Authors who chose a name with a particular meaning for their MC/s, what is it and why?

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

I'm asking this question to authors who intentionally chose a name with a specific meaning for their MC, whether it plays some role in their personality/background/future actions.

Just curious. Don't have to answer if it's too much of a spoiler. Might make a seperate thread for side characters.

 

[KiraMinoru]

Funnily enough the MCs in my stories typically get random meaningless names while other characters get names I put a bit of effort into thinking up.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Funnily enough the MCs in my stories typically get random meaningless names while other characters get names I put a bit of effort into thinking up.

Yeah I'm guilty of doing the exact same thing. I literally used a Chinese random name generator for one of my MCs.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I got lucky with my MC name actually coincide with his role.

 

[killwrites]

I try to craft suitable names for every single character that appear in my stories as I feel I should at least put in effort to my characters when writing character-driven plots lol. Like for eg (not really spoilers because the story is a one-shot and already finished), I explained how the MC's name came about in the story itself

Spoiler: example

I intentionally chose a Japanese name for myself, since I thought that Reena would be too hard for the locals to pronounce correctly. The Japanese-English dictionary in my college library defined ‘Rei’ as ‘graceful’, which I immediately took a liking to.

I also love to hide Easter eggs in my characters' names for anyone who pays close attention to such details, so there's that

 

[K5Rakitan]

Since I base my characters on real people, I have to choose a name that's different from the real person's name. They might sound similar or have the same meaning in another language or something.

 

[SailusGebel]

The future nickname he will choose will form a complete name. This 'full' name is there to contrast the nickname of the antagonist. This 'full' name will also serve as something like a mask, a second personality. This 'full' name will relate to the changes in the character of the MC and his moral fall.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I'm asking this question to authors who intentionally chose a name with a specific meaning for their MC, whether it plays some role in their personality/background/future actions.

Just curious. Don't have to answer if it's too much of a spoiler. Might make a seperate thread for side characters.

I don't know how intentionally I choose names, but my main character and his sister have names related to "light." They're Kazuki and Hikari. I started with Kazuki and found a kanji spelling of it that contained "shine" or "light" so I went with that other name for the little sister.

Generally, I just pick whatever name sounds cool, I guess. But I do theme naming like the aforementioned siblings, or mom and child having the same letter first names. There's also a trio of siblings in my series that have the Japanese pronunciation for one, two, and three in their names.

The same goes with other characters. I just look at their design and think something like, "hmmm, a character looking like this probably has the name Rin" or "I think given the design, she could be a Miyuki" or something. While it's not a hard rule, certain names do get associated with certain archetypes. Like, I typically won't associate a "Sayuri" or "Yukiko" with a headstrong, punch before thinking tomboy.

 

[Snusmumriken]

MC has a short barking name suitable to be yelled out by a master with ease - due to his background.
The rest of the cast has names either associated with their character, some historical significance or both. Higher the status - fancier the name

 

[LilTV1155]

Names have power because of their meanings.
For my characters in one story, it's their destiny/fate/karma/roles or call signs.
For the other characters in another, it's . . . . for ........ to make them butt monkeys.
Also, how I can identify my fictional kids.

At the same time, Names are double-edged swords that can empower and restrain characters / people because of power of language (spellcasting).
It boost the power of soul, but lock the soul to the mortal plane.

 

[Lorelliad]

I actually named my character Kenneth. His original one was Michael, before he reincarnated. I chose it because... that's my name. At least for me, the familiarity with my own name helps into adding into the immersion, helping me relate to my MC more.

Some of my other characters also have names that mean something. Catalyn is one. She's the MC's personal caretaker. I won't spoil it but she was found underground without her memories, so I named her after its meaning in Greek: Pure and Clear.

Another one is Aurelia, a frail elf born with two multicolored eyes. One being golden like the sun, the other as dark as the night. The MC renamed her this due to her golden eye being the first thing that caught his attention upon meeting her.

One more is Sabik. An alien who was sent to the MC's world, but was eventually brought to his side. Sabik translates to "the one who came first", as he is the first companion ever recruited by Kenneth, with the exception of Catalyn and Aurelia, of course.

I find this an easy way to compile my characters' traits and behaviors. But they all share one thing, undying loyalty and subservience to Kenneth. Not the overly obsessive way though.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

I actually named my character Kenneth. His original one was Michael, before he reincarnated. I chose it because... that's my name. At least for me, the familiarity with my own name helps into adding into the immersion, helping me relate to my MC more.

This is moreso just a rant but, i'm quite the opposite, I refuse to make an MC with the same name as me, heck I wouldn't make a character with the same name as me.

I always envision myself as a distant observer, so any correlation between a character and me feels awkward. I view my main characters as entirely detached from me. Despite this I don't really have trouble writing the character, all I need is to understand them.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I'm not sure how productive this could be to the thread, but to me, it just seems that some names carry connotations, so that could probably add to the decision making process when deciding what to name my characters or the themes I go by.

It's not a hard rule and all, but just as an example, here are some characters (male and female) named Rei in stuff I watched/played. Note how all of them exude the same cool-type "aura" so to speak, which kinda supports part of my point. Hence, I can no longer quickly associate the name Rei to red, fiery aesthetics. Basically, the off the top of the head snappy association would always be on the cool, introverted characters.

 

[Zirrboy]

I use a namegen that allows to set general themes and tells you the name's meaning.

But since I don't speak Chinese, I have no way of ascertaining it's accuracy.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Most of my names are meaningful, but ironically, not my MC's. My initial draft of my story wasn't something I was very invested in, so I just chose one of the names I figured would make a good name for a daughter. I ended up using the name to make her powers more interesting instead of giving her a name based on her powers.

My other MCs for stories I haven't/won't write were similarly boring namewise. I literally plucked one from the 'default elvish names' from the 5e Basic Rules (Silaqui), and the other was when I was just getting into anime and wanted to write some super cliche reincarnation story. I didn't want to go all in on the Japanese name, but I figured Aina would be a decent middleground.

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Sayuri" or "Yukiko" with a headstrong, punch before thinking tomboy.

Now I'm going to have one of my Oni's be named Sayuri, and she's going to be very punchy. Also not gay despite the yuri in the name, but still a tomboy.

 

[EternalSunset0]

Now I'm going to have one of my Oni's be named Sayuri, and she's going to be very punchy. Also not gay despite the yuri in the name, but still a tomboy.

Great idea. Certainly gonna catch some people with pre-existing impressions like me off-guard.

 

[vish]

well, I don't have any naming sense, so I just pick a character from some movie or anime based on their personality and use their names. I tried naming my Mc and fmc by myself by searching internet for their meaning(they're Japanese), but it took me hours and despite all that work, their names are still pretty much common and meaningless, it just sounds normal is all I can say. I don't struggle to write story but struggle to name a character instead.........
In this post people people use something called namegen, huh. Maybe I'll try that.

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Read an Isekai revenge story:HOW TO KILL A GODDESS OF ANOTHER 'EARTH'

 

[LilTV1155]

On the other hands, the names that I come for my characters are always completely made up from other words of different languages ( rare or endangered languages). It help carry meanings and set up the worldbuilding cultures as well.

Or I take it from the existing name from certain website: Behind the Name Meaning, Babynames.com, and etc. then rearrange the letters as I need to. However, do be careful that some rearranged names can come out as Names with negative meanings by accidents like Kali or worse with a name that happen to mean "Shit Dump" in other languages.

Here's a list for different language for making names if you really want to parts and fuse it into direct names or just want to play by rules:
ASJP
Omniglot
Globse
SIL

 

[BearlyAlive]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. My current protagonist has a name that has no meaning, but a few other characters have.

I did have an idea for a story where every character had a Latin name that either described them or just fit them, like calling the airhead "Zephyr", the cold girl "Glacies", or the protagonist (an earth mage) "Gaius" xD

 

[Saileri]

Seems self-explanatory right? :v
At least without giving away the spoilery bits.