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May 15th, 2005

Posts in Series for Renee Luke

Since I was eight, I’ve gone by the name Renee. Not eight minutes. Not even eight hours or days. Eight full years before I took on my name.

Before Renee, I was Radhika.

Radhika is Hindu, meaning the female counter-part (lover/wife) of Krishna. Radhika is a goddess.

But having the name be so different isn’t easy for a child. When no one can pronounce the name, or spell it, it leads to teasing, to pain, to harsh nic-names. Even more troubling, though I didn’t know it being so young, but grown-ass men would call me Eradica–read erotica. That’s just not cool. There was the name that still haunts me, dubbed by my :evil:older brother Hot-Rad-Rica. Today he calls me Hot-Rad. I’ve been Renee for many years.

Though, before Renee, I was Rose for two weeks. My eight year old brain told me I should choose something that started with an R, like Radhika did. Roses were pretty. I’d be Rose. But it didn’t fit and didn’t last. I needed something better. Something more, me.

Everyday we had to walk ten miles, up-hill, in the snow. Oh, sorry. Flashbacks. Really, though, I didn’t have power or a phone or a flush toilet until I was eleven. I’m 32, so I was born long after these items were invented. We just didn’t have it. By choice. My parent’s choice. Okay-we’re walking home from school and each day we’d stop at our closest neighbor’s house–a couple miles from our own–and watch Tom & Jerry, then Days of our Lives. Renee was the only woman on the show who’d been attacked by the Salem Strangler and lived. She was pretty. Had dark hair. I was eight. Those things were important than.

I’ve been Renee since. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll answer to Radhika. I’m proud of the name and the meaning. But it took becoming an adult to come to these feelings, and by then I’d been Renee for so long it just felt natural to keep it. Radhika, in my soul, is still who I am.

My experience with names has told me to give a lot of weight to the names I assign my characters. Some names don’t fit traits–preconceived notions–of what a character should be. I can hardly imagine Gilbert (no offense) being a muscular, sword slinging knight. Nor would Boden be a good nerd.

A name defines a character for me. It’s how I get to know who they are and how they will react in my story. More often than not, I see images playing through my mind like a movie, of plot, of scenes, of drama, of characters behaving in a manner that’s true to the story being told. But they are usually nameless. Until it comes to me. Some names pop up right away. For Boden in Thou Art Mine, I knew it was a B name, Brandon and Bryce weren’t quite right. I tweaked something and ended up with Boden. I know the sound in a story I want a name to carry. I can feel it’s rhythm with the words, hear how if flows in the type of imagry I’m creating.

Sometimes it takes a baby-name book, complete with name orgins and spellings. But names are more than just what-to-call your characters. They become part of the picture.

If I said the names Tyree and Kiana…..

can you see them in an historical, a medieval? No, they are from my YA.

How about Boden and Analesia….

No, a medieval.

Jackson and Lexi? Nicole and Marcus? Gavin and Annora? Taysha and Mourice?

Don’t you feel differently about these sets of names. Don’t you get a picture of their setting just hearing what the characters are called?

I do. It’s a huge part of the story for me.

So, I wonder, is it just me? Do other people feel that the name of a character is almost equal to the intial plotting? Do the names you choose change the way you tell a story?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 15th, 2005 at 12:52 am and is filed under Guest Musings, by RENEE LUKE. You can feed this entry. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

11 comments to “What’s in a Name?”

I can’t write my character’s until I get their names fixed.
by Jaq May 15th, 2005 at 5:00 am
I have this weird habit of changing at least one of the main character’s names after I’ve written a chapter or two and gotten to know them better…
by kacey May 15th, 2005 at 5:15 am
I have to have characters’ names picked out ahead of time, too. At least the h/h. I have this great book that’s an old, old, old name book that I found at a used bookstore and has some great names that I use in writing fantasy. Some of the names on the obsolete liste were considered obsolete then, and that was 50 years ago. So I find some realy cool names there.
by Cheyenne McCray May 15th, 2005 at 9:48 am
As a reader, I have a similar attitude towards names in fiction. I sometimes can’t get into a story because of the hero or heroine’s name.

For example: a story that has a Georgian-era English heroine whose name is Mackenzie? No chance, not with anti-Scottish and anti-Irish sentiments running high in England at the time. I thought her parents were a) incredibly ignorant, b) cruel, c) selfish, or d) utterly eccentric. And there is a recent RS novel that had me scratching my head over a trivial but distracting name: Tasya. Tas-ya? Tasee-a? Ta-site?

Seriously, heroines and heroes’ names have to work for me, too. So it works both ways, I suppose.
by Maili May 15th, 2005 at 11:27 am
Oh I like both Renee and Radhika. I personally prefer names that prompt people to say “wow, that’s unusual, what does it mean?” But I can also empathize with the name taunts that come from having a different name than the other kids.

Character names are one of the most fun parts of plotting, I think. I enjoy scouring books and websites for the name that is just right.
by Layne May 15th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
Believe me, your name could be perfectly ‘normal’ (whatever that means) and kids would find a way to make fun of it. I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me my name sounds like a boy’s name. Couple that with a low voice and you have trouble.:oops: (Yes, I could and did sing TENOR in school.):lol:
by Jordan May 15th, 2005 at 6:27 pm
LOL Jordan.

My middle name is June. I went by that name until 4th grade when I insisted my mother change to using my first name Sylvia, which she’d thought too adult sounding for a small child. Why did I insist?

You try going by the name June Day.
by Sylvia May 15th, 2005 at 8:03 pm
I personally prefer names that prompt people to say Ã¢â‚¬Å“wow, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s unusual, what does it mean?Ã¢â‚¬Â

Not me!! I hate, hate, HATE that question. If I’m in a foul mood and I have to meet new faces, I usually go with the English version, Molly [which is what MÃƒÂ ili is].

Most baby name web sites are shockingly bad. A lot of them consider anglicised names “Gaelic names” or worse, “Scots Gaelic”. And some went with misconceptions, e.g. ‘MÃƒÂ²r’ translates to ‘Sarah’. It’s not, actually. MÃƒÂ²r is Sally, or rather - something like “Big Sally” [and MÃƒÂ²rag is "little Sally"]. For ‘Sarah’ in Scottish Gaelic, it’s ‘SÃƒÂ ra’, dammit!

Obvious it’s a sore spot. I just can’t believe how many web sites out there that recycles incorrect information. Espec. those with “Gaelic endearments”! OK, that’s enough from me.
by Maili May 16th, 2005 at 12:11 am
See, Maili, had we met you could you have explained all of that to me and I would have known more. We’ll never learn to appreciate the variety that is in the world if it is not for people who share it with us. However,on behalf of those who don’t like having to explain their name constantly, I’ll stop asking and start waiting for them to volunteer the info.
by Layne May 16th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
*mortified* I’m sorry, Layne, for making it sound as if my response was directed at you. If anything, your comment was a trigger, an opportunity for me to shoot my mouth [fingers?] off. Nothing more.

No, please don’t stop asking people about their names. There are people who DO like being asked about it, especially at parties. It does make a great ice breaker.

My apologies, and thanks. :angel:
by Maili May 19th, 2005 at 12:56 am
Don’t be mortified, I suppose I’d feel the same if I had people constantly getting my name all wrong. Then again, I do have to content with everyone calling me “Jaynie” b/c they think the L in my name is a typo. :think:

I think things will be different for our children then they were for us, as kids today have the most unusual names (hello, ebaying the rights to children’s names?!).
by Layne May 20th, 2005 at 3:56 pm