![](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b6\/Aias_Kassandra_Louvre_G458.jpg\/220px-thumb.jpg\")
The original Cassandra<\/center><\/p>\n
I do give a lot of thought to finding the best name possible, though, and they don’t always just come to me. I often flip through my baby name book (I use 1000,000+ BABY NAMES<\/a>) once I’m getting close to the outlining stage of a story idea and jot down any names that jump out at me and fit the tone or setting of the book or one particular character. Then I pick out the names for all the main and secondary characters I know about, trying to make sure that none of the names sound too similar. (For ex, I avoid where possible having more than one character’s name start with the same letter, unless they’re otherwise very distinct from each other, e.g., in my current WIP I have a Jena and a Joss.) The list also comes in handy as I’m writing and minor characters pop up who need names.<\/p>\n What I find most interesting about character names is how the characters themselves use them. Like Cass shortening her name from Cassie, and which characters refer to her the new nickname or stick to the old one. In the WIP mentioned above, my main character is a pretty manipulative guy, and one of the ways you see that is in how he adapts people’s names: using childish or girly (for a guy) nicknames with people he wants to assert himself over, or giving a tough new nickname to someone whose confidence he’s trying to build.<\/p>\n Now I have a question for all you readers: What’s your favorite character name, and why?<\/b> (from any book)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you go about deciding character names? Is it something you put a lot of thought into? Or something that just springs on you as you plan? Why was Cass, Cass? I pick names mostly by feel. The associations … Continue reading