twovictorianladies

One of the most entertaining parts of writing fiction, I find, is naming my characters. The name has to match the character, and once the character’s personality is established, changing the name can change the person. Even changing the spelling can affect the character; Gillian and Jillian are two different people. So are Kate and Katie, and neither of them is the same person as Katherine.

At one time, a very large portion of one book had to be shifted from Ireland to Scotland for weather related reasons that were important to the plot. This required renaming a significant number of characters; not just Christian names but surnames as well. Some accepted change easily; a Brenda became Bradana with very little fuss. Characters whose surnames began with Mc, did not argue when I introduced Mac. Other characters clung to their Irish names and refused to accept a Scottish substitute. I changed one young woman’s name three or four times; I never was completely satisfied with the only Scottish name she would accept without completely changing her personality, and she will still always be Brighid to me, even though her name in the book is now something totally different.

The men are just as bad.  It was fairly easy to shift Kevin to Kennon, but my co-author still refers to him as Kevin half the time.  We finally gave up and let Denis stay Denis – he simply would not be anyone else. I think we just gave him a more Scottish surname and let that be enough – Denis and it’s variants are originally Greek, anyway.

At the same time, I can’t blame my characters. People’s names are who they are.  If my mother suddenly started calling me Cindy, I wouldn’t know who she meant. Fictional characters have as much of a right to their name as anyone else. At the same time, I can’t have a lot of Irish characters running around Scotland. So what do I do? Work with me, people.

With one exception, they’ve mostly become accustomed to their new names now. I’m just grateful that none of the major characters needed new names. That would have been an utter disaster; the secondary characters were bad enough!