What's In a Name?

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Not so, Will. A name can cause a problem by word association if the author isn’t careful. Case in point: my angel story.

The protagonist’s name is Cristal – named for her father’s favourite champagne. (Her father was a rock star in the 80s so I suspect that particular libation may have had something to do with her conception.) She came with her name; I didn’t have to hunt around for it.

Her father came with a first name – Curtis. His surname eludes me, but I know it starts with a hard C or a K. The first option was King, which would absolutely fit his persona, but there’s already a musician named Curtis King and while I doubt it’s copyrighted, I want to respect that someone else in the field already owns it. Next up: Clarke. Yeah, “Curtis Clarke ˮ has a nice ring to it … but then I realized that his daughter’s nickname is “Cristiˮ (“Crisˮ didn’t work for either of us), and even though she wasn’t given her father’s name at birth, there are still some folks who would automatically assume that her name is Cristal, or Cristi, Clarke.

If you live in BC, and if you know me at all, you probably know where this is going …

The Premier of BC happens to be named Christy Clark. Spelled differently, sounds exactly the same. I refuse to saddle any of my characters with a name that instantly sends me to a blood pressure situation, ergo “Clarkeˮ has to go. The story is going so well, though, that I’ve been forced to type a placebo where Curtis’s surname would be until I can figure out what it actually is, and then I’ll do a global replace. Bother.

My hero, George R.R. Martin, once told a story about a famous sci-fi author who named no characters until after the story was complete; she would simply type “Name Aˮ for the hero, “Name Bˮ for the baddie and so on. She would plug in the names later. George couldn’t get his mind around that and neither could I. Names are important, not only for identifying the character, but for developing it as well. People really do become their names; at least in my stories, they do.

I wish Curtis himself would be more helpful here, but he’s not giving me an inch. I guess it doesn’t matter that much to him, but it will drive me crazy until I figure out what he signs in an autograph …