Monday, May 27, 2013

TOTW: What’s in a Name (Female Heroines)?

I’m guilty as charged. My main character’s name, Katora of Elixir Bound, is part of a naming trend I’ve noticed of female heroines’ names beginning with the letter K. Admittedly, not bad company to be with Katniss of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Katsa of Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Karou of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, and Kira of Prophecy by Ellen Oh.

Why the letter K? Perhaps because it’s a hard consonant; a strong sounding name conveys a strong character. This works for non-K starting names as well. Think of Quintana from Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta and Beka Cooper from Terrier by Tamora Pierce. Good strong names for these brave females.

Then there are the heroines whose names are symbolic of their characteristics. America Singer of The Selection by Kiera Cass and Aria of Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi are fittingly both singers. The title characters from Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder are both a play off of Cinderella, which means girl from the ashes or little cinder girl. No shortage of symbolism there. I recently read an interview in which Maggie Stiefvater said Blue from The Raven Boys was so named because her mother (a psychic) said her daughter’s aura was blue.

Not to mention Grace, Mercy, Hope, Faith (and the various spelling of these), who either display their namesake characteristics or may even be the opposite of them. Or the characters names after flowers or plant: Rose, Lily, Ivy, Violet…you get the point.

Another trend brought to my attention is the name Aisling, see Malina Lo’s Ash, and its variations. To note a few: Aislinn from Wicked Lovely by Melissa Mar, Ashling from Texting the Underworld by Ellen Booraem, and Ashlinn from Wanted by Annika James.

What naming trends have you noticed lately (female heroines or otherwise)?

30 comments:

  1. Great post, Katie. I love the K names. They are so strong.It's hard to pick a name that fits the character!

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    1. Thanks, Erin. It's funny, I had my K name forever for my character and then all these books started coming out with K names. But it was just her name by then, so I kept it.

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  2. Great point about the K sounding strong. I didn't even think about the name Ash till you brought it up, but I've used that! I may have to go change it... ;D

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    1. It was actually Ellen Booraem who mentioned the name Ash, and once she did I thought of a whole bunch of examples.

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  3. I named my female hero character Perpetua. Don't know what that says about me.

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    1. Hmmm...looking into my crystal ball of names, it says you are a creative and deep thinker. :)

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  4. I spend way too much time on my character names. I love names! But every now and again that character's name comes before the character develops. When it doesn't, I'm searching baby name sites, trolling my Facebook friends list, browsing the thesaurus.

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    1. Oh, I love those baby names sites...so helpful when figuring out a new character name. Always scares the hubby when he catches me on those sites!

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  5. I love names, too. It's one of my favorite parts of "meeting" new characters!

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    1. I feel like I can't know my character until he/she has the right name.

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  6. Picking the right name for your characters, including secondary ones, is so important! Not only the names for the hero and heroin must appeal to inspire you and appeal to readers, but they also must sound good together! I am always very excited when I find the names of my protagonists. Suddenly, they exist and I can talk about them! My next hero is named after one of my favourite French rugby men, and I found the name of the heroin when flicking through a magazine in my local café. I saw an advert for a wedding cake shop and the name just jumped at me. As for my 'baddies', I have noticed a worrying trend: they all have a surname starting with M - Malleval, Mortemer, McRae and the new one for the story I haven't even started writing yet, will be called Morley...I wonder why!.

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    1. We need some kind of psychoanalyst to read these comments and see what all these made-up names means about the person making them up!

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  7. I've seen a trend in my own characters - they all have slightly old fashioned, three syllable names. I don't know why, I must just like the way that sounds!

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    1. Hi, Lily! Those types of names must just fit your writing style. Kind of like having a unique character-naming voice.

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  8. Yes, those "K" names are fantastic! I find I'm drawn to the name Katherine and all its variants. I had to laugh a couple years ago; I had three stories going and all my heroines were named some form of Kate. Whoops!

    I have a friend named Aislyn and one named Ashlynde. They would be amused if I told them they were character-name trendsetters!

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    1. There is something about those K names that I just find myself drawn to. Friends of our just had a baby named Ashlynn...maybe it will be a baby-naming trend as well.

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  9. I used Kalli for a heroine, but the book came out several years ago. Plus I had to block out visions of the Hindu goddess, Kali. My MC (in a literary folktale) is Eastern European. My goal in coming up with girls' names for fantasy is not to sound frilly in a faux princess way. No Lilianella's for me! (I also try to start all the characters' names with different letters so they're not easy to confuse.)

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    1. Oh, Kalli is another good K name. I am totally guilty of naming too many characters with the same initial, which is silly b/c that always confuses me in other people's stories.

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  10. I noticed that names have waves, especially in genre books, just as they do for baby names in general.
    Good post, Katie. Nice to see you *here*

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    1. Nice to see you *here* as well, Mirka. I'm very excited to be a part of the Inkpot! Very good point about waves.

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  11. Interesting. I never thought about the beginning letter of the name fitting a pattern. I just think of names for each alphabet letter, and match the one that fits my character best. (Sometimes I have to go through the alphabet a few times to get the right name!)

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    1. That's a cool way to decide on names, Mary. Very unique!

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  12. I'm definitely guilty of K. The two bramble bower maidens starring in my series are Bekka and Karro. It's a strong sound, isn't it?

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    1. Oh, more great names! And definitely strong sounding.

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  13. Interesting post. Yes, a name should suit a character.

    Nas

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    1. Thanks for reading! I agree a name should absolutely fit a character.

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  14. Great post, Katie! My characters names just pop into my head somehow! LOL! I do try to make sure I don't have multiple characters whose names start with the same letter so as not to be confusing.

    Strangely, Layla's name came to me out of nowhere, and I later learned it meant "dark beauty," which ended up being PERFECT! LOL!

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    1. Thanks, Erin! I wish all writing was as easy as stuff popping into my head. I find plot points tend to pop into my head, but character names usually require a little work on my part.

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  15. interesting - i had never noticed that before! yet i can't help thinking, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

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