Should names have meanings?

[Dr. Paine]

There are several sources that say that names reflect a persons being. It is perfectly realistic for names to match personalities.

In an enormous population, yes. You will wind up with the occasional person with a fitting name. However, since books focus (usually) on a small number of people, having everyone's name perfectly fit is entirely unrealistic, and smacks of 'look at how deep my writing is lol'.

[Kamak]

I'm going the route of making my own names for characters (though I'm sure some of them will probably be real names, but nothing that is in common use, at least from a western perspective). I make them based on the "feel" (god I'm probably sounding like some stereotypical new-age hippie or something... ) of the name more than their personalities. For example, in my book (that I'm hopefully going to get finished by the end of June... eek), I have a "young wannabe authoritative fire knight" named Taus, because the name seems... iconic... in a sense... When you hear the name in conjunction with the character, a picture seems to begin to form, and as you read, the picture comes further into focus.

 

But also I try to picture the culture the character would grow up in, and that influences the "feel" of the name. For example, another character comes from a village that is very Oriental influenced, so a bit of that is reflected in his name, Leitris.

 

Personally, I don't mind people using meanings in names, but what bugs me more than anything is when readers go to find the meanings of the names and wonder if the author hid some nuggets of characterization in there when the author generally just went and said "You know what would be a great name for an ordinary kid? Matt." This is perhaps the largest reason why I've tried to distance myself away from "real" (or at the very least, common) names. I also generally don't have my setting as Earth so I don't run into the issue of having "Garflegiar" (no not really a name I use... though... maybe...) running into Jim.

 

If people do use meaning in the names, I just hope they use it wisely... if you're setting up for the reveal of the Big Bad, you probably don't want to have his common name be "Mike Mortem" or "Kevin Blade" or "Nam Live"... or if you do something like that, don't expect to get away with it more than once... Readers catch onto stuff like that, and if that's supposed to be a major plot point, it's now ruined.

 

One thing I do support is theme naming. Currently the characters in my book are getting anagram last names that all relate to each other, but that's basically an Easter Egg with no plot point attached. Also, I'm for giving "cultural" meaning to roots in names, to explain why maybe the Grandpa and the Grandson have similar names, but nothing really like "Hope" or anything on the nose that would hint at a character's personality or future, that just seems tacky to me...

 

I do also enjoy a good name angst... like if a character has a name that means "The destroyer" or something and has to deal with the implications of a prophesy of some sort... However, sometimes it's a bit on the nose and can turn into bad melodrama... so it's all in how the author uses it. False names, the pseudo-opposite form of this, can be fun as well, where a character is built up to be the "Chosen One", named as such with heavy emphasis placed on the "only the Chosen One is named this", and by some means either ends up being the wrong "chosen one", or is flawed in some way by their hubris and unable to accomplish what they were meant to do (so basically, a form of deconstruction of the idea of meaningful names and how they can harm a character).

 

Of course, any deconstruction of meaningful names is welcome... I remember reading a short story where a kid was given a meaningful name that amounted to "successful" and was pressured by their parents to live up to the lofty name they gave them... only to be completely warped as a person because of it, to the point where they couldn't function.

 

This is where authors need to come in... there's so much they can do with meaningful names... they could pull a fast one on people (the reader is expecting the person whose name means "purity" to be a kind person only to realize they're advocating for ethnic cleansing), they could use it as an easter egg/genius bonus (I know one author uses species names to help come up with animal names), they can show how knowing what your name means affects the character (ego boost, flaws, self-esteem, etc.), and so much more...

 

I think the problem with theme naming is that readers tend to over read into things, or that when authors do actually invoke it, they go for the cheap "Mary Evilla" approach.

 

-K-

[DragonNighthowler]

Checked the names for the latest novel I'm working on. The names don't match at all.

 

Picked them because of how they felt to my tongue. I normally don't go checking on name meanings when I plan on writing, but rather how they sound and feel to the character.

[lightbird]

I also name my characters by what sounds good and usually will make sure that the names are nothing offensive/whether they mean something in some language. So far only one male character has a name that can be found... in India. :b

[Princess613]

In an enormous population, yes. You will wind up with the occasional person with a fitting name. However, since books focus (usually) on a small number of people, having everyone's name perfectly fit is entirely unrealistic, and smacks of 'look at how deep my writing is lol'.

 

Yes, people can abuse the power. But names should fit, even if not in meaning.

[kingsdaughter613]

I believe in general that names have meaning. As for stories... If the perfect name hits, go with it. You don't really have to look. The perfect names just find you. And they don't always mean what people think...

 

If you want a name with meaning try for an archaic or relatively unknown language. That way, die hard fantasy lovers and fans will get it and the rest wouldn't really care anyway. Or you COULD use a generic name, but that's just boring...