Express Yourself: Naming

Okay guys, I know I don't normally post on Thursdays, but I'm in the midst of revising my blogging schedule.  I plan to reveal my new schedule on Monday. As it is, since I'm changing things up some, I figured there was no harm in posting on an odd day.  For those who may be curious, I'm not changing things drastically by any means.  I'm just adjusting for memes that I've gotten involved with.

One of those new memes is the inspiration for today's post.  Maybe I was simply captivated by the badge because it reminded me of Wordle.  Or maybe I thought it sounded like a good way to get involved in something new.  Either way, here I am!

Thanks to Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests for starting this.  Seriously guys, how do you come up with so many great ideas?  It baffles me.  I'm slightly jealous of your collective genius, but not too jealous to jump into the fun!

This is a weekly meme, and a monthly schedule of topics will be posted.  This week's topic piqued my interest immediately.  The task is to pick a name from my current WIP, and to then describe my process of acquiring it.

Naming has always been an important process for me.  The name you choose for a character can say a lot about them.  In the real world, names don't always mesh with someone's personality, though a bold name that stands out can certainly influence someone a lot.  However, in the realm of fiction where there's a crazy writer behind the wheel, a carefully chosen name can say everything about someone.

I chose the serial that I've been writing for my Friday posts.  It's called Memoirs From the End of the World.  One character in that story is named Alyx.  He's able to survive in a world where reproduction is forced upon people by alien overlords because he is naturally sterile.  He is therefore useless to the overlords that seek to control everyone else.

Just to be clear, the rest of what I'm about to say hasn't been addressed in my story yet, so if any of you have been reading it and don't want to risk reading any spoilers about the character, then you shouldn't read past this point.  However, I personally don't think I'm giving away anything too crucial to the overall story.

Though Alyx identifies as male, at birth it was obvious that his reproductive system hadn't fully developed inside or outside.  Growing up, he worried that no girl would be able to understand his condition or would be willing to deal with it. After all, he isn't what many would consider a "real man" given his condition. That's why I gave him a name that could be used either as male or female.  That is also the reason I used the unusual spelling.  Given that the sexes are defined by the chromosomal pairings of XX and XY, I couldn't resist the opportunity to play off of that.  Therefore, as Alyx identifies as male but doesn't possess the typical physical attributes that most males have, the X and the Y in his name are in reverse order to show that difference.

Fortunately for him, when the alien overlords came and realized this his infertility couldn't be easily rectified by noninvasive means, they decided it would be a waste of resources to try to do anything with him.  That which isolated him, making him the subject of ridicule among his peers, became an asset the day of the invasion.

That's something I like to do in my stories.  I enjoy taking characters who have been marginalized or simply feel isolated and putting them in a situation where their difference becomes an advantage.

The Name Game

What’s in a name, really?  These days a name can easily mean the world, or in many cases, absolutely nothing at all.  Some people name their children after family members, or people who were otherwise influential in their lives.  Or perhaps parents, through research, discovered a name that had a meaning behind it that resonated with them.  And, of course, there’s always the equally viable “I liked the way it sounded.”  I, for example, have the middle name Gene.  Yes, I am female, and I know that my name is therefore supposed to be spelled J-E-A-N.  I get that, and I endured a lot of teachers misspelling it over the years.  Yet, my parents’ use of the male version of the name was quite deliberate.  First of all, I had an aunt named Gene.  And second, my parents loved Star Trek, so it seemed that having the same name as Gene Roddenberry would be a desirable thing.  This is just fine with me.  It proves that, from the very beginning of my life, I was always going to be a geek.

Anyway, getting to my main point, though our names may, or may not, have special meaning behind them, our culture accepts that titles generally convey a lot.  If they don’t, they fail.  The title of a book is an opportunity for the writer to connect with potential readers.  Now, I realize I am essentially unpublished (I’m not sure how much the occasional published poem and single essay in a small magazine over a decade ago count), but I have enough knowledge to say this with confidence.  And as I know that the titling process is important, I figured I would share a little of my process with the world.

First of all, I never start with a title.  I’ve tried to start with a title and work from there, and the title certainly gave me a launching point, but by the end, the story had outgrown the original title I’d chosen.  These things happen.  That’s why the concept of “working titles” is so prevalent.  And while I may use a working title along the way, I still go through a final naming process at the end.

The process begins with me making a small list of important themes and objects/places/events present in the story.  Sometimes it’s as easy as choosing an important object or event to double as the title, but in my case, it usually doesn’t.  I’m much too hard on myself for that.  I usually end up traveling the thematic route, though on occasion I’ve combined the two methods. 

When traveling the thematic path, I select a handful of words that go along with the themes I’ve identified.  For example, a theme might be death, so I might choose the word “darkness” to symbolize nightfall.  Yes, not original, but it’s just an example.  Once I’ve picked out a few I like, I compose a long list of variations that I think would accurately portray that mood of the story I’ve told.  Going with darkness, I could call it “Darkness Descending” or “Walking into Darkness.”  With the final list of options in hand, I read them out loud so I can get a sense of how they sound.  I may share them with others to get feedback.

Obviously this is a task I take quite seriously.  Sometime in the near future I’ll post a written example of how this process goes down.  The example will be given in precise detail.  I tried to explain it clearly here, but it can get quite complicated, and I know making sense of my ramblings can be challenging for anyone, even on the best of days.