Meaningful names in your fiction.

Do you give your characters meaningful names. I don't mean 'Grag the destroyer', Watsonian if you will, I mean names that are 'normal' (in universe) but have a 'Doyalist' meaning for the character.

For instance I have a Issy HUNTER, who is looking for her perfect man, and her best friend Alex HART, who is always looking out for her, full of heart, you might say. He also loves her, but doesn't realise - he is literally her heart-mate.

I suggest putting the meaningful parts in upper case to make it easy to spot the bit you are talking to.

This idea was flagged for me by my English teacher 37 years ago; In 'Far From the Madding Crowd' Hardy had GABRIEL OAK - an angel, and also solid and dependable.

Edited by Last_Hussar on May 8th 2022 at 3:40:55 AM

I don't use meaningful names, no. I tend to either "listen for" character-names, or, in one case, choose stand-in names that I end up never changing.

I just use whatever names sound good to me. Their meaning doesn't really matter, though in some cases I do try and theme it- like the kids of a jewelry monopoly being named Silver, Gold, and Ruby.

That falls between my original question! It does actually give an impression of the parent though, they named their children after what was important to them, so its their character that comes through - Doyalist!

I don't pick character names based on any deeper meaning, but sometimes I find it after the fact, since typically my character's names stick around even as their stories change. Usually, it's just loose analogues to other famous characters who have the same names. i.e. Joseph can sometimes only make sense of life through his dreams. David is small. Rip is a man out of his own time (though far from the only one).

You could probably find deeper meaning within some of the other stuff, but only to the extent that you could find meaning in most anything when approached from the right angle, and that suits me just fine. For me, the idea of prophetic names ranges from silly to disquieting.

I also go by sound and feel for my character names, and don't do deliberate Meaningful Names because I find it to be contrived and on-the-nose, and prefer to leave any perceived meaning in character names fully up to reader interpretation.

What's more, most of my characters come from fictional cultures and speak fictional languages that developed independently of Earth, essentially making them aliens, making it even more improbable for their names to just happen to have some kind of meaning that an Earthen reader (at least an English-speaking or West European reader) would be able to pick out. I don't generally come up with in-universe cultural meanings for these fictional names, either.

Aye, I don't use meaningful names either. I just crib them from other places. They are pretty generic for the most part, too.

I tend to enjoy the trope, but I will admit that it could have issue if it is used as a crutch for lazily implying characterization.

That said there is some leeway when it comes to nicknames or codenames, of if the work has that ingrained in it itself (such cases being Transformers and My Little Pony)

Hmm... I never worry to much about the meaning of names in my stories... when I do I usually use names from myths and legends to show how grand or powerful a person/group is

I'm guilty of this when naming anything, whether it's my PC in a video game, a character in one of my stories, a pet, a special object - if I decide to name it, I try to make the name Significant and full of all sorts of Meanings. I just think it's fun.

Truly unintentional for me, but I’m working on an archer character, and I simply chose the surname “Locke” because it felt right.

A couple hours ago, I realized it could be a reference to Robin of Locksley. Purely unintentional, I swear.

I had Gabriel on my shoulder for three days trying to tell me his name was Gabriel, and I kept telling him it was because I was thinking of 'Madding Crowd'. In the end I went 'your name is Gabriel isn't it' (and for similar reasons to Hardy) and he went "That's what I've been telling you"

They do pop up from time to time, but most of my meaningful names are given in-universe after the fact since parts of my world run on the concept of earning your last name. So you'd have someone with the last name of Lichslayer because... that's what they did.

However, I do have some characters that I deliberately named to reflect some aspect of their characterization. There is for example someone named Lucy who is very optimistic, even in the face of great adversity. Lucy -> light, that kind of thing.

I've also got the rather obviously evil war profiteers, Aaron and Lilith Graves, with the additional biblical connotations of the name Lilith. In-universe they also really lean into the whole villain aesthetic.

Yes. I like the idea that names invoke a sense of power and meaning, no matter what it might actually entail.

For example, a story I’ve been working has a character with a double Meaningful Name of sorts, as his first name is derived from a real word translation of “fire”, while he adopted a last name that was the title for his culture’s most famous legendary hero, who received his power from a sun god.

The general idea is to (hopefully) get across that the legendary hero is someone the character is trying to aspire to be like, as both in and out of universe the character is heavily associated with fire, but it’s also meant to lend to the themes I want the story to be about, and a not exactly so subtle foreshadowing (not to any relation to the legendary hero though).

It occurs to me that, should one write in a polysynthetic language, one might end up with "meaningful fiction in your names"! :P

Good god! What sort of Monster are you to suggest such a thing!

Arkdirfe - As it happens I also have a Lucy, with a similar basis. A number of time Gabe is in the dark until she arrives, or calls, and the light that caused (flipping the light switch, or the phone activating) brings is the source of light. Occasionally she leaves a scene, and leaves Gabe in the dark.

^ &^^ We should make a trope about this. A Meaningful Name trope, if you will.

I never even to thought to see if there was one!

Edited by Last_Hussar on Jun 2nd 2022 at 3:45:45 AM

Don't worry, I'm sure that I'll be given a name that will clarify things. ;P

^ &^^ We should make a trope about this. A Meaningful Name trope, if you will.

Hahah, fair! I was aware that we had such a trope—although I'd forgotten "Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom". ^_^

Whatever you say, CalmThoughtsFromTheShadow.

Edited by Last_Hussar on Jun 2nd 2022 at 8:28:50 AM

I use this trope in practically every work I have ever written. My usual strategy when I need a character is to go to baby name websites and start looking up name meanings.

I've even gone kinda meta with it. In one story, all of the characters with magic powers had names related to their magical power, which basically revolved around a specific concept, from concrete like water to abstract like breaking rules. The character with the power to break rules was the only one without a Meaningful Name because she was breaking the naming rule.

Yeah, I think I probably overuse this trope, but any names without meaning just don't feel right to me.

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is that a member of my story's Big Bad Ensemble has the male version of his mother's name. The name itself isn't special on its own—-Meaningful Name comes from the context. He's a Tyke Bomb, conceived for the purpose of being used to fulfill a centuries-old plan, of which his mother was a participant. Him having a male version of her name shows just how much of a tool and means to an end he is for her and those who were orchestrating things all this time.

In my fanfic, there's a lot of original characters whose name had a meaning, especially with either their origins, their personalities or some other aspects behind their backstories. Here's some examples:

Yoshinori Komatsu

• His given name "Yoshinori" was taken from the Japanese zoologist Yoshinori Imaizumi. Komatsu is also a zoologist, as well as a biologist like his namesake.
• His family name "Komatsu" was taken from Charles Ambrose Komatsu, the Anti-Villain from the non-canon Albedo: Erma Felna EDF side-story Exo-Genesis, which was published in the Refractions fanzine. Unlike the Komatsu from the side-story, however, which was a westerner of Japanese origin, this one is fully Japanese born in Japan, and this one was born in the 20th century, rather than the future like the Albedo one.

Akane Araki/Ariana Mutombo

• Her given name "Akane" (明音) is translated as "bright sound", which is relevant with the fact she is quite loud and extroverted person. Also, the name is a reference from Akane Tendo from Ranma ½.
• Her family name "Araki", as well as her name, were both taken from Hirohiko Araki, the creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and a African-American cosplayer and porn actress named as "Akane Araragi". In fact, there's a reference about the actress in the fanfic, when one of the characters mispronounce her last name by accident.
• Her birthname, "Ariana" is a reference from the singer Ariana Grande.
• While this one was completely a lucky coincidence from my side, her hometown of Osaka could be considered a reference about the fact she is modeled after the tennis player Naomi Osaka.

Kaguya Hoshino

• I don't think I need to explain the origins of the name Kaguya here.
• Her surname "Hoshino" has many layers of meaning here:
  • The most obvious one is the fact it was taken from Ruri Hoshino from Martian Successor Nadesico.
  • The family name "Hoshino/星野" means "star field" in Japanese, but, if you read her name im the Asian order and if you separate the "no" from the "Hoshi" part, her name can be read as Hoshi no Kaguya/星のかぐや, literally "Kaguya of the Stars", which is both a reference from the original tale the name Kaguya came from, and the fact she hails from the Earth, plus other hidden meanings that would be been revealed later on.

Asami Tobikage

• Her name is a full reference from Asagi Igawa from the H-game Taimanin Asagi.
• Her family name is also a reference from Ninja Senshi Tobikage. Originally, her surname was originally to be Sarutobi, but, since she is from the planet Katmandu, and she is an anthro feline, having a last name that mention monkeys would be contradictory, so I changed to another ninja-like surname.

Ryuji Morisawa

• His given name was taken from Ryuji Takasu from Toradora

Tsutomu Hashiba

• His given name was taken from Tsutomu Senkawa from Birdy the Mighty.
• His family name "Hashiba" was taken from Toyotomi Hideyoshi's previous surname, which was Hashiba.

Saori Ogura

• Her given name was taken from Saori Kido from Saint Seiya.

Edited by luisedgarf on Jun 11th 2022 at 3:51:34 AM

My characters don't usually have meaningful names, they're just named whatever sounds cool. However, in one of my stories, most of the main characters are named after characters in cryptography, based on their role in the story.

I also really love pun names!! One of my characters is an arcade machine named Arya Kade.

Edited by moefoxes on Sep 7th 2022 at 1:08:39 PM

Sometimes. For example, Red Revenge has a dhampir named Miyako Hasuike. Her mother, the vampire, chose the name intentionally. I might also name Miyako's father, who's the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Masashi (政志) because i was out of ideas and that sounded good.

Edited by Nukeli on May 22nd 2023 at 12:40:53 PM