RTW -- By Any Other Name...

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

Next week's topic: 
How do you decide on names? Would you ever name a character after a friend/family member/ex?

I have a friend with a really cool name who I've already told I'm going to steal it at some point. As for family members, maybe but only because I have family members with really common names. As for exes...never. I have trouble separating people from their names so when I name a character after someone I know in real life, I have to work to separate their appearance and personality from that character.

As for how I decide on names...that's a complicated question. A lot of my characters come with their own names. If they don't, then generally I just hop on my favorite baby names site and go down the lists of names until one of them strikes my fancy.

I also have a list of cool names that I want to use someday. The names on the list have come from just about everywhere. I like days when the teacher calls roll because it means I get to hear everyone's name and sometimes I jot down a few for the list. 

Here are a few of my MCs and where their names come from. 

Kaye -- Baby name site 
Skylar -- Came with his 
Helena -- Name from an old WIP 
Troy -- Mom suggested this one 
Wren -- I could say she came with hers, but I've just really loved this name ever since I saw Footloose 
Jesse -- Came with his 

Comments

theNAMEgirl said…
Are Helena and Troy in the same story? If they are a couple it seems like there would be a lot of jokes about their names.
December 19, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Erin L. Funk said…
Those baby name sites are so handy. I spend hours on them searching for names. I bet half the people who use them are naming characters and not their kids. :)
December 19, 2012 at 2:04 PM
Unknown said…
Most of your names are very unique. I haven't seen them in a lot of books.

Here's my RTW
My RTW
December 19, 2012 at 2:39 PM
Anonymous said…
I love baby name sites, probably because I love to know name meanings. I spend time on those sites that has nothing to do with writing or naming children. :)
December 19, 2012 at 2:42 PM
Nickie said…
I like how some of your characters come with their names. It's nice when they pop in your head like a package deal! That rarely happens for me, but sometimes other interesting backstory will just come with the character, instead of slowly developing with the story.
December 19, 2012 at 3:50 PM
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