Should you name a character straight away?

I always have a name in my mind for my main characters, but I usually just make up my side characters names as I go along.

 

Does it really matter? Do it anyway you like.
Naming my characters (Well, the main ones anyway) was the second thing I did before starting the story, for me personally.

 

I try not to spend too much time on character names. I've had about three or four books all of which have a character named "Christian," because it's my go-to name for the fore-most male character that I use until the character himself tells me his name. And one of my most recent projects? The character's first name has gone from Piper, to Bailey, to Jayden, to Micah. Though, this is as much due to her telling me her name as it is to changes in plot and character over time because I've been working on it for far too long and maturing the plot line more and more. Still.

 

Personally, i always have the main characters and their profiles ready at the start of writing, and most of these have unusual names, or unusual name spellings like Zakari instead of Zachary, for lesser characters, unless they are going to be fairly influential in some way to the rest of the story, i dont normally name them until i reach the point i have to, and then i use more standard names... although this does depend on where you are setting your story as to what you do name wise

 

I find myself using the same names over and over again with different pieces of writing. I just like the ring of certain names and I find myself placing traits of people in real life with similar names. Kind of silly, but sometimes I don't realize I'm doing it.

 

That's exactly what I do. I name my main characters first so I can put a meaning to a face, and side characters, I create whenever needed.

 

Are you kidding? I own three baby name books and I read them for fun. Even when I don't need a name. I spent three hours the day before yesterday reading "Beyond Jennifer and Jason, Madison and Montana" for no reason other than that I enjoy names.


Anyway, my advice would be to not labor on it. Keep in mind that a person's name says more about the parents than it does about them, so Elmo could be a really cool guy whose parents have bad taste in names and Charles's parents could be scholarly and traditional and wealthy but Charles himself could be a dropout and an alcoholic who is always in jail for some reason or other.

 

Names are one of the most important things for a character, as you can base a character's personality off of their name and its meaning. Like in the book Eragon. Even if you don't want a character's name to be known right away to other readers, you still should have a name for them.

 

Even though I subscribe to your way of thinking, I've used place holders before. In such a case the story idea was more prominent than the characters. For me, that can only last a short while because there must be a name. It gives validity to the character. I just need that.

I prefer to have names in place when I start or have them pop into place as they are introduced. It makes the story more vivid as I write.

 

I very rarely write without knowing a name. Something about naming a character gives them life, and immediately I start to think about helping them develop. I find it very difficult to write development for placeholder mcplaceholder or just a blank space with the intention of going back to it.

 

When I start out, I usually just put in random letters for initials in place of an actual name until I get enough sense of my character to give them a full name.

 

For me, I cannot name my character until I made a "past" for them. For example, in my Fantasy series... I'm having trouble naming my Cold-blooded vampire whose hair is ginger, eyes glows like a demon and a face gritty as the cold snow.

Of course, if i forgotten their past, I always keep a separate folder containing my characters, realms, geography, history and races.

 

I always seem to use the name that first comes to me. Then it sticks and becomes comfortable.

 

I normally name a character right away. Sometimes the name will matter, but other times not. In my novel, several character names represent some aspect of their life, while a couple other are just names. Look at all the people in reality. Some of them have names that represent something, while others have names that are just...names. If the name doesn't fit your character later in the story, you can always change it. :]

 

I always name my characters before I start writing. Mainly because it is easier that way. Oftentimes the names will change at a later point so even a placeholder name is okay. I just use find and replace if/when I decide I'd prefer a different name. The names I choose have no significance to the character because I feel it's more true to life to have a name that isn't significant to path their life takes. Your parents don't know what road your life will take before you are even born. Names that have some special meaning to the character's life or qualities get on my nerves. Most of the time the name sounds ridiculous. Also because I feel like it's setting up for a character with special snowflake syndrome. haha

 

I think it's important to have a name first because not only will you be able to write their actual name, as you develop the character, these characteristics will be attached to the name, so every time you write the characters name you will automatically know what theyre like without confusion.

Although to be honest, I once wrote an entire book without having the main girls name. Once I thought of a name for her, for some reason her character changed and I made several changes to her, which took forever. I truly think you should come up with a name first. I don't know why the opposite makes things more difficult

 

I think it can be pretty effective to not mention the name of a character until a while after he appears. For example, observe the following sentence:

"A man stalked through the dense undergrowth, glancing around nervously, as if he was being followed."

It doesn't quite have the same sense of mystery and suspense if you were to say:

"Adam stalked through the dense undergrowth, glancing around nervously, as if he was being followed."

I dunno, for me, it just seems an effective way to introduce a character and I find myself doing it quite a lot, normally being followed by said character introducing himself verbally.