Lions and tigers and names…oh my!

How do I name my characters? That’s today’s question on the YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday.

I’m not one of those people who agonize over a name. I don’t research origin or meaning, I don’t pour over baby name books trying to find the perfect fit for the character.

I name my characters the same way I named my boys, they tell me. Now before you call the men in the nice white jackets, I’m not crazy. Usually the very first thing that comes to me when I am writing a new book is the character’s names. Sometimes it’s the ONLY thing they tell me!

They typically introduce themselves when I’m in the shower too. Characters have no sense of privacy, btw. I’ll be standing there washing my hair and I’ll hear, “Hi, my name is Sean and I’m supposed to be in the book your writing.” (Based on actual events, he did this after I had completed the book too. How nice of him. Grrr.)

Fellow writers out there will nod and commiserate with this, non writers will run for the hills screaming there’s a strange man in their shower. I’m so used to it I get nervous if they don’t show up (Cause that means they are all working together to plan some kind of sneak attack which never turns out well)

Sometimes I get their name wrong, and halfway through the book they tell me so. It’s pretty obvious along the way. The name just doesn’t flow with the story, or I stumble over it every time I write it down. Obviously my characters love a good joke because they never let me in on it until I’m way into the story.

So for me, there is no great method to the madness. I’m boring. I just do what they tell me to. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have someone to meet in the shower.