How much thought do you give to Naming your
characters?
When
choosing character names, I try using names that represent the characters. In
Renegade (Survival Race book 3), the hero is called Griffin. A griffin is part
lion (king of the beasts) and part eagle (king of the skys). The name works for
my hero on two levels. First, he was a prince, so giving him a name that meant
king of all creatures was fitting. Second, gentleman Griffin must become a
survival race gladiator in order to win a spaceship to bring his people to
freedom. Griffin must slay all the “beasts” (the last man alive wins this blood
sport) to take to the sky.
The
heroine’s name is Katana. I thought the name of a Japanese sword was perfect
for my female gladiator. As Griffin explains to Katana, “Names reveal something
about us. Take yours, for instance. A katana is a single-edge bladed weapon.
It’s unique. It’s curved. It’s sleek and sharp. It can protect, and it can
destroy. I’d say that’s a pretty good description of you.”
How much thought do you give to Nicknaming your
characters?
In
addition to giving my characters a name with meaning, I also consider what my
characters will call each other. In CAPTIVE (Survival Race #1), the hero, Max,
was abducted from Earth fifteen years ago and forced to compete in the survival
races. He is a loner who sees himself as nothing more than a beast. He protects
his heart by referring to the heroine as “woman” rather than by her name. I
took the idea from the belief that you shouldn’t name the animals you are going
to slaughter and eat. It’s a way to keep distance. This excerpt shows “stud”
Max and “broodmare” Addy building a snow shelter one night after escaping
HuBReC (The Human Breeding and Research Center), and Addy finally getting fed
up with Max’s name for her.
“Your
Earth life isn’t completely dead in you,” Addy said.
“Yes,
it is.”
“Nuh-uh.
I distinctly remember you singing an eighties’ rock ballad in the breeding box.
Albeit, you whistled the beginning, skipped the whole song, and went right to
the end, but still, it proves you haven’t let go of home altogether.”
“That
was strategy.” He removed the chunks of ice.
“Right.
You were trying to have patience with me.”
“No.
I was trying to act like I did in college so you’d have sex with me.”
She
saw a flash of dark sky when her eyes rolled. “Max, the big college stud.”
He
jerked away. “I wasn’t a stud until HuBReC.”
A
weight fell on her heart. Here she was trying to breathe some life back inside
him, but instead of helping him find good memories to grasp, she reminded him
of being an animal. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. I just wanted to
know—”
“Hell,
woman, I don’t want to discuss it.”
“I
have a name.” She threw two handfuls of snow in his face. “And it’s not Hell
Woman.”
Eventually
when Max does call her by name it becomes a pivotal scene, and a dramatic shift
in their relationship.
In
FEARLESS (Survival Race #2), the hero calls the heroine Savage. She is a
spiritual healer (with anger issues) from a lowland village and he is the
Highland’s warlord king. While the king tries using brains over brawn, he is
still a gladiator at heart and deals with things physically. Here is an excerpt
showing how they received their nicknames for each other.
Angry
red streaks snaked through Kedric’s aura. “What manner of trickery is this?”
“Get
off of me, barbarian.” Name-calling? Really? Had Father taught her nothing?
“Barbarian?
That’s funny coming from a savage.”
She
gasped. “Savage? You’re the one on top of me.”
“As
I recall, I wouldn’t be on top of you if I hadn’t needed to protect myself from
your tricks.”
“I
am a spiritual healer. I want to repair your soul. You must release my people.”
“You
needn’t concern yourself. My spirit requires no healing.”
“So
say you. But our spirits have met, and yours told me it hid a deep wound. Let
me back in. Let me into your body to heal you.”
He
smirked. “If anyone enters another’s body, it’ll be me.” His warm lips pressed
against hers. As if to prove his point, his tongue coaxed hers to open for him.
She’d
been kissed before, but not from a man so dangerous and commanding, or so good
at it.
Well,
she wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to do what she came here for,
especially since nothing in his aura indicated malicious intent. His spirit
simply sought to demonstrate his male dominance in a kiss. Nothing more. Ha.
He’d learn who the dominant one was when she connected with his spirit again.
She
opened her mouth and kissed him back. His pause indicated surprise. He’d
obviously expected her to resist. When she didn’t let up, his jaw relaxed, and
his kiss deepened. She couldn’t deny the freedom her soul felt, but she’d come
to heal his heart, and as much as she’d like to succumb to the pleasure, she
needed to heal him first.
Again
retreating to that tranquil place in her mind, her spirit gathered energy and
jumped from her body into his. Her spirit didn’t get further than the
impenetrable stone wall before it was ejected again.
His
lips were off hers. The weight of his body disappeared. The influx of warm night
air came as a relief.
“Savage,”
he boomed. “Stay out of my body.”
“If
you enter my body, barbarian, rest assured I will enter yours.”
At
first, the two adversaries use these nicknames to demean each other, but as
their relationship grows and they come to respect each other and eventually
fall in love, the names take on different meanings and become terms of
endearment.
How do your characters feel about the names others
call them?
In
RENEGADE (Survival Race #3), Griffin, a gentleman turned gladiator, doesn’t
like that Katana shortens his name. Here is their discussion about it during
the survival race semifinals.
“Come
on, Griff,” Katana waved him on.”
He
inhaled deeply, savoring his last crisp, breath of safety, and crossed the
orange pennants into the survival zone. Why did she insist on shortening his
name? Two syllables didn’t take much more effort to say than one. “It’s
Griffin. Griff-in. Say it with me, now. It’s not difficult.”
“Someone’s
touchy.”
Of
course, he was touchy. They could be attacked at any minute. They could die at
any time. His nerves couldn’t take the constant stress.
“Relax.
We’ll be fine.” Apparently, she read the fear in his face. “We’re not hiking in
anyone’s footsteps. And the land is wide open. We’ll see or hear threats in plenty
of time to react.”
Her
logical assessment didn’t ease the anxiety. How could she remain calm? His
insides jumped like a scared rabbit.
“Out
of curiosity…” Her tone flowed as smooth and unhurried as her footfalls in the
snow. “Why do you care so much about what you’re called?”
“Because
Griffin is my proper name. Given to me by my mother. If she wanted me to be
called Griff, she would have named me Griff.”
“People
shorten names all the time.” Her eyes met his. “Except you. You’ve never called
me Kat, like most people do.”
“It’s
a matter of respect. You introduced yourself as Katana. Who am I to make up
another name for you?”
“Some
people like nicknames. It shows a special bond.”
“Do
you like the nickname Saj gave you?”
She
cringed.
“Would
you like me to call you that, too?”
“Only
if you’d like to wake up dead.”
Do you have an unusual nickname that you call your
significant other? What about your characters? If so, tell me the story behind
the name in the comments!
Stay
safe out there!
K.M.
Fawcett
Romance for the Rebel Heart
