Naming Your Characters
Naming your characters is of great importance when writing a movie script. Giving your character the “right” name can often be a big piece in the puzzle of making your character feel like a real person. For example, if you have a one man war machine who is killing people left and right don’t call him Bob Smith. No offence to anyone called Bob Smith but it’s not a name with brings to mind an unstoppable force.
(Check out the great resource for naming your characters at the end of this page)
Whenever you create a character you should have a strong feeling on what he/she is all about. What qualities and characteristics do they possess. I’d like to step outside the media of film and look at the world of video games. The naming of characters is often given a lot more thought in video games (especially RPGs) than movies or TV due to their OTT nature. In particular I’d like to look at a series of games called Final Fantasy.
Not only are the stories rich and focused but the characters are deep and interesting. Part of this is in the naming the film characters. Final Fantasy VII was lead by Cloud Strife. He was physically strong, yet mentally weak with a brooding nature. He had a whole cast of allies who fought against the main antagonist Sephiroth.
Sephiroth was a genetically enhanced soldier who believed himself to be the son of an alien God, and therefore in line to take over the world. The name Sephiroth is based on the teachings of Kabbalah. In Kabbalah there are ten Sephiroth, which are ideas, attributes and concepts one must realise to reach their inner Christ. This of course relates to how Sephiroth wants to become the next God.
Of course all these character names are all well and good but rather outlandish. While that may be fine for the fantasy/sci-fi genre the names would seem overly odd in a more realistic setting. The idea is good but needs toning down.
If you have a female character who is quiet and full of dignity the name Emily Lincoln immediately pops into me head. This is down to personal experience (general character research), every woman called Emily I know has these personality traits. Lincoln of course comes from Abraham Lincoln, the very picture of dignity.
One thing to consider in naming a character is their ethnic background. If you have a character that is Irish-American then surnames like Mahon, McMahon, Flaherty and O’Neill spring forward.
Also you want to be careful is having too many characters with the same first letter of their first name. You don’t want a cast of characters called Adam, Alice, Anita, Allan and Aretha. Try and mix it up instead. Unless both names seem perfect for the character don’t have any character sharing the same first letter in their name. This sets them all apart and make them seem more individual.
Finally the internet is a great tool in naming your characters. There are plenty of baby naming sites out there where you can put in character keywords such as “fighter” and “strong” and come out with a list of appropriate names and their meanings.
