In last week's episode of The Blank Page Protocol, I shared some ways to think about creating character names, citing the examples of Jabba the Hutt, Severus Snape, Ned Stark, and Humbert Humbert.
One thing I left out: how did these characters' creators come up with their names? Let's find out.
Jabba the Hutt
I could not confirm the inspiration for this fantastic name, but this New York Times article has insights into Lucas's process for christening his iconic characters.
Lucas said he wanted names to sound "unusual, but not spacey" and that the names should be consistent with a character's culture. For inspiration, he used everything from other languages (Darth Vader), Biblical and mythological references (Luke Skywalker), and even contemporary fictional characters (Princess Leia).
The lesson: be ravenously curious, cultivate a love of language and storytelling, and remember the cool stuff you discover. That way you'll have a trove of seeds for possible names.
Severus Snape
JK Rowling draws on an astonishing variety of resources to invent her names, but once tweeted that the name Severus leaped into her head because she used to walk by a street by that name while commuting to her old job (and "Snape" is from a real English village).
The lesson: great name ideas can come from anywhere, even sources we take for granted. The art is in matching them with the proper character.
Ned Stark
George RR Martin takes a more historical/genealogical approach to naming. In this video, he notes that in the English Monarchy, the same first names tend to cycle through the generations — you'll find a ton of Henrys, for example. Eddard (Ned) is simply a tweak on the traditional Edward, another very common royal name.
But Martin also makes sure that a character's name fits his ethnic background. Martin associated the surname "Stark" with the First Men because of its simplicity — a comment both on the family we know as the Starks and the nature of that ancient genealogy (my interpretation is that the older the name, the more primal and bare it wants to be). He contrasts this to the Targaryens, whose names he wanted to sound more foreign and exotic.
Martin also says that the name has to "sound right" and that he can't begin writing a character before knowing his name. Just saying.
The lesson: naming a character may be a matter of first filling out her entire world. That way, her family background and historical context will not only inform who she is, but what she's called.
Humbert Humbert
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of master's theses on the meaning of the name Vladimir Nabokov gave to his iconic anti-hero. Here's what he had to say about Humbert in a 1964 Playboy interview:
"The double rumble is, I think, very nasty, very suggestive. It is a hateful name for a hateful person. It is also a kingly name, and I did need a royal vibration for Humbert the Fierce and Humbert the Humble. Lends itself also to a number of puns…"
To illustrate how far down the rabbit hole some name meanings can go, here's an interpretation of the name from The Nabokovian, an organization dedicated to the author's works: "The name evokes the Spanish hombre, 'man,' and the French ombre, 'shadow'… it also suggests a portmanteau of the English words humbug and pervert. Furthermore, the double name hints at the novel's doppelgänger motif."
The lesson: you can use any zany concoction you want to cook up a character's name — the only thing that matters is that you do, indeed, think about it.
And above all remember: this should be fun!!
Brough*
*my own unusual name is pronounced "Bruff" and is Irish Gaelic for "halo around the moon," an enigmatic name that evokes my love of creativity, yet has the blunt sound of how I appear: as a big ol' bruiser.