing last month's post on naming characters, I stumbled upon a fascinating psychological study looking into how people judge your personality based solely on the sound of your name. It all comes down to whether a name sounds 'round' or 'spiky'.

Kiki the cactus

If your name sounds 'round' you can be seen as adaptable, easy-going, friendly, sensitive and versatile, but also introverted. But if you have a spiky name people are more likely to assume you are aggressive, harsh, mean and sarcastic. On the bright side, you also might be considered to be more determined than somebody with a 'rounder' name.

So what makes a name round or spiky?

Ella the cat

Spiky names contain short, sharp sounds like K and T, technically known as 'voiceless stops', which are the sort of sounds you make by blocking airflow in your vocal cords. Round names have resonant  M or L sounds in them in them. So Kiki is 'spiky' but Ella is 'round'.

Unsurprisingly, the study found that there was no connection between peoples' names and their actual personalities, it’s just a case of names being perceived in a certain way. And in real life, we would thankfully have much more to go on than simply a name. However, this research did get me thinking about how I could apply it to naming characters.

My current heroine is called Echo, which puts her firmly in camp spiky with that hard K sound in the middle. Her gentler sidekick, Horace, is 'round' in both name and character. Chance? Or have I subconsciously named these characters according to the rules of sound?

I’m not sure, but as a spiky Alex I probably wouldn't tell you anyway!

How about you? Is your name rounded or spiky? How about those of your characters?


Alex English is a graduate of Bath Spa University's MA Writing for Young People. Her new middle-grade series SKY PIRATES launches in July 2020 with Simon & Schuster. 

Her picture books Yuck said the Yak, Pirates Don't Drive Diggers and Mine Mine Mine said the Porcupine are published by Maverick Arts Publishing. More of her picture books are forthcoming in 2021/2022.
 
www.alexenglish.co.uk

Fantastic names and where to find them - Alex English

What's in a name? I find that names say so much about a person that I can’t get really see my characters until I've christened them. But fantasy characters deserve fantastic names. Once I have one, they spring to life before me.

I keep a little notebook of juicy words, most of which I've snaffled while reading poetry, and this comes in very handy when coming up with fantasy character surnames. However, I do also use generators when I'm in a pinch (or just fancy some fun). Here are a few methods that I've tried:

1 Look on the map

It was when I was listening to Philip Pullman‘s audiobook The Collectors that this idea came to me. Pullman had named two of his characters Horley and Grinstead. As a former resident of Reigate these names are very familiar – Horley and East Grinstead are both nearby towns in Surrey/Sussex.

There are plenty of peculiar British town names, but of course you could use any location. Snodsbury, Pucklechurch and Picklescott are all fabulous. Mudford Sock sounds like a ready-made character.

2 Construct a compound noun

These work particularly well in fantasy and this method is a favourite of mine for coming up with surnames. In my current book I have a Quickthorn, a Daggerwing (which also happens to be a butterfly variety, another great source) and a Milkweed, to name a few.

This generator gave me Gravelweather, Stepslinks and Skyflake. Some for the notebook!

3 Try the Roald Dahl method

For a more commonplace character, you might try using your Roald Dahl name – take your grandparent’s first name and add it to the first thing that catches your eye. 

I’m Arthur Cushion.

4 Consult your inner librarian

Your librarian name is the first name of the oldest person you know followed by a last name composed of the adjective that describes how you move through a room combined with the main ingredient from the last sandwich you ate. 

Mine is Sarah Stompavocado. Read the full twitter thread for lots of fabulous ideas!

5 Get real

On a more serious note, for those of us attempting to represent cultures other than our own, it's worth spending the time to get names right, rather than sticking to what we might think we know. A recent CLPE report found a disproportionate number of 'diverse' characters named Jasmine.  

I find this name generator useful for generating realistic contemporary names, and it can be adjusted by age group and country of name origin. If in doubt it's always best to ask for help from someone in that community. 


How do you come up with names for your fantastic characters?


Alex English is a graduate of Bath Spa University's MA Writing for Young People. Her new middle-grade series SKY PIRATES launches in July 2020 with Simon & Schuster. 

Her picture books Yuck said the Yak, Pirates Don't Drive Diggers and Mine Mine Mine said the Porcupine are published by Maverick Arts Publishing. More picture books are forthcoming in 2021/2022.
 
www.alexenglish.co.uk

What's In a Name? - Quite a Lot When you are Writing a Children's Book - by Emma Barnes

What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

Names really shouldn't matter, should they? But actually, if you are writing a book they count for a lot. I doubt that I'm the only writer that only feels I've “got” a character when I've found the right name for them, and worries away until I do.

For Chloe and the Secret Princess Club, I didn't happen on the right name right away. When I was working on the book proposal, I thought of my main character as “Cleo”. Somehow this didn't feel quite right, and when my editor suggested “Chloe” instead, I immediately felt we'd got the right name for my character.

Chloe or Cleo?

Why? Well, my character has big dreams, but an ordinary life, and so Chloe made more sense for her than the rather exotic “Cleo”. (She does get to be a Cleo though – briefly and rather disastrously – towards the end of the book.)

Secondly, I have good associations with the name Chloe. One of my favourite picture books is Chloe and Maude by Sandra Boynton. Chloe and Maude is very much a story of friendship, and so is Chloe and the Secret Princess Club.

There was also a presenter called Chloe on Playschool – a TV show I loved as a child.

Playschool: Chloe with Brian, Humpty and Jemima

Thirdly, although I have good associations with “Chloe” I don't actually know any Chloes. On the whole, I don't like using the names of people I know well as my main characters. It gets in the way somehow.

Fourth and finally, the meaning of the name “Chloe” is green shoot – and this is perfect for my character, because first she is full of bright ideas, and second her mum is a keen gardener.

Aisha left, Eliza centre, Chloe right.  Illustrator: Monique Dong

Then there are Chloe's friends. Chloe's best friend is a British Muslim of Pakistani heritage and I found her name tricky to choose. I know the popular Muslim girls' names in my neighbourhood, but I don't really know the nuances of why particular names might be popular. After trying out several options, I chose Aisha, which is a classic name, but again not a name that I associate with anyone I know.

The third member of the club, Eliza, is Jewish. But most of the Jewish people I know don't choose especially Jewish names for their children. I chose Eliza because 1) it was a name I liked 2) I don't know anyone in real life by that name and 3) it's a bit out of the ordinary. Somehow it seemed the kind of name her parents - healthy-eating, slightly pushy professionals - might be expected to like.

Another important thing was that none of the names of the three main characters began with the same letter or sounded too similar or looked too much the same written down.

Although I didn't plan it that way, if you look at the letters of their first names – they spell ACE. 
Aisha 
Chloe 
Eliza 
And that seemed a nice thing too!

They weren't the only important characters in the book. Chloe has a twin brother, and he was Arthur from the start. This seemed right because Chloe's mum (like Chloe herself) is a bit of romantic, so would have loved the idea of naming her son after the famous King Arthur of Camelot.

But also, I suspect, I had another association in my head – this time with Arthur the Church Mouse, from Graham Oakley's wonderful Church Mice books. Arthur the mouse is practical, sensible and down-to-earth (and rather scathing of those people who aren't) and that's just how I saw my Arthur too!

Of course, like all children everywhere, my characters don't like their names. (No gratitude at all for the time I spent choosing them!) Part of their pleasure in their secret club is that they get to choose new secret names. Aisha becomes Araminta, Eliza is Elisabetta, while Chloe goes for Clarinda (that is until her class do a workshop on Ancient Egypt and she opts for Cleo instead).

What are your favourite character names in the books you've read?  How do you choose names for the characters you create?


Emma Barnes's book Chloe's Secret Princess Club is out now.
Find out more about Emma's books on her web-site.

Diverse Names by Keren David

We’d reached the Q&A part of the school visit, the bit where they usually ask how long it takes to write a book, whether you’d ever thought of making it into a film, and how much money you get paid.

Not this boy. ‘Miss!’ he said, ‘Will you put my name in your book?’

It was the third conversation I’d had about naming characters in a week. The first two were at the YAshot event, a day-long celebration of Young Adult fiction, organised by author Alexia Casale in association with Hillingdon libraries and featuring more than 70 YA and MG authors, a gloriously interesting day of debate and discussion, socialising and eating cake. 

My panel was asked how we went about naming characters, and we talked about finding the ‘right’ name and making sure one character’s name doesn’t clash with another, asking friends and Twitter for help, sometimes changing names at the end of the writing process.

I talked about a problem I’d had writing my latest book, This is Not a Love Story. One character, Theo, is a north London Jewish boy of 16 with many similar friends. My son is a nearly-16-year-old north London Jewish boy, who could easily be Theo's friend. So in naming Theo, his brothers and his friends I was careful to avoid the names of my son’s friends. Unfortunately he has many friends. Luckily, many of them are named Zachary. Or Zak. Or Zach. 

Names were also touched on during a panel on diversity.  Lucy Ivison, who co-wrote Lobsters, a brilliantly funny and authentic teen romance talked about how one of her teen beta readers advised against making the ‘best friend’ character Asian, even though he’d been based on a real friend who really was Asian. It would be ‘cringey’, like a ‘CBeebies show', said the girl.

I tend to think that there’s nothing wrong with the tiniest bit of cringiness, if it gives your book an authentic flavour and reflects a multicultural society. Giving characters diverse names is a way of doing that.  Why does a group of friends need to be called Jessica, Charlotte and Oliver? What changes if you call them Laban, Hakim and Ayaan? 

I'm at the end of writing a book with (for various reasons) little physical description of the characters, I’m pondering the effect of changing a few names. What if Becky becomes Destiny? What if Arthur turns into Abdul? How will readers imagine that character? What assumptions will they make about them?

‘Maybe,’ I said to the boy in the Q&A. ‘Give your name to the librarian and she’ll email me, and I’ll try and find you a place in my book.’  Three others in the group wanted to do the same. ‘Please Miss,’ one said. ‘I never see my name in books.’ 

So, I have a list of names to try and get into my  books of the future. And here they are: Ehtesham, Ali,Tasnim, Minha, Nivethaa.