by Saralyn Richard
I’m often asked how I go about choosing names in my books, and the question always catches me by surprise. Choosing names for characters and specific places in books is a necessary task, one that, for me, happens organically as the stories unfold.
I might compare the process to naming a baby, except that I have many more naming opportunities for characters than for real-live people, so weeks and months of pondering doesn’t seem necessary. Still, once a character is named, I begin to think of him with that name, and I rarely feel inclined to change the name to something else, so it is somewhat important to get the name right from the start.
Detective Oliver Parrott, whose first appearance in Murder in the One Percent sets the stage for the series, is a perfect example. Parrott is strong, smart, and quite articulate—just like a parrot. He also has a pet cockatiel named Horace. More importantly, Parrott’s name is a nod to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
Sometimes I name characters after friends or colleagues whom I admire and wish to honor. That can be dicey, though, particularly if the characters have traits or challenges that their namesakes might not relish reading about. If I anticipate such a problem, I will check with the person to make sure she’s okay with it. Since most of the people I know have good senses of humor, I’ve never had anyone object.
Of course, in fiction, all characters are derived from my creativity, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Once in a while, though, I have named a character after someone who is dear to me, but who has passed on. For me, this is a way to keep her memory alive, as it remains in my heart.
The Detective Parrott mysteries, Murder in the One Percent and A Palette for Love and Murder, take place in Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania. That is a real place, and many of the names of restaurants, hospitals, museums, attractions, and even the police department, are represented by their actual names. The Hunt magazine, which appears in both books, is a phenomenal resource for me in creating the settings and situations. So many Brandywine Valley people have opened their minds and hearts to me, and I strive to do justice to them.
There is a common practice in Brandywine Valley to name mansions and to call them by name in conversation. That gives me more opportunities to create names. One of my homes is called Bucolia, a reference to the peaceful, bucolic nature of life there. Another is named Manderley, after the home in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
As Rick Riordan said in The Lightning Thief, “Names have power.” It’s the job of an author to harness that power for the sake of the story. The creation of names is one of the privileges of being an author, and one of the most fun.
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