What's in a name?

One of the best things about being a writer is the ability to create entire personas. I get to build a character from scratch. I can pick their personality, their background, their physical features, and their profession. But from the very first characters I ever developed (Brooklyn Vaughn and Nate Riley), to the characters I’ve already picked for my next four books; my favorite part of the character development process has always been naming them.

People ask me how I pick names for my characters. My process is not methodical. It does not entail a lot of research into heritage or the root meanings of names. For me, it’s all about matching the personality to the name and a general overall feeling.

The first thing I do when I have an idea for a book is to loosely outline the plot. Then I think about what types of characters I’ll need. Are they damaged? Is he a playboy? Is she a debutante? Once I get a feeling about the personality of my character, I start thinking of names. There are some really great name-generators out there and it’s a lot of fun to weed through them. I make separate lists of first and last names. Generally I’ll pick a first name before a last name. However, for my 7^th book, which will be the first in a series of three books following the same couple, I picked my hero’s last name first. Then a few weeks later, I was at my ten-year-old son’s baseball game and the team started cheering for a boy as he went up to bat and I thought, ‘Wow, what a cool name for my character.’

Once I wrote an entire book and then changed the name of a secondary character. That rarely happens. Usually I get attached to the names of my characters. I guess that’s how I knew he didn’t have the right name—I was willing to change it.

I’ve used all four of my kids (Ryan, Kaitlyn, Austin and Dylan) in one way or another as minor or supporting characters. I’ve also used the names of most of my friends as well, although none were overjoyed to be part of the chemotherapy group in Abstract Love.

I’m always up for suggestions. If you have a great name you’d like me to use for one of my upcoming books, by all means, tell me. If I use it, I’ll send you a signed copy of the paperback!

Here is a list of my main characters in my first 6 books:

Be My Reason – Brooklyn Vaughn & Nate (Nathan) Riley

Abstract Love – Keri Brookstone & Jace (Jason) Jarrett III

Finding Mikayla – Mikayla Parker & Mitch Matheson

Purple Orchids – Baylor Mitchell & Gavin McBride

White Lilies (coming July 2015) – Skylar Mitchell & Griffin Pearce

Title TBD (coming Fall 2015) – Piper Mitchell & Mason Lawrence