1. Literaturelady says:

    Oh, yes, character names are important!  And it’s lots of fun looking through a Baby  Name Book, and quite satisfying when you find the right one.
    And it’s funny, there are some names I wouldn’t like on their own, but I do like those names because of the characters who bear them.  “Pauline” sounds stuffy, until I remember the wise, good hearted young lady from The Island Queen.  And had I comes across the name “Eustace” before reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I would have thought it weird.
     
    As for favorite character names…Taran from The Prydain Chronicles; Ilohan from The Epic of Karolan; Conan from The Red Keep; Scheherazade from The Arabian Nights.  Tolkien’s names go without saying.  🙂  I like these names because of the way they sound, either strong or intricate, or flowing.
    This is a great and important topic to discuss.  Thanks for posting!
     
    Blessings,
    Literaturelady

  2. Kessie says:

    I like names that flow off the tongue, weird as they may be. Tolkien’s characters were strange,  yet pronounceable, like Bilbo or Faramir. One of my favorite fantasy names is Chrestomanci, and all the poshness that goes with it. Conrad Tesdinic of Conrad’s Fate is a perfect fit for the character. Or how about Sirius Black from Harry Potter?
     
    In the TV show Grimm, one of the main characters is essentially a reformed werewolf named Monroe. No last name, just Monroe. And it fits him perfectly, because he’s a somewhat neurotic hermit who enjoys solitary pursuits like clock repair and playing the cello.
     
    In a videogame I’ve been playing, the bad guy is called Mephiles, a shortened version of Mephistopheles from Faust. And he’s a demon, of course. It fits him perfectly.

  3. In Hebrew thought, a name is intimately associated with the breath of life. God is said to whisper a name to a soul and thereby breathe life into an unborn child. This concept relates one of the words for breath/wind back to its root: name.
    Thus Shakespeare’s statement is at best a trivialisation of the ancient concept of names embodying both identity and destiny and at worst an outright denial of the idea. (I’m not sure he wasn’t being ironic at that point.)
    Names are a passion of mine. I’ve been researching them for years, wondering if Shakespeare is right or the Hebrews were.  Intriguingly, one of the major areas of research has turned out to be the names of characters in fantasy – and their connection to the name of the author. (Lewis from lion etc)
    If you drop on by my blog (www.fire-of-roses.com/wp) and subscribe and make a comment – this week only – you’ll be in the running for a copy of the second edition of God’s Poetry – The Identity and Destiny Encoded in Your Name. (First edition was a finalist last year in the International Book Awards.) An entire chapter – and there’s only 5 of them – is devoted to names in fantasy and why they are deeply and powerfully and intimately connected the the author’s name.

  4. My all-time favorite name is Edmond Dantès. It rolls off the tongue, and evokes the exotic mixed with adventure. Besides, Edmond is my favorite Pevensie.

    Frankly, I find names are some of the hardest things, and I often give characters a working name that will change multiple times before the end. 

  5. Lostariel says:

    I happen to love the name John. I’m afraid to use it on a character in case it makes him sound boring.

  6. Galadriel says:

    And don’t underestimate the use of alias, both as a way of showing a person’s character and perception and to obscure it. The end of the last series of Doctor Who turned the title into the First Question….not to mention River’s speech in A Good Man Goes to War:

    “Doctor: the word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word “doctor” means “mighty warrior”.  

What do you think?