How do you come up with the names of your characters?
—Annie, age 12
I love naming characters, but I rarely have an interesting answer when people ask, “How did you come up with the name . . .?” I just play around with words, fragments of words, existing names, and letter sounds until I come up with a name that feels like the character.
Some of the best character names ever invented (in my opinion) are in books written by an author named Charles Dickens, who lived in the 19th century. (He wrote A Christmas Carol, which you may have seen as a movie or a play.) Here are some of his characters. See how the names sound like the personality of the character?
The Artful Dodger: a very smart pick-pocket
Uriah Heep: a snivelly, squirmy, scheming villain who makes your skin crawl
Ebenezer Scrooge: a grumpy, stingy, selfish, joyless man who needs to learn what Christmas is all about
Mr. Fezziwig: a happy, generous man who throws parties and wears a powdered wig
Mr. M'Choakumchild: a hard teacher who tries to cram his students full of facts
Poll Sweedlepipe: a barber who loves birds and has all different kinds of birds roosting and twittering and chirping in his house
In my book, Henry Penwhistle is a play onPendragon(the surname of King Arthur, because Henry wants to be one of King Arthur’s knights), Jade Longswallow is a play onLongfellow(the poet), and the OscarRockbottom just made me laugh because Oscar wants to be a paleontologist and likes rocks.
Here’s a funny story about naming: in the early drafts of the book, Henry’s teacher was a bit of a shrew, and she didn’t really have her own story yet. I named her “Mrs. Garrunchy,” which made me giggle because it sounded like both “grouch” and “crunchy,” and she was in danger of being eaten by a dragon. But I completely rewrote her character, and when I did that name no longer fit her personality. The new teacher, whom Henry loved, needed a flowery name, yet something that also hinted at heroism and adventure. “Miss Pimpernel” was born! I still love the name “Garrunchy” though, and I’m claiming it for a future book.