Quick Question about a Female Character Name

[wcmartell]

I vote for Mulva.

What others have said - character names are your character summed up in a word, so the word/name has to fit their personality. So start with their personality & character and then find the name that best describes and projects that.

- Bill

[Archduke]

I went out with a female artist named Delaney. Skye definitely sounds like her parents were hippies. Ingrid seems like an very old fashioned name.

Another interesting technique I've found with naming characters is you can just type a first name or last name and see pictures of thousands of people come up who have that name. Might be helpful in making your decision.

Did a quick search for Ingrid and surprising to me just as many Hispanics came up as whites. Even more surprising quite a few Asians. Not a single black woman though. So if you want to go the odd ball route make the character a black woman named Ingrid.

[catcon]

Ho hum. I knew what was coming in this thread but decided to check it out anyway. Most of what I've read here suggests the attainment of supreme stereotype should be the objective when you're concocting character names.

How boring, silly, and insulting to the audience. It might be okay for cartoons, but for features it's like suggesting your villain has to be a he, have an accent (ie. not American English), bushy eyebrows, rubs his hands together, and kick the cat.

Every name has an unintended connotation to somebody. There are only a few that mean something to almost everybody (eg. Osama), but even then there are are exceptions. Since 9/11, millions of Osama's have been christened.

Ingrid may be a perfectly acceptable name for a story being watched by 3/4 of the world's population. Or maybe not.

Isn't it more challenging to simply use "Cheryl", or "John", or whatever you wish, and make that ordinary-sounding person's actions and predicament and arc the elements that stand out?

I often watch films, end up completely satisfied at the end, but don't remember the character names.

I spend little time worrying about names and, in fact, regularly use the same ones from script to script, although the characters are always different. The names just aren't important to my story.

Looking for some sort of magic, naming formula? There's probably some website out there that lets you type in characteristics, press <ENTER>, and get a name. Go for it!

[dirtbottle]

Originally Posted by catcon

I spend little time worrying about names and, in fact, regularly use the same ones from script to script, although the characters are always different. The names just aren't important to my story.

I have to disagree wholeheartedly. Names are extremely important. For example, if your main character grew up with the name "Richard Cockandballstein" he probably took a fair amount of crap as a kid about it. That shapes who he is as an adult.

Whereas if she grew up constantly being told what a beautiful name she has she might have loads of self-confidence and a very positive self-image. These things inform how characters behave in a story. To ignore this is folly.

However, if you think names don't matter you can use this practical exercise to test it, try calling someone you're close to sh*thead for a year and see if it doesn't begin to change how they behave toward you.

A person's name is often their single most important identifier in life so to say it doesn't shape their character is crazy.

Laos Egri writes a fantastic book on creating character that addresses much of this. Check it out sometime. It might make your overall script much better.