forum Does anyone else use descriptive names that describe your character's personality?

Started March 02, 2018 by Deleted user

tune

Okay, for two of my characters I did this.

Ember: She's a small spark in the world, the earth supporting her. She believes she isn't much compared to the roaring flames beside her. Something ignited and she rose to be powerful and beautiful. She is warm and calming but if uncontrolled she can lash out and become extremely destructive, wiping out anything and everything in her path.

Audra: "from lithuanian; translates into English as "storm" - as in gale, hurricane or tempest ie. a violent windstorm, esp. one with rain, hail or snow."
For this reason, she is a very temperamental person. Her feelings build up inside her until it rains out in a giant thunderstorm, literally. She gets blown all over the place and takes a lot of shit. When her emotions rain out they do so passionately causing her to be a great fighter, channelling her emotions into the fight.

Yes! I looooove doing that!! AND OMG I LOVE YOUR NAMES!! Almost all my character's have names that describe them! I won't say them all, but some of my favorites are:
Ziff Tarran: Ziff meaning "resembling a wolf," he's a shape-shifter and turns into a wolf like creature, and Tarran meaning "thunder," for reasons I'm going to reveal in my story.
Caleb Kaimi: Caleb means "dog/faithful " which fits in two way, because one he is very faithful to all his close friends and tries to never break his promises, and two he is part of my trio of main characters which are Ziff, (a wolf) Ginger (a fox) and himself, so "dog" is perfect. Also, Kaimi means "Seeker" so I chose it because he's searching for his sister.
And Mara Capulus: Mara means "bitter," and Capulus is the one of the latin words for coffee, and I love her name so much because she's a coffee-addicted sociopath.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I like how you did last names too. Most of my other characters have names that are unique or based on someone in my life, these too are the only ones who have characteristics in their names.

Tom: Well, three or four months ago my uncle Thomas died. It was uncertain of what killed him at first be we later learned it was suicide. I never knew him very well because my family is very spread out. In honor of him and my father, I named my character off of him.

Hunter: I've always found this name really unique and I really wanted to use it. What makes him even more unique from other people named Hunter is that he's a dark ginger with brown flecks in his hair, due to an accident with his best friend. (Just looked up that the name Hunter originates from Scotland. Ha, that's convenient.)

And I just looked up the meaning of James and OH MY GOSH it's amazing.
"A classic boys' name derived from the Hebrew name Jacob. It means "supplanter," one who follows. "
"Supplanter often refers to governments and rulers of countries, and it comes from the verb supplant, which evolved from the Latin supplantare, meaning 'to trip up or to overthrow.'"

This is another one of my characters. He was the weakest and followed everyone else leads and grew to be the strongest and overthrew the others power-wise. They way he got this power wasn't so great cough murder cough but, he redeemed himself in the end.

Ugh, I love all those names too!! I love it when you randomly pick a name cause it sounds cool and then it just so happens to fit your character perfectly. Happened to me over the summer, I fell in love with the idea of a female character who goes by "Theo" and so I made her full name Theodora, which I later learned means "God Given", which is perfect because her family constantly says her optimistic nature is a gift from God.
Also, I'm really sorry about your uncle, I know what's that's like because I had a uncle (my dad's uncle technically) die from suicide when I was younger. Pretty much the same situation, we didn't see him that often because his family was always moving, but we had recently visited him a couple months before it happened, so it was definitely unexpected. I'm sure your uncle's honored to have a character named after him <3

Thank you, I think he is honored but, he wasn't saved. I am also sorry about your uncle.
Isn't it funny how names work out that way? So random and cool and they fit perfectly.
I also forgot that Ember's last name is Charson which I made myself and I gave it the meaning "Of the charcoal" So in all, she's "Ember of the charcoal".
Because at first glance it seems like a modern drama I gave all my character's seemingly normal last names, ex. Eves, Hunter, Rullond, Laymaier and Charson.
Also, I've never heard of a girl named Theo before! That's extremely original I like it!

I love to do that. I have a character named Ayana. Meaning beautiful flower. I named her this because when she was younger she was truly a beautiful girl. Although she had a scarring experience that made her a horrible person. This leads her to be the antagonist of my story. So the name Ayana almost conflicts with her story, but also shows character development. In the sense that people are not born to be bad, and that people can develop either to be kind or horrible.

Yes! All my character names have hidden symbolism.

Iain has a pretentiously long name- Iain Fionnlagh Lachlann Somerhairle Mac Domhnaill (Mac Donald). It's long, for one, because he has such a heavy burden to bear (more on that.) Fionnlagh (or Finlay) means "fair hero", referencing his white hair, Lachlann was a name used to refer to Norway in classic literature (loch + lann) since he has Viking ancestors and is part Norwegian. Somerhairle, or Somerled, means "summer wanderer" in Old Norse- the same name as his Celtic/Viking ancestor, and a reference to his never-ending "wandering."

Ciarán's middle name is Aodh. Aodh is a name that's been passed down in his family but has some special pride to it since he's from Donegal and is directly related to Aodh Ruadh. "Aodh" means "fire," directly correlating to his enthusiastic nature, while passing on the legacy of living, and dying, a rebel.

Calum's real name is Donal Malcolm Alasdair Roy MacKenzie. "Donal" is just an Anglicised version of Domhnall/Dòmhnall, "world-ruler." In the U.S. this name is usually Anglicised as "Donald" but not here though. His mother sensed he was meant to conquer the world. Malcolm is where his nickname "Calum" is derived from. The actual meaning of Irish or Scottish Gaelic "Colm/Colm Cille" is a dove or interestingly, scar. "Mael Colm," or "Malcolm," means "follower of Colm Cille" (St. Columba.) This could be interpreted as "follower of the dove" or "follower of the scar." Calum is deeply scarred, both inside and out, but never stops looking for internal peace.

Fiona is the feminine of Fionn ("fair"). She's stunningly beautiful. Her middle name, Meabh, is the modern Irish version of classic "Maeve," meaning "she who intoxicates." Maeve was a legendary queen of Connacht in the Tain Bo Cuailgne. Fiona is intoxicating (due to the love spell/curse) and is a queen in her own right.

Eithne, or Enya, means "seed or kernel." Eithne has so much potential to heal and make things grow.

Leif's real name is Leif Guðmundur Eriksson. Leif Eriksson. For those Americans and Canadians out there, you probably pronounced it as LEAF, but in Scandinavia, it's pronounced LAY-f. Leif's a very classic Old Norse name and is fairly rare, derived from "heir" or descendant. Leif's mother knew he was the son of a king (Odin) and that he was born to be an adventurer, honouring the legacy of Leif Eriksson (I).

Aksel- pays homage to legendary Norwegian skier Aksel Lund Svindal. Tor- Well, you know…

Colin's middle name is Diarmuid as a nod to his and Fiona's mythical ancestor, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the supposed progenitor of Clan Campbell.

As for Will… his last name is Wallace.

Llew is a nickname, but means "bright" or "shine"… Lleu is a bright light in the midst of my miserable cast

DO NOT attempt to pronounce these names unless you are a native speaker! YOU WILL DIE!

I can tell. That was one confusing ride.
You put a lot of work into your characters names! I haven't had much time to do a lot of research into that type of stuff and I'm pretty satisfied with what I have now. You're really dedicated.

Ha ha ha… As a native speaker, I get away with stuff like that.

Hello~
I loved reading everyone's names and their meanings! Its so interesting to see the amount of effort some people put into naming.
As for my characters, most of the names I pick don't necessarily go with specific meanings! I choose my names based on what feels right. I know instantly when some names click, and for whatever reason, I am completely unable to change it. Also, I have my names fit a specific time period, so I choose names that feel like they blend into that era that fits my story :) Maybe I should research into what the names I have chosen actually mean!
Happy writing everyone!
Grace <3

@Grace <3
That's perfectly fine that you do that! I did something similar, I created four names for my characters. I don't know the meanings of these names but, from what I know, they are completely original. I made the names to fit an older era. Here's how I created them.
Sycore: Sycamore broken down
Birane: Bird and Zane smashed together, i see him being a Zane guy.
Hicia: Completly original.
Diami: Diamond broken down

oh.my.gosh.it's.friking.SYCORE,
ooh those names are so cool! I like how you took some words and broke them down to come up with them :)

Usually I just try to find names that seem to fit them, but on the occassion I give names based on physical appearence or traits. For instance in one of my stories 11 of the characters are based on different colors. Two of them who are based on black and white, I named Černá Noir and Shiro Blanco which is literally 'black black' and 'white white'. They also have an illegitimate child who is named Grayson. Surprise surprise he's based on the color gray cause he's thier "gray son". Ocassionally I like to go with ironic names too. I have a character in the works who's name is Theo Dicédoros Theodoridis which means Divine Gift/God Given, Gift from Dicé (greek goddess of justice), Son of Theodore. Ironically he's a makeshift villian who uses his 'divine gift' for his own personal wants instead of for justice/ good of mankind.

Not really. I just give them whatever kind of name I like similar to what a parent does for their newborn kid. Although I currently do write a story where the main character has a strange habit of giving people very discriptive nicknames.

I actually don't do this. I really do appreciate it when writers give their characters meaningful names that sort of represent who they are (especially when it's not glaringly obvious). When I make my characters, I usually come up with a name first, and everything else kind of comes after. Besides, how many people do you know that have names based on their personality?

I do have a character called Milo, which apparently means "Soldier" which is fitting for this character. But I didn't choose the name based on the meaning (it was actually a placeholder name, but I never came up with anything that I liked better). Probably worth mentioning though, that this name also apparently means "Merciful" which isn't quite as fitting for this character.

I love all the unique names here! My targeted ads are always so weird after long name searches (google thinks I’m pregnant and need formula and maternity clothing), but I feel like it’s definitely worth it to find a name that clicks. My favorite character names are probably Cade Esposito and Kai Raposo. Cade means ‘a young animal abandoned by it’s mother and raised by hand’ which is exactly what happened when Cade’s unsuccessful entrepreneur mother had him and his twin Enele: Enele was chosen by the current pope/the goddess Fyroess (depending who you ask) to be the next pope, and their mom couldn’t take care of them anyway, so Enele and Cade became the property of the church. Esposito was also a very common name given to orphans and foundlings in Italy, which fits great as well. Kai is a Hawaiian name meaning ocean, which has lovely irony because my character Kai is a fire mage. Raposo means male fox, which fits Kai well, since he had to be clever and operate on questionable morals during his childhood on the streets of a large, unsympathetic kingdom.