On Naming Characters

I’m the process of naming some characters for a new story. Recently, I’ve been reading through old stories and looking through notes for stories that I’d like to write one day and I’ve noticed that when it comes to female names I tend to gravitate for names that end with an a. It isn’t the first tine that I’ve noticed this, but it’s something that I’ve been thinking about recently. So, while trying to come up with a name for the new female character I decided that I’d stay clear of names that end with an a. (It wasn’t always this way. In high school, I liked all names that ended with a y.)

 When I name a character, I think very carefully about the name that I’m choosing. I look through lists of names, look at the meanings of each name, and then pick the one that I think suits the character. As I was trying to find a name for this new character, I found one that I really liked and discovered that the meaning fit the character. The best part about it all? It didn’t end with an a. I had the name!

 And then, I glanced at the different variations of the name. Mixed in was a name that I have always planned to use in a story. And it ends with an a.

 A friend of mine who is Bosnian once told me that all female Bosnian names end with an a. That would make naming characters so much easier for me right now!