Choosing a Name

Generally one of the most time consuming parts of my writing so far has been coming up with the names for my characters.  Last week I spent hours researching possible names and nicknames for characters, and the week before that I spent an hour trying to figure out this name in my head that sounded like Charlotte but wasn't Charlotte so I could call this character Char.  She's not even the main character in the story right now, and may not even grow into a bigger role down the road, but I still had to name her.  That's what's crazy in writing.  Every single person I write about has to be named.  And usually it is painstakingly slow.

I want names that are unique, beautiful, and easy to pronounce in your head as you read.  I especially love names that are all that, plus are either gender neutral or names that are used for an uncommon gender. 

As I researched names on multiple baby naming websites, I came across a fabulous discovery.  Most of the baby naming websites are summarizing information from the Social Security Administration's databank of names to create their own graphs of name popularity and add details about the meaning of names, etc.  The best part is that the SSA itself has a website that lists the names of all babies born in a particular year - dating back to 1880 - and includes the top 1000 names for each gender.

When I started looking through the names back in 1880, I came across a lot of gender switching names.  And by that, I mean that a lot of the names that we commonly use now for girls were common for boys back then, and vice versa.  Yes, most boys were named William or Charles and most girls were named Anna or Margaret.  But after that, I found a lot of names that I didn't expect to find on one or both lists.

For the boys:

Marion

Jessie

Sidney

Leslie

Alva

Pearl

Elisha

Allie

Lynn

Mary

Carroll

Jordan

Aubrey

Elliott

Dee

Addison

Sandy

Frances

Alma

And those are just the names that were in the top 500.  Starting with number 529, there's Anna, then

Bailey

Beverly

Clair

Dana

Jean

Sydney

Finley

Lindsey

Emma

Terry

Avery

Elizabeth

June

Lacy

Minnie

Addie

Ashley

Carrie

Clara

Clare

Ida

Shelby

Connie

Jennie

Lindsay

Rose

Vivian

Annie

Cora

Dora

Drew

Eliza

Elsie

Ethel

Hattie

Hope

Jessee

Nellie

Reese

Ruby

Sammie

Stacy

Tracy

Augusta

Daisy

Edith

Flora

Hayden

Ivy

Jewel

Jodie

Katherine

Kelly

For the girls' list, there are fewer names that are more commonly used as a boy's name today, which is interesting since it seems that today girls are more likely to adopt a gender switching name than boys.

Willie

Francis

John

William

Alpha

George

James

Donnie

Vinnie

Ira

Clyde

Frank

Charles

Henry

Robert

Claude

Joseph

Fred

Johnnie

Ray

Thomas

Walter

Clarence

Hedwig

Theo

Clifford

Harry

Leo

Arthur

Edgar

Glenn

Joe

Louis

Charlie

Dave

David

Dean

Earl

Edward

Some of the names on these lists have already become common unisex names, and some are still evolving.  I think it is really interesting that Ida was more common as a boy's name than Justin in 1880.  And John was more common as a girl's name than Olivia or Agatha in 1880.  It is liberating as a writer, too, because it makes me realize just how much names and their associated genders fluctuate over time.

I think most people tend to let the first person they meet with a certain name define their expectations for anyone else with that name.  So if you meet a girl Kelly first, you might be surprised to hear a boy named Kelly.  It's the same thing with how to spell a name.  If you meet someone who spells their name Jordyn, you might assume that every other person with that name will spell it the same way.  Once you know someone with a different name or a different spelling, it expands your horizons.

On another note, I have to point out a few other interesting categories from the SSA name database. There were quite a few girls named after states in 1880 - think Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, and Texas.  Whereas there were quite a few boys named after cities - for example, Denver, Ballard, Arlington, and Lafayette - and even colors - such as Green and Pink.

And for anyone who has read Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller series, you might enjoy learning that Ambrose was a popular name back in 1880.  As soon as I read that name, I immediately thought of Ambrose in The Name of the Wind.

Oh, and as for that character that I spent so long deciding her name - it ended up being Charmaine.  Which fit perfectly with what I was thinking in my head.  She can still be Char for short, like with Charlotte.  It's not really a gender switching name, but it is rather uncommon, beautiful, and hopefully easy to pronounce when you read.  Who knows, now that I've got her name figured out, maybe I'll give her a little bit of a bigger role in that story.