Saturday, May 12, 2012

Why does thinking up NAMES give me such a headache?

So, trying to come up with names for my characters in my book. I don't know why, but it's giving me a migraine. Anyway, so one of the first names I found for my main character was Damiana, and she would be called Mia. Well, then I realized that I didn't really like the NAME, what I liked about it was the NICKNAME.  And then it occurred to me that the REASON I liked that nickname for her was because of what it means, it just sounded like something cute to have her boyfriend (who ALSO still needs a name) call her. To most of the people around them it would just be a pet name, but they would both know the other meaning - that he is calling her HIS. Okay, most modern women might get annoyed with something like that, but Mia (yes, I'm starting to think of her as Mia) was born in 1913, or so. I think she'd be old-fashioned enough to find it endearing, instead. Especially since she would know him well enough to know that he doesn't mean it like he OWNS her, or anything. So, I've been on a mission to find a name that can have Mia as a nickname, but that can also have a different nickname for everyone else to call her. So, here's my new short-list, with the possible nicknames for everyone but her boyfriend to call her:

Amelia - Lia, Ami
Mariella - Ella, Mari
Mariana - Mari, Ana, Ria
Milena - Lena
Emilina - Emma, Emmy, Lina
Marietta - Mari, Ria

I don't know if maybe some of those might be a bit of a stretch to get Mia out of, but considering the other meaning behind it, that bit of a stretch might not really matter all that much. I think that I'm leaning towards Amelia, Milena, or Emilina - though to be honest, I think I like those as much for the other nicknames I can get out of them as anything else. Which would be horrible if I was trying to come up with a name for my kid, but I think it's okay for a character in a book. After all, 99% of the time she would go by one of her nicknames. Fun thing about naming a character in a book is that I just have to imagine that her PARENTS would have liked the name. And maybe I'm over-thinking all of this, anyway. But, this is what I do. Over-think all the little things. And I think that this also proves that I need to set my goal for the Write-A-Thon to be a word count, because it would be far too easy for me to count time spent on stupid stuff towards my time if I set a time goal.

And that's my semi-coherent ramble for today.



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