One of the hardest things I’ve found as a writer is naming my characters. Honestly? It was easier to name my kids. My husband is Irish, so we wanted to stay in the region for names (though I still love Dante for a boy, just for the record). We each had veto power over the other’s choices (which is why our kids aren’t named Obadiah and Siobhan).

 

I tend to pick rather common names, but not perhaps really popular names. Millie and Maggie were my first two heroines. Lucy and Grace are two others. The women are easier to name than the men — my heroes have to have names I love, since (ahem!) I have to at least picture someone crying out his name in the throes of…okay, never mind. But you know what I mean. I couldn’t write Herbert as a romantic hero, for example. (Herberts everywhere, I’m so sorry! I’m sure you’re quite irresistible in person!) I like manly names…Trevor. Sam. One of my characters is often referred to by his first and last name. Callahan O’Shea. I just love how that sounds. And looks, actually. My favorite hero is only called by his last name. Malone.

 

I don’t want my characters to have names that are too far off the beaten path, either. Zathara and Thor are cool names, but they’re also like a story unto themselves and as such, distracting. I also try to avoid overused names…Annie and Kate seem to have had their fair share of popularity in contemporary romance, as have Jake and Jack. Regencies are thick with Elizabeth, Georgina, Rafe and Devlin (my personal favorite). A lot of vampires are named Lucien or Lucius, Damien, Darius or Gabriel.

 

How a name looks matters, too, since obvious people will be seeing those letters. Xerxes would be a tough name read over and over. Once I read a mystery where there was a character named Joaquin. I didn’t know how to pronounce that name. I “heard” it like “Joe-a-quin” instead of “Wah-keen”. Well, the big surprise in the book was that Old Joe was actually Joaquin. Which I knew. Because I couldn’t pronounce the name. One of my friends has a habit of spelling characters’ names oddly. Suisan, for example. Iain. Granted, those are valid Scottish spellings…but I’m American, you know? My brain stumbles over those names.

 

Kids who were mean to my sister or me thirty years ago can expect to find their first or last names pop up as bullies in my books. Not that they’ll notice, but I have fun. On the flip side, I like to honor nice people I’ve met by using their names, first or last, sometimes both. My heroines’ moms always have a best friend named Carol, because my mom’s best friend is named Carol. There are Robinson twins in one book, because I’m godmother to the Robinson twins. In Just One of the Guys, I named the heroine’s nieces and nephews after my own (though my little nephew Desmond was born after the book was done, so I owe him one).

 

Occasionally, you come across those iconic names…Scout. Romeo. Darcy. Names that just can’t belong to anyone else. Huck. Lolita. Scarlett. Rhett. There’s only one Rhett for me. I know a guy named Rhett here in my hometown. I feel bad for that guy. He’s not Rhett Butler, and what else matters, with a first name like that?

 

Oddly enough, my favorite character name in literature is rather plain and ordinary. Neither first name nor surname is very remarkable, but it’s so perfect for this character, and it sounds and looks just right. Harry Potter.

 

What are some of the best names you’ve come across? Did the name live up to the character? What made you love that name? Because I don’t think Shakespeare had it quite right…A rose by another name wouldn’t smell as sweet. After all, Romeo and Juliet were not Kevin and Sue.

 

Kristan