The name game: how do you come up with good names for characters in you fiction? Student Alice George wants to know writers get good name for characters. Bruce Coville, author of The Dragonslayers, Jennifer Murdleys Toad, Don't Fry My Veeblax!, and many other books, provides an answer. (Write In).

Writing!, February, 2003 by Coville, Bruce

How do you come up with good names for characters in your fiction?

 
--Alice George 
The American Academy 
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 

Dear Alice,

I have several techniques for naming my characters. The simplest one is just to steal names from real life! For example, the alien in My Teacher Is an Alien is named after my friend Scott Broxholm. I thought Scott had a nicely odd last name, and asked if I could use it for my alien.

Sometimes I use naming dictionaries. Though mostly aimed at new parents, these are wonderfully useful for writers, too. They offer many real but unusual names; even better, the good ones give the meaning of a name. No one else may know that you named your character "Charles" because it means "strong," but I think...

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