I kind of left you guys hanging. Work was busy this week, so when I got home in the evenings I was too tired to work on much.
This weekend is a self-imposed slow burn. I’m dabbling with reading Serang to make sure I can understand it before I share it with the world. I’ve also started reading a novel. I’m way behind on my reading and will try to remedy some of this over the next month.
I intend to do the edits on Serang, then work through The Viral Blues the same way without hitting it too hard.
Honestly, I’ve been working on fiction at an accelerated pace and feel the need for a slow stretch.
In order to keep this interesting, I want to talk about naming characters again. Older posts indicate I still have my daughter’s graduation program to pick from, and I frequently glance at the Major League Baseball rosters for the same reason.
One source I’ve wanted to use has kind of dried up. Phonebooks are a great roster of names. They’ve gotten hard to come by lately, so I decided to keep our local one this year.
All of the online directories do some amazing things. They do almost everything, except for what I need. You can’t just flip through names and check them out.
As an author, naming characters is important. We all know some common last names, like Smith or Jones, but not every character can have the common names.
This is the new Boise telephone directory, and it’s kind of amazing. This book used to be three inches thick, and came with a second volume that was about two inches. Things have changed.
Nobody has a land line anymore. Yellow Pages are no longer the advertising necessity they used to be. Abe demonstrates this pretty well. Keep in mind the white and yellow pages are included in this one book.
Sometimes you need a great name for a fictional business. Browsing the phone book can help here too. Maybe we come up with our own fictitious name, but it’s nice to get some inspiration from somewhere.
I’ve made two different trips to New Orleans and intended to get a telephone book each times. Both times I failed. I want this one because of the diversity. I’d like to get a swath of Cajun, Creole, American Indian, and French names to browse. It’s a big enough city to offer the diversity of many other cultures, but the regional names are a bonus.
Recently, I found a source that might be able to send me one. Fingers crossed. I’m counting on other people here so I might have to keep chipping away at it.
Until then, I still have my traditional sources, plus this Boise directory.
Reblogged this on Where Genres Collide Traci Kenworth YA Author & Book Blogger.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Traci.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome, Craig!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I never throw anything away. Especially when it’s recyclable. And phone books are not that convenient to recycle in my neighborhood. So I have a cache of big, fat old LA phone books. You are welcome to the biggest and fattest of them, which is the Los Angeles West Side Yellow Book, 2007-2008. It has white pages too. It’s about 6 pennies thick. But you gotta pay the freight on this thing. I shudder to think what it’s gonna cost to ship it to Idaho. Want me to find out? Email me (you have my email address from when Lisa interviewed Fluffy) and give me your mailing address — if you want it badly enough, heh, heh.
Cheers,
Ted
P.S. I get character names from my long and checkered past. I mix up first and last names, so nobody can come after me. One of the few advantages of being old.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll take it under advisement. Thanks, Ted. If NOLA doesn’t work out I may need you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great ideas, Craig!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I use baby name books, but mostly because I’d look sillier walking around with a phone book. I’m with you on the online ones not doing what authors need. Guess putting a ‘randomly choose’ button would lead to some problems.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes you just want that odd last name. Then you get a selection of first names to go with it. I still make up my own, but it’s nice to have an inspiration point.
LikeLike
There are some surname catalogs and ‘meaning of’ sites. Those can come in handy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve used a few of those. Where would you come up with a Yallowitz or Boyack for a character name? Sometimes you need that kind of character name, so being able to browse is helpful. Seeing some of the colorful first names is helpful too.
LikeLike
I refuse to saddle a character with the name of Yallowitz. 😁 I’ve always been pretty tame and iffy with surnames. I focus more on first names.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Even those are in the phonebook. My area isn’t going to provide Ghlislaine or other fun monikers.
LikeLike
That’s a great fantasy name.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not even sure we get a phone book anymore, because um, we no longer have a landline, either. Do not know when I last used a phone book, now that you mention it. Probably back when I bought the Sunday paper and only wore sunscreen when swimming… I hope your NOLA book pans out!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It might. It’s a resource that could last forever if I get one. I still have the Boise book, and my traditional places. It’s just nice to find the right name for your voodoo priestess, or a fun bar for Lizzie and the hat to play in.
LikeLike
Names are always a challenge. I like the phonebook approach.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll keep you posted if I score the NOLA book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That one would be rich for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a great idea for finding names.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.
LikeLike
I am absolutely no good at choosing names, but haven’t seen a phone book in years. Not many public phone booths either, so maybe they stopped printing them…
LikeLiked by 1 person
They still drop one at our door every year, despite the fact that we haven’t had a land line in over a decade.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a lot more characters in my new sci fi book, Craig, so I have also discovered a naming issue. I also have a few non-British or American characters because it is global so I have resorted to using Google search. I google the most popular names in Japan for example and then common Japanese surnames. I then have my name.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve used those sources myself. Another fun one is to use Google Translate. Think of a work that reminds you of the character, find out what that word in in another language.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is a fun idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great fun reading about your character naming pursuits, Craig. I do sports rosters too; I google popular names for the year of birth of my characters. Obits too. You’re right about the importance of names. Charles Dickens was crafty and bold with his character’s names, always fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve done a lot of that, but never tried obits before. Anything that has a decent roster and mix can provide a name or two.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m a film buff, especially old black & white ones. So occasionally I sneak in the name of a fictitious character in an old film. For instance, when I was 13 I was in love with a girl called Laura Smith (well, somebody has to be named Smith), so, in my memoir, I named her Laura Hunt after Gene Tierney’s character in the movie “Laura.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can get a lot of mileage out of familiar names. Occasionally, you need one more like Serang in my pirate fantasy. Sometimes you just want one that sounds French, or whatever. It’s nice to have a resource to browse.
LikeLike
I’ve been working on supernatural mysteries lately, and I’ve been trying to come up with names that bring to mind witches or shifters or vampires. That’s been a little tricky for me. Haven’t found any one thing yet, but so far, everyone has a name. Enjoy working at a little slower pace. Sometimes, when you push too hard, you have to back off for a while.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s one of the reasons I want the NOLA phone book. Ought to be able to find some paranormal sounding names in there somewhere. I’m due for a slowdown, and kind of enjoying it.
LikeLike
I can’t remember the last time I opened a phone book but I remember a day when I frequently went to it as a naming source. Now I tend to stick with baby naming books and sites or online generators.
Good luck with all the editing you have lined up between Serang and the Viral Blues. I’m in the same mode–down to 4 short stories–then I can start writing again. I wish there were more hours in the day–or less hours devoted to day jobs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m actually milking it. They have to be ready by Fall, but I have time to do other things too. I want a book to browse that includes a great mix. Creole, Cajun, etc. I need to name bars Lizzie and the Pythons might play one day, and some of those are in the books too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Plaisted Publishing House and commented:
Naming Characters
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for a good article 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I use baby name websites for popular names in such-in-such country in such-n-such past year. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes I get familiar names that are thus easy to remember but are out-of-fashion, so they sound fresh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did that on my paranormal tale set in the 1970s. Popular names change over time, and it was good I checked.
LikeLike
Great idea! I don’t think I kept my old phone book. We used to get a new one every year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We still do, but haven’t had a land line in over a decade.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me neither! I’m all cell phone
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes names come to me. Sometimes I’ll look up popular names by birth year. Other times, as you know, I’ll have a contest and let someone else name the character. Like the idea about regional names using phone books.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d just like to have the resource. Cool business names are handy too. Might not use them verbatim, but as a source of ideas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Working at a public school, I always hear the most interesting names. And some wild spellings that are pronounced like ordinary names. For privacy reasons, I can’t use most of the first-and-last together, but I can take pieces and mash them together.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would probably do that anyway. It’s just a browsing resource.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I find that magazines and my church bulletin come in very handy for names. Google is also a great resource, but your search needs to be narrowed down too far.
As an FYI to make you smile, I went from Smith to Jones. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I knew that. Some people go from Black to White, too. My daughter’s graduation program has been a neat resource.
LikeLike
As an aside; if a girl named Smith marries a man named Smith, should she take his name?
LikeLike
Aww i miss the phone books! It would of made a fine weapon back in the day. I used to love reading it as a kid (weird yup but i liked to see what names people had lol) Great way to help naming characters – I play The Sims, you have a random name generator on that and that can pick out some random ones, most of the time i sit and think for a week and then it pops into my head. ATM, i am writing a vampire novel, he’s an 18th century vamp so i used a lot of historical articles and such to help with some of my characters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are some great resources available, but sometimes you just want to browse. Mix and match the first and last names, etc. I also need commercial places for some stories, and that can be browsed too, but not online.
LikeLike
I’m amazed that there are even phone books printed anymore. I agree that it’s a great resource for finding names. Graveyards are great resources too. Sorry for my late response. I’m still playing catch-up from being gone for a few days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Being gone for a few days sounds wonderful to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person