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On March 29, 2025, we celebrated Kasie Day in Cayce, S.C. and to get read for it took on the topic of naming characters for the show. Here are the show notes:

Theme for the day

What’s in a Name

Agenda

• Quick Catch Up
• Naming Characters
• Do’s and Don’ts

Segment 1

We’ve got Kasie Day festivities coming up at 11:00 in Cayce and so today’s topic is “What’s in a Name?” because we’ll be celebrating the name Kasie/Casey/Kacie/Cayce etc. later today.

The master of character naming is Charles Dickens, whose character names are legendary:

• Yuriah Heap – from David Copperfield, he was ripping off his employer by pretending to be humble and became a priest so that he could look down on other people while pretending to be humble
• Ebenezar Scrooge – this name has transcended the story and become an adjective for miserly behavior
• Mrs. Haversham – reeks of the decay and shabbiness she embodied, and her dramatic mourning madness seems perfectly suited to the name.

Other examples:

• Scarlet O’Hara – the Irish heritage in her name, scrappy sense of people doing what they have to to survive
• Winston Smith – th “everyman” from Smith and the nod to Winston Churchill as someone who will stand out but then be crushed
• Mr. Darcy from Pride & Prejudice – there’s a kind of dandy sound to the name so he’d have to be especially confident or pompous to carry it

Segment 2

Problems with names:

• Sometimes they become iconic with events – like Fredo from Godfather, or Dorothy from Wizard of Oz
• Sometimes they stand out too much – like Quasimoto which was built on its meanings quasi (semi) and moto (manner or style or behavior), is it too obvious? Is it going to be too rare? Like Ponyboy Curtis.
• Sometimes it’s too much of a culture play – Juan, Julio, Mohamed, all those cultural names that are cliche, could feel cheap
• Sometimes it isn’t relevant to the era – do you need to do research to see when a name was known and used? 
• Names evolve – last names to first names, married names, maiden names, and there are traditions around names

Opportunities with names – what makes naming a character fun?

Hard consonants for strong, bold characters.

Soft sounds for wimpy, wishy washy characters

Some things to consider when naming characters (this link):

• Make the name memorable – play with the spellings, the sounds, and the look of the name. Read it aloud and try it out.
• Find meaning in the name – so easy these days with baby name lists and dictionaries to find meaning in the name. Search until you find one that invokes the kind of character you expect your character to have.
• Assign meaning to the character – is he a guide? Give him a wise name. Is she a harbinger of bad things to come? Give her an ominous name.
• Keep the name reader-friendly – what do we do when we encounter a name we can’t pronounce or have never heard?
• Give them nicknames – they might be Elizabeth but their family calls them Beth, or Betsy.

Segment 3Let’s play with this online character name generator.