Through the years, people have asked me how I name my characters. Well, let me tell you it has been a journey in itself. When I first started writing, I would pick names that I was familiar with, although I stayed away from names of family or friends. Later when I wrote the first version of Allie’s and Katy’s stories twenty or so years ago, I was working with some wonderful ladies and used variations of their names or nicknames. Jacob and Nettie Mae were two examples of that. By the time I started on the MacPherson Brides stories, I had purchased a book I have used many times. It became invaluable when I plotted out the MacPherson family tree. The name of this book is Character Naming Soursebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It is published by Writer’s Digest Books.
Can you imagine coming up with the names of twelve children, their spouses, and 89 grandchildren, plus all those greats, without some kind of help? What was helpful about this naming book is that it is divided into countries and gender. What I loved especially about it was that it gave the meaning of names. I used Scottish, Irish, English, and Celtic names, along with some Hebrew (Bible) ones, to find what I needed. One other thing, when I named the Kansas MacPherson father and brothers, I gave them names that all meant something strong.
Granny MacPherson also knew the meaning of names. Reference is made in the Wyoming books where she mentioned that Mackie’s given name didn’t match up to what he was like growing up.
One last thing about naming my characters. Sometimes when writing the first (or second or third) draft, I found myself giving too many of my characters names that begin with the same first letter. I did that in my Wyoming series–Jacob, John, Josh. By the way, you will never see Josh in those books. His name was changed to Brad. Same thing with Florence’s name. She started out as Martha, but then I had Mackie and Mike, so once again I had to give her a new name.
All this said, it is a lot like picking a name for a baby. But then, after all, these characters are all the babies of my mind. They were just birthed full-grown for the most part.
What is your favorite name in the MacPherson Brides?
