Tips on Naming Characters in Your Stories

My banner, which hangs on my sales
table at book sales. It needs to be
revised to include my two latest 
picture books written in Spanish!

 By Linda Wilson  @LinWilsonauthor

            A one-minute Google search titled "How to Name Characters in Fiction" will tell you everything you need/want to know about naming your characters. Thanks AI. Here are some tips to keep the names in your stories personal.

Story Magic: Make your Story Names Come from your Heart

            The names of characters in your stories are meant to reflect the world you've created.

            

Children: Pinpoint your story's time period. For ages 8-to-12, a search for children born in 2013 comes up with popular boys and girls' names. Once you decide on a name, consider making it unique. In my chapter book series, my character's name is Abi, derived from Abigal or Abby.

Adults:  After your Google search, parents and grandparents' names can be reassuring, like Mrs. Clark and Dee Rainey. Giving your colorful characters' names a twist is where the fun comes in. Such as a teacher named Mr. Wormwood in my current work in progress, and the name Thistletoe for my packrat character, that hints at a holiday story without using the term "Christmas," in order to include all who celebrate the holidays.

Pets:   Google popular pet names and make a list of pets you know. The name of the border collie in Secret in the Stars is, you guessed it, Star. In Secret in the Mist, coming soon, there are three horses. A horse named Tulips honors a horse I once knew; a horse in the 1800s is given the enduring name, Faith; and Rebel is a horse that lives up to his name.

Settings:   Much of the setting for the Abi Wunder series is fashioned after my home and neighborhood in Purcellville, Virginia, where I once lived. Not far from Washington, DC, at the time we lived there Purcellville was rural, though since then unfortunately the area has been taken over by development. But at the time, across the road from our house, we had a beautiful view of a grassy hill, which bordered on West Virigina. The small pond near our house, where tall cattails and swamp grass grew, and a lone bull frog lived, gives rise to the marsh in Secret in the Mist. The three stores in the tiny town of Round Hill just down the road from our house is the backdrop for the museum in that story. And Leesville is named after the town of Leesburg several miles away.

Back Matter:   Here is an opportunity to give some background about your stories and where the names you've chosen come from. Information about 4H and encouragement to join can be found in the back matter of Tall Boots, and the Spanish version, Botas Altas, sanctioned by 4H, which included the use of the 4H logo and an encouraging quote from the 4H Interum Department Head at the time the book was published. The back matter in Waddles the Duck encourages readers to feed ducks healthy food for water fowl, instead of bread.

        Whatever you decide to name your characters and settings, if you create names from research, your life, and your imagination, your stories will be meaningful not only for you, but for your readers, too.

Some of the most fun I have in
writing for children is meeting
people like this young man
who let me punch is big, fat
turkey belly during a holiday fair.
 

Linda Wilson is the author of the Abi Wunder Mystery series and

other books for children. Her two new releases are the Spanish versions of Tall Boots, Botas Altas (2024), translated by Graciela Moreno and Adriana Botero, and of Cradle in the Wild, Cuna en la Naturaleza (2025), translated by Adriana Botero. You'll find Linda on her Amazon author page, on her website at LindaWilsonAuthor.com, and on Facebook.