Confession: When I’m starting to write a new book, I often write about 50k of notes first. Part research/part WHAT IFs for plot points/and lots of potential scenes to see if the themes I want to explore can carry an entire story. The one thing I cannot do however is write past the first chapter if I don’t have my main characters names locked.
There’s probably official terminology for it but their name has to “sound” like who they are. Characters that are whimsical, dreamy, I tend to give longer more lyrical names to. Characters that might be more straight-to-the-point I may give shorter names. Villains get names that have hard-sounding consonants or are alliterative. I adore alliteration!
Another confession: sometimes I subvert these little ‘rules’ of mine.
Names can often take on extra meaning as your book develops and you may have to choose names for (but not limited to): pets, body parts (!), place names, company names, building names.
In The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love, Ashleigh and George were never called anything else, although I did try out different spellings of Ashleigh, to see which I preferred.
Oz ‘Ozzie-Baby’ Oswald Crannick appeared because that was simply how Carlos referred to him as he leaned back in his chair and called out to the bakery kitchen to get his attention!
When Hildegard Lundy appeared on the page, she kept patiently correcting people to call her Hildy as opposed to Mrs. Lundy. (There turns out to be reasons for this, which you’ll discover if you read the book).
The cleaning service Ashleigh works for is called Sparkle because I wanted something representative of what the company did, and, okay, because in an amazing fairy-dust moment I realised I had called her boss Rhonda Sparkle! I don’t know if that was subliminal because I knew Ashleigh was a cleaner or pure coincidence but I took it and ran with it😊.
The advertising agency George works for was easier because most people who own their own business want their name associated with it and as George works for his girlfriend’s father… that’s how the Richardson Advertising Agency was born.
The Clouds – the apartment block where George lives is called that to represent how high-up he is (because the higher the apartment, the better the view, the more successful you are etc.).
Oscars – the bakery that Carlos and Oz run is called that because when I saw it in my head it was wallpapered in famous Oscars and it handily combines their names.
But then I hit a problem… with a pub of all things. I know!
The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love is set mostly in NYC but as George is British there are a few mentions of where he grew up, and for lovely reasons surrounding the sense of community you get in village pubs, the pub in George’s world is a place he misses and has very special memories of. This was before the Taylor Swift naming-a-pub-in-her-song-and-the-pub-going-viral but when that information came out, I was doubly glad I’d put some effort into naming it, just in case she’d like to read the book, fall in love with it, and also refer to it in a song 😊.
Researching into Pub Names (yes, I was totally having a procrastination moment) I discovered that they often have a lot of history attached to them.
For my pub I kept returning to an image in my head of the pub sign (illustrative pub signs are also a thing!) and what I kept seeing was a sort of Wind in the Willows weary badger. Finally, the perfect name came to me…The Bedraggled Badger.
I love it because it feels like it fits the centuries-old traditional pub that has oak beams holding it up and uneven floorboards that thousands upon thousands of people have walked over. It also has a huge inglenook fireplace surrounded by burnished oak tables and chairs and in my imagination, the sign outside shows a tired and rained-upon bespectacled portly badger returning from a long journey and carrying a suitcase. Also, it has the whole alliteration thing going for it!
There are so many amazing pub names I came across that I thought I’d share a few of my personal faves:
The Camel & Artichoke – formerly The Elusive Camel (and no one seems to know why but there must be a story in there!)
The Nutshell (claims to be smallest pub in the country)
The Moon Under the Water (how romantic sounding is this! It comes from a story by George Orwell where he described his ideal pub)
The Mad Bishop and Bear (this one is all about Paddington!)
So, yes, I named the pub in The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love, The Bedraggled Badger. And, in another confession: I fell in love with it so much, I may have put it in my next book!
What would you name a pub? (extra points if it sounds like something you’d see in a rom-com!)
There’s probably official terminology for it but their name has to “sound” like who they are. Characters that are whimsical, dreamy, I tend to give longer more lyrical names to. Characters that might be more straight-to-the-point I may give shorter names. Villains get names that have hard-sounding consonants or are alliterative. I adore alliteration!
Another confession: sometimes I subvert these little ‘rules’ of mine.
Names can often take on extra meaning as your book develops and you may have to choose names for (but not limited to): pets, body parts (!), place names, company names, building names.
In The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love, Ashleigh and George were never called anything else, although I did try out different spellings of Ashleigh, to see which I preferred.
Oz ‘Ozzie-Baby’ Oswald Crannick appeared because that was simply how Carlos referred to him as he leaned back in his chair and called out to the bakery kitchen to get his attention!
When Hildegard Lundy appeared on the page, she kept patiently correcting people to call her Hildy as opposed to Mrs. Lundy. (There turns out to be reasons for this, which you’ll discover if you read the book).
The cleaning service Ashleigh works for is called Sparkle because I wanted something representative of what the company did, and, okay, because in an amazing fairy-dust moment I realised I had called her boss Rhonda Sparkle! I don’t know if that was subliminal because I knew Ashleigh was a cleaner or pure coincidence but I took it and ran with it😊.
The advertising agency George works for was easier because most people who own their own business want their name associated with it and as George works for his girlfriend’s father… that’s how the Richardson Advertising Agency was born.
The Clouds – the apartment block where George lives is called that to represent how high-up he is (because the higher the apartment, the better the view, the more successful you are etc.).
Oscars – the bakery that Carlos and Oz run is called that because when I saw it in my head it was wallpapered in famous Oscars and it handily combines their names.
But then I hit a problem… with a pub of all things. I know!
The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love is set mostly in NYC but as George is British there are a few mentions of where he grew up, and for lovely reasons surrounding the sense of community you get in village pubs, the pub in George’s world is a place he misses and has very special memories of. This was before the Taylor Swift naming-a-pub-in-her-song-and-the-pub-going-viral but when that information came out, I was doubly glad I’d put some effort into naming it, just in case she’d like to read the book, fall in love with it, and also refer to it in a song 😊.
Researching into Pub Names (yes, I was totally having a procrastination moment) I discovered that they often have a lot of history attached to them.
For my pub I kept returning to an image in my head of the pub sign (illustrative pub signs are also a thing!) and what I kept seeing was a sort of Wind in the Willows weary badger. Finally, the perfect name came to me…The Bedraggled Badger.
I love it because it feels like it fits the centuries-old traditional pub that has oak beams holding it up and uneven floorboards that thousands upon thousands of people have walked over. It also has a huge inglenook fireplace surrounded by burnished oak tables and chairs and in my imagination, the sign outside shows a tired and rained-upon bespectacled portly badger returning from a long journey and carrying a suitcase. Also, it has the whole alliteration thing going for it!
There are so many amazing pub names I came across that I thought I’d share a few of my personal faves:
The Camel & Artichoke – formerly The Elusive Camel (and no one seems to know why but there must be a story in there!)
The Nutshell (claims to be smallest pub in the country)
The Moon Under the Water (how romantic sounding is this! It comes from a story by George Orwell where he described his ideal pub)
The Mad Bishop and Bear (this one is all about Paddington!)
So, yes, I named the pub in The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love, The Bedraggled Badger. And, in another confession: I fell in love with it so much, I may have put it in my next book!
What would you name a pub? (extra points if it sounds like something you’d see in a rom-com!)
RSS Feed
