What’s in a Name? (A Guest Blog Post by Stephen Swartz)

Allow me to introduce author and guest blogger Stephen Swartz.  Swartz is a novelist turned English professor turned novelist who, after living in many different places around the world, now makes his home in Oklahoma City. His writing usually features the trials and tribulations of strangers in strange lands, sometimes on strange worlds. He writes literary anti-romances and science-fiction with a steampunk bent.
 
Find Stephen’s blog at: http://stephenswartz.blogspot.com
Support indie authors! Like his Facebook Page or follow him on Twitter: @StephenSwartz1
 
Happy reading…
 
What’s in a name? Sometimes, everything.
As a kid, I never liked my name. It was too easy for other kids to deliberately mispronounce it just to tease me. So once I started writing stories, I thought up several pen names to replace the name my parents had foisted upon me. However, I gave up eventually, deciding I needed to use my real name so family and friends would believe I actually wrote the books.
But the subject of names continues to impact my life, especially my writing life, and as writers know, names are important. After all, Adam was tasked with naming the flora and fauna of the Garden of Eden, and with each pronouncement, it became real. Each time we cast a label on something, we could be said to name it. And naming creates powerful associations. Our characters’ names are no different.
Perhaps not every character fiddles with his or her name; thank goodness they seldom complain. I imagine, however, that characters do what real people do, and fiddling with and changing and using just the right name is important to a lot of us. Sometimes a name is actually a crucial element of a story character’s psyche, motivation, or raison-d’être.
For example, in my forthcoming novel A BEAUTIFUL CHILL, the heroine, Íris, is from Iceland and the correct Icelandic pronunciation of her name matters to her. As it turns out, her name is about all she has that is truly hers, so she firmly corrects anyone who says her name with the English pronunciation; her friends know how to say it and by that quirk she marks them as friends. “My name is Íris. Like the letter E,” she scolds the male protagonist early on. It is literally a defining moment for her: Get my name right, or we’ll have nothing to do with each other.
In another example, the young man in THE DREAM LAND trilogy who takes over from our hero is named Chucker. It’s a nickname used by his mother since he was a little boy, and since he is searching for her on another world, it has meaning to him.
“What do they call you in school? Is it Chuck or Charlie?”
“Chucker is what they call me—but I hate that name. Mom was crazy naming me that. Chuck R. Tucker. The ‘R’ stands for René. Sissy name, ain’t it? That was her dad’s name. Her name was Tucker, and after she got married it was McElroy. Then she changed it back to Tucker. My dad’s name is Chuck. That’s what Grandma said. So everybody calls me Chucker Tucker—ya know, like Chuck R. Tucker?”
And in the ultimate example, Alex Parris is in love with everything about the Trojan War in AFTER ILIUM. In fact, when he meets an older woman named Elena on a cruise ship bound for Turkey, where he will tour the ruins of Ilium, he cannot help but imagine himself as young Paris carrying off his prized Helen to the storied walls of Ilium. That name association is the start of a whole lot of trouble for Alex.

So let me suggest, when you select a character’s name—whether it’s some common Anglo-Saxon name, a Biblical name, or something Chinese, Indian, or Slavic, perhaps—keep in mind the associations the name itself may have. Think about how the character carries his or her name. How picky is your character about how the name is used? Also, what nicknames may ensue. How do they react to other people using or misusing their names? Names become another element, another layer, of a character’s identity.
Because what is a name but a marker of identity, a proof of existence, and for a fictional persona brought magically to life in the pages of a story, existence is everything.
 
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Stephen Swartz’ books may be found on Amazon.com.  Look for THE DREAM LAND trilogy and AFTER ILIUM by clicking on the following links:

THE DREAM LAND

Author: KateBitters

Kate Bitters is a Minneapolis-based author and freelance writer. She is the author of Elmer Left, Ten Thousand Lines, and He Found Me. One of her proudest/nerdiest moments was when Neil Gaiman read one of her short stories on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater.

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