My name is Esmé, it’s Old French, from the same etymological root as aimer – to love. It means, assuming you’re reading an accurate name book, ‘beloved.’ It is quite the moniker to carry with you. Lots of people, most I would think, really care about the name they give to their child. What does it say about them [the parent]? About them [the child]? What does it predict? What does it imply?
My parents are very good at naming, in my somewhat biased opinion, as well as me [beloved], we have my brother [warrior], and my sisters [eager and radiant.] Even our dog, a white Golden Retriever who could find a muddy puddle in a desert, has a fitting name meaning ; ditch. Names hold power. Whether or not they mean to, your parents, my parents, everyone who names us, tells the world something. About us, the owner’s of our names, sure. But also about them; their interests, their families, their cultures, even their hopes for us.
Writing is in no way like raising a child, but naming people (even fictional ones) is never easy. I spent a lot of time, right at the beginning of both major drafts of my novel, on name websites. In fact I spent so long on name websites that my targeted ads became prams and pacifiers. To make matters worse I had chosen fantasy (I say chosen, as though the story could have existed in any other genre) and as such my names had to have a certain… well, whimsy I suppose is too light a word. A certain fantastical edge. They needed to be the kinds of names you could insert into sentences like ‘Will save the world’ or ‘Is King of the Fae’, but not at the cost of comprehensibility; they can’t be inaccessibly bizarre, or totally unpronounceable.
It’s a hard thing to balance, fantastical does not go hand in hand with readable. Unique, meaningful, indicative of genre, and easily said aloud are not factors that are mutually exclusive, however they are not factors that are, realistically, compatible. So how do you figure it out? How far out do you push the boat? Are you willing to sacrifice the flow of the narrative, and arguably the accessibility of you work, for a more memorable name? After all, as Shakespeare says, as I have stolen for the title of this post: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.
Most authors, proper ones too (the published kind) would argue that yes, it would. One could, and indeed many do, chose names that feel right, that sound good, that match and marry with those already selected. Many also change those names. But ultimately, I have no doubt, few would argue that the names they choose make or break. That the names are of as much importance as the characters themselves, as the plot-lines, the twists, the tropes. I would argue, as someone who spent far too long learning how to close-read and pick things apart; as someone for whom the little details are paramount, that no. A rose, by any other name, would not smell so sweet. Why? I hear you cry, why would the name of the rose effect anything physical about the rose at all? Of course it doesn’t, but you would do well, dear reader, to remember that people are nothing if not supremely easy to influence. If everyone started calling roses ‘stinkbulbs’ tomorrow they will fall totally out of favour in no time at all. It wouldn’t matter that we had generations of knowing what they were, or experiencing their smell or their beauty. No one is buying a perfume with ‘Notes of stinkbulb,’ no is naming their daughter that either. My point is, and I appreciate that is an extreme and silly example, that we experience things holistically, and as such when one aspect, one characteristic, is poor, that impacts the whole.
I’m going to take a moment to brag a little here, because, as I said, I spent literal hours on name websites and think I’ve earned the right; the names in my book? Excellent choices. All of them. I won’t go into detail here (this post is long enough) but trust me when I say, I did my homework.
If you’re a writer, or just someone who likes names, feel free to share some of your favourites! Or ask me about some of mine.
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