How to Come Up with an Iconic Character Name in 12 Steps

How to Come Up with an Iconic Character Name in 12 Steps How To Come Up With A Character Name: an Author's Guide Before you’ve even started your novel, you’re in danger of stalling on one crucial detail: how to come up with a character name.Will you choose a short, blunt name, like James Bond? A memorable one, like Holden Caulfield? Will you go with self awareness, like Artful Dodger, or absurdism, like Ignatius Reilly? Or, perhaps, will you pick no name at all?Coming up with character names shouldn’t be impossible, but it is important. To help you navigate this all-important choice, we drummed up 12 steps. But first, let's unpack why you might not want to simply pick a name out of a hat.Why do names matter?Think of any character from any book. Got one? We're willing to bet they aren’t named â€Å"John.†For a name to stick in the reader’s head, it should be as thoughtful as every other aspect of your novel. Character names are to characters as titles are to books, so if you’re blindly putting finger to phone book when picking one, you’re d oing it wrong.Fortunately, it’s not too hard to do right. In reality, a character name has just a few things to establish:Clarity: Helps the reader differentiate between the major players.Character: Reveals personality and the type of character without needing to say more than a word.Bankability: The right name can make your character iconic.As for how to choose a character name yourself, that’s a whole other question - one we’ll take a crack at answering next. Pop Quiz: Do you know the three reasons that character names matter? How to come up with a character nameYou deserve more than common sense advice that you could come up with yourself: only give names to important characters, for instance, or avoid common names. These are 12 top shelf tricks to mastering the art of naming a character. Did you come up with any character names you're particularly proud of? Show them off in the comment box below!