I was doing a book signing last week and someone asked me
about my character names in the Royal Spyness series. Do you make up some of
those really ridiculous names? She asked. “They can’t be real.”
The answer is that I do make up some of my ridiculously
English names—Hortense Horze-Gorzley for example. But they are no more
ridiculous than some real upper class English names I have known. I was at
school with a girl called Amanda Featherstonehaugh-Skelley (pronounced
Fanshaw-Skelley). You can’t really beat
that, can you? And then there are the silly nicknames that seemed to litter
every aristocratic family. My husband’s family has a slew of cousins with crazy
nicknames including Fig, Dudh, Podge, Toots and a distinguished elderly lady
called Puff.
Names are important to me. Elmore Leonard said, ““Once I
know the name, I know the character.” And I completely agree. Sometimes the
name comes to me the moment a character walks into my consciousness. Other times
I have to search for the right name. Sometimes I get it wrong. Things don’t go
well. The story plods along slowly. And then the character turns to me and says
“Why do you keep calling me Richard when my name is Ronald?” I switch the name
and the story leaps forward merrily.
As you can tell in the Royal Spyness books I love having fun
with my characters’ names. I have a very naughty older woman called Virginia in
my latest book, Heirs and Graces. I had a French inspector in Naughty in Nice
who wore squeaky shoes and whose name was LaFitte.
And I have a confession to make. Sometimes I use a name as
revenge. We writers have a great way of getting back at people who have annoyed
or slighted us in real life—we turn them into characters in our books. So in Heirs
and Graces I have turned my really horrible headmistress at school into the
butler. In real life she was overbearing so it gives me great pleasure to have
reduced her to a servant. I know of other authors who have killed off real life
ex-husbands on the page.
So I’m curious, Reds. How much trouble do you take over
names in your books? Have you ever taken revenge on a real person in your life
by making something bad happen to them in your books? Do tell all….
LUCY BURDETTE: I don't spend too much time on this Rhys. I try not to have a lot of names beginning with the same letter. And I don't mind changing a name as I need to while I'm writing along. The worst name faux pas I had was realizing I'd changed the name of a character between AN APPETITE FOR MURDER and DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. It was too late to do anything about it--they were both already published. And no one seems to have noticed--or at least no one has complained.
HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, I do not take a lot of time with names. Usually a name just comes to me, I go with it, and if I need to change it later, well that's why the good lord gave us Search and Replace. No, I would never take revenge on a real person by making something bad happen to them in my book. Really no. Never.
LUCY BURDETTE: I don't spend too much time on this Rhys. I try not to have a lot of names beginning with the same letter. And I don't mind changing a name as I need to while I'm writing along. The worst name faux pas I had was realizing I'd changed the name of a character between AN APPETITE FOR MURDER and DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. It was too late to do anything about it--they were both already published. And no one seems to have noticed--or at least no one has complained.
HALLIE EPHRON: I confess, I do not take a lot of time with names. Usually a name just comes to me, I go with it, and if I need to change it later, well that's why the good lord gave us Search and Replace. No, I would never take revenge on a real person by making something bad happen to them in my book. Really no. Never.
The
challenge is when I've auctioned naming rights to a character, trying
to fit someone's given name to one of my characters. Because once you
give a character a name, well, along with it come baggage. Just for
example, name a character Hortense and there are certain things she
simply would not do.
ROSEMARY HARRIS: I nearly made an annoying
neighbor a wifebeater in one of my books - but I came to my senses. No..no
revenge naming.
With five major female characters in The Bitches
of Brooklyn it was challenging to make their names reveal something about
them in a time when every girl seemed to be named Heather or Jennifer. So I
went back further..to their parents and used some of their (doesn't show on the
page) backstory - ethnic background, socio-economic class, etc to decide
on Rachel, Clare, Tina, Jane and Abigail. Hopefully they are memorable enough to
keep all of there women straight!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Like Rhys, I do take a lot of trouble with names. I'm always making lists--I love movie and TV credits for this. Sometimes the names for characters comes instantly, and sometimes I struggle through an entire book to get it right. I don't think I've ever done revenge-naming (sounds like fun, though.) But I hate giving a name I like to a character I don't like. The trick for the reader would be to figure out which names I like...
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Yep, I'm in the takes-forever-to-name-characters camp. I have a "Name bible" spreadsheet with the names and some info on all the characters I've had in the series to date, with an index listing the first and last names in alphabetical order AND a numerical count of how many times I use a starting letter. For some reason, I seem to revert to K names. I have to watch that.
Sometimes, I wind up using the name of a friend or family member as a place-holder, only to find that it's become THE name of the character in my head. That's how my friend Ben Beagle, editor of the Livingston County News, became investigative reporter Ben Beagle of the Glens Falls Post Star. I had written about half of I SHALL NOT WANT when I realized I couldn't come up with a better name for a "dogged" newshound...
RHYS: So dear readers, please confess... do character names matter to you? Does it spoil your enjoyment of a book when a character is given a name that doesn't go with her personality--a sexy heroine called Mildred, for example?
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Like Rhys, I do take a lot of trouble with names. I'm always making lists--I love movie and TV credits for this. Sometimes the names for characters comes instantly, and sometimes I struggle through an entire book to get it right. I don't think I've ever done revenge-naming (sounds like fun, though.) But I hate giving a name I like to a character I don't like. The trick for the reader would be to figure out which names I like...
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Yep, I'm in the takes-forever-to-name-characters camp. I have a "Name bible" spreadsheet with the names and some info on all the characters I've had in the series to date, with an index listing the first and last names in alphabetical order AND a numerical count of how many times I use a starting letter. For some reason, I seem to revert to K names. I have to watch that.
Sometimes, I wind up using the name of a friend or family member as a place-holder, only to find that it's become THE name of the character in my head. That's how my friend Ben Beagle, editor of the Livingston County News, became investigative reporter Ben Beagle of the Glens Falls Post Star. I had written about half of I SHALL NOT WANT when I realized I couldn't come up with a better name for a "dogged" newshound...
RHYS: So dear readers, please confess... do character names matter to you? Does it spoil your enjoyment of a book when a character is given a name that doesn't go with her personality--a sexy heroine called Mildred, for example?
