Unusual Names From Real People
Ok, I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but this is how I find character names…
I read the obituaries.
Yep, you read that right. The obituaries. Now, stick with me. It’s not because I’m being morbid, but if I need to come up with an interesting name for my character (or a lot of names all at once), the obituaries are where it’s at for a lot of different reasons.
1) Diversity. All kinds of people have their obituaries posted. More than engagement announcements. More than the Top 100 Baby Names of the Year (which tend to be dominated by celebrities.) So it’s a good diversity check- is the name I’m selecting for this character realistic for their age, race, and gender?
2) I can test out a bunch of realistic first, middle, and last names together. Are the names I’m creating accurate for the area? For instance, the South has cloches of Scottish heritage- but we also have Chinese communities and even Sikh.
Some Midwestern towns are almost exclusively of Swiss ancestry. A lot of areas have microcosms of cultures and families, so with just a few Google searches, I can select a name that is meaningful to the area I’m writing about without directly copying someone (hopefully.)
3) You find more interesting names in the obituaries than anywhere else. I mean, I’ve tried using the baby name tools online and all that. But there is something to be said for the creativity of human beings combined with our urge to preserve old family names. A name generator just can’t compete.
What about you? Do you have a weird or wacky #writingtip to share?
