What's in a name?

Ok, so for me, one of the most interesting parts of writing a story is the names of the characters, and the amount of power they can have in defining them. If a character is badly named, then that can negatively impact an entire story; likewise, a good name can make a mediocre story better. The same process also occurs in reality.  There are certain kinds of people that we associate with certain names. When you meet someone for the first time, reflect on their name and your first impressions of them. Does the name help in defining them? In most cases, I’ll bet it does. Get good enough at it, and you can probably begin to guess names before you are even introduced.

I do not know how other authors do it but, for me, the names have to reflect the characters themselves in some way. One web page that I always have open is for naming babies.  Yes, I get bombarded with adverts about pregnancy because of this, but it is a vital resource to really get the right name for the right person. If the character I have in mind has a certain personality or trait, I need to find a name with the right type of meaning.

Let’s explore some examples;

Adalwolf, when broken down into Old Norse, simply means “Noble Wolf”. Now how does this reflect Thorvald’s closest and most loyal friend? 

Nobility in the modern sense is a manner of action rather than class. A common man who fights to protect a lady has far more nobility than a duke who stands by doing nothing. We expect someone who is noble to act in a manner more ethically superior, and often against the odds, than someone we deem to be only human.

Wolves are strange animals. On their own they are fiercely independent, and more than capable of looking after themselves, but they really shine when together in a pack.  Wolves are social animals who know how to work in a team and who adhere to a rigid social hierarchy. They are also very loyal to members of their pack and would give up their lives in defence of one another.

Does this sound to you like the character Adalwolf, introduced last Wednesday?

How about Gorran, a name I made up by taking the components of other names. 

gorr = 'wet and soft' (= child)

rann = 'house'

ragn = 'advise, decision, might, power’

The resulting character comes out as rather complex. He is a Viking, yet of a very different breed to the common “angry man who enjoys chopping people up with an axe” stereotype. To the angry types he is about as un-Viking as one can find, but without men like him, Viking culture would never have lasted as long as it did, nor would it have been as influential. Here comes the balancing act between “wet and soft” against “might and power”. He’s a more “domestic” Viking than the more common adventuring spirit.

Obviously, my book is tied down by historical characters.  There are people who pretty much have to be in the story in order for it to be accurate. However, even these abide by their names. Leif, Erik’s eldest son, means “heir”. Erik in Old Norse means “eternal ruler”. Both of these names work nicely for the characters that I am creating in this world. We know a lot about the exploits of these men, but their actual personal characteristics are harder to decipher, yet, with help from their names, they are far more easily realised. 

Some names are painfully obvious; the berserker Berend, for instance, is a Germanic warrior who is introduced to the story by fighting a bear. The meaning of the name is the Germanic variant of Bjorn, which simply means bear. 

Others are more subtle however.  In the “Saga of the Greenlanders” (one of the sources I am using), Vinland was initially discovered by Bjarni, not Leif. So why has Leif gone down in history, but Bjarni is largely forgotten? That is one of the questions my book attempts to answer, and the name was a problem for me. It is a variant on “Bjorn,” which, like I said above, means bear. But the character acts nothing like his name-sake... Or does he? You need to look a lot deeper and get to know him far more personally in order to recognise his hidden qualities.