Is there a top secret process authors use to name their characters?

The simple answer is no. But there is a process!

Sometimes naming the characters is easy, and I know right away what a character should be named long before the story is written. Other times, I could be halfway through writing a novel before I settle on a name.

In those instances, I use a placeholder. Something simple, like Jack or Jane that I can then replace with the final name using Find + Replace All in my document.

How I name my characters

So if there’s not a top secret process, how do I decide on character names? Glad you asked! There are three main ways.

One is to use the names of friends and change the spelling. When I was writing Just Friends, I knew the heroine would have a sweet nature to contrast against the hero’s playboy ways, and I wanted her name to reflect that. I had a friend in elementary school named Alana. That’s the name I settled on, but I changed the spelling to Alannah.

Another thing I do is refer to a list of baby names on the Internet. In my interracial romance An Unexpected Attraction, the hero is Italian. I wanted a strong-sounding name and preferably one I hadn’t heard often. I hit up Google for Italian boy names and came across a list that included Jacopo. It’s not a name I’ve heard often, and it conveys strength, so I settled on that one for the hero.

Another way I pick names is by the meaning. In Queen of Barrakesch, the Arabic Wasim means “handsome” and “graceful,” and I thought, Yes! That’s the perfect name for the hero. Then I worked the meaning of his name into the story.

How other authors name their characters

But what about other authors? How do they name their characters? I asked some of my author friends to share their process with me.

Constance Gillam writes interracial mysteries, suspense, and romcoms. She’s been researching her ancestors for several years, which has provided a wealth of names to choose from. She said, “To pay homage to them, I occasionally use one of their names in a story. For example in my historical, Lakota Moon Rising, the female protagonist is named after my 2nd great-grandmother, Julia.”

DL White writes warm Southern women’s fiction and steamy romance featuring Black men and women. Her characters almost always come to her with a name, but sometimes she sees a person on TV (or a nameplate on a door as she walks by at work) and thinks, “oh I like that name” and tries to remember it or write it down. “Leslie from Curl & Dye came to me because I was ear hustling a conversation on the way out the door. I heard a woman say she had a salon appointment, and her name was Leslie. By the time I got home the premise had written itself in my head.”

Fiona Zedde writes passionate Black romance—mostly contemporary, occasionally historical, and always packing heat. When I asked how she names her characters, here’s what she said: “I get most of my character inspirations from the places and streets I visit. One of my all-time favorite characters is Garrison Richards from Snowy Mountain Nights. I named him after a street near my mom’s house.”

Sharon C. Cooper writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy. She said, “I often name my characters based on the personality I envision for them. For example, in Operation Midnight (Reunited series), Cameron “Wiz” Miller is a tech genius and private investigator able to hack into any computer or network system with the ability to find answers to any question.”

For Stephanie Nicole Norris, author of Black, swoon-worthy, stimulating romance, choosing names depends on the story. For example, one of her current series is The Royals of Kera Asnela. They’re African Royals, so she researched African men’s and women’s names. “I also checked the meanings of some names because I wanted to incorporate those meanings with the character development. In other cases, I search for strong male names or take names I think are solid and put them in a name generator to create a unique name.”

So there you have it. Six authors. All with a different not-so-top-secret process for naming the characters you come to care about and fall in love with.

Did any of these answers surprise you?