Character surnames

[sonofninasayers]

Not sure if this hs already been covered or not but I'm just wondering something, when writing a story, does anyone somethimes find it hard coming up with a last name for their characters whether  they're an ABDL or care giver.

[WBDaddy]

What I often do is consider the following:

1) What ethnic background is the character?

2) What is the character's personality?  

Using these two pieces of information, you can google up common surnames for a given country/ethnic group, cross-reference their meanings, and match the right one to the character.  Now you have characters with unique last names. 

For example:  Pauletta Keira,  the main character from my story "A Little Legal Issue" - her last name is a Gaelic word that means dark-haired, but in common use, it also suggests a darkness of a different sort, that a cloud hangs over her.  

[Personalias]

2 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

What I often do is consider the following:

1) What ethnic background is the character?

2) What is the character's personality?  

Using these two pieces of information, you can google up common surnames for a given country/ethnic group, cross-reference their meanings, and match the right one to the character.  Now you have characters with unique last names. 

For example:  Pauletta Keira,  the main character from my story "A Little Legal Issue" - her last name is a Gaelic word that means dark-haired, but in common use, it also suggests a darkness of a different sort, that a cloud hangs over her.  

And it doesn't even matter if your audience knows the meaning behind such surnames.  They can also serve just as a way to keep you in a mindset for writing a particular character.  For example, I needed a Virgil character for Dante's Infanzia, a dead person who knew the lay of the land.  Hence I made Lysa.  Her last name, which might be mentioned twice in the whole story?  Strata.

Lysa Strata is a pun.  Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy about a woman who ends (ancient greek) war by leading a sex strike among the women folk.  Just remembering it made me think of a strong willed, take no shit character just like her namesake.

[Ubba]

On 1/23/2020 at 5:23 PM, WBDaddy said:

What I often do is consider the following:

1) What ethnic background is the character?

2) What is the character's personality?  

Using these two pieces of information, you can google up common surnames for a given country/ethnic group, cross-reference their meanings, and match the right one to the character.  Now you have characters with unique last names. 

For example:  Pauletta Keira,  the main character from my story "A Little Legal Issue" - her last name is a Gaelic word that means dark-haired, but in common use, it also suggests a darkness of a different sort, that a cloud hangs over her.  

 

Just a heads up Keira is an Anglicized version of the Irish (Gaelic) name Ciara, and is traditionally a first name  So over here it would be a bit odd to meet someone with that surname. 

 

But this is a great example of how surnames work. They go back a long time and can also be legally changed, throw emigration into the mix and surnames can be incredibly varied.

 

Some times I do struggle with choosing a surname for a character but as WB has said i figure out the heritage of the character and go from there. But depends how in depth and planning you want to do on a character or if you want to figure it out as you go.  

 

[WBDaddy]

4 hours ago, Ubba said:

 

Just a heads up Keira is an Anglicized version of the Irish (Gaelic) name Ciara, and is traditionally a first name  So over here it would be a bit odd to meet someone with that surname. 

 

But this is a great example of how surnames work. They go back a long time and can also be legally changed, throw emigration into the mix and surnames can be incredibly varied.

 

Some times I do struggle with choosing a surname for a character but as WB has said i figure out the heritage of the character and go from there. But depends how in depth and planning you want to do on a character or if you want to figure it out as you go.  

 

You're absolutely right, but I figured I could get away with it because this was a native Little in the diaper dimension, so having two first names wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

[Ubba]

20 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

You're absolutely right, but I figured I could get away with it because this was a native Little in the diaper dimension, so having two first names wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

Haha but you did'nt count on jerky mcjerkson here to point it out. Muahahaha

I think that point though highlights how the story's setting can completely influence the surname of a character, so like in the DD having a first name as a sir name is not out of place. But then say if your story was set in days of yore or when ever your character may take one of their parents names as a surname like Jim Bobson or Ragner Ragnerson 

[willnotwill]

I don't often use surnames, but often they're taken from my past.   For instance, the teachers and school administrators in my stories have slight tweaks on the names of the ones I had when I was in school.    I actually, spend a little more time trying to come up with first names especially if I'm trying to come up with common names for today's kids.    I tend to dig through high school sports rosters to come up with those.

[WriteAndLeft]

Here are some surnames, girl names, boy names, and everything else.you could want.: http://www.outpost9.com/files/WordLists.html

[Noitard]

10 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

Addendum:  The only believable scenario I can imagine here is if this is a private school, probably a parochial school, where tenure isn't even an issue (BTW - teachers aren't even eligible for tenure until they've been in their positions for 10 years).  

 

On 1/23/2020 at 6:59 AM, sonofninasayers said:

Not sure if this hs already been covered or not but I'm just wondering something, when writing a story, does anyone somethimes find it hard coming up with a last name for their characters whether  they're an ABDL or care giver.

About her filing a lawsuit,you're right. Of course, the reason she does not is that she already looks up to him, and has a masochist streak in her.  And, some women REALLY hate the idea of lawsuits, even when they are in a position to, like the mother of Steve Jobs" first child, and were liable to gain a boatload O' dough in the process.  Lots of women choose, unfortunately, to defer justice in the case of rape, and their general lack of assertiveness is almost certainly part of the pay gap, as well.  I can easily have some, like her advisor, lecture her for not suing, and I'm sure this lecture type is pretty common in western countries across the globe.

Also, about my inablility to name my heroine...

I named her antagonist, Mr. Hardman, pretty effortlessly, but her?  I know I'm gonna call her little girl self Heather, after Heather Locklear, for symbolic reason, and also because Heather strike me as cute--perfect for an aspiring little girl.  As for her little girl last name?  Hart, perhaps?  I'm not sure.

But I'm at a complete loss as to naming her initial, adult self.  She's a bit of a girl next door, but Jennifer doesn't work for me.  Jane?  Maybe, but I want her name to convey mousey-ness, the lifelessness of a dull existence, but not too over the top.  As  is, "Mr Hardman" maybe too on the nose, but still I like it.

 

[WBDaddy]

1 hour ago, Noitard said:

Of course, the reason she does not is that she already looks up to him, and has a masochist streak in her. 

You're going to have to do some background development ahead of this scenario, then.  If you want to make her subby enough to take that kind of abuse from a boss who is firing her without her lashing back at him afterward, you'd better show (don't tell) one hell of a pattern of submissive behavior leading up to that point - and not just in her teaching job, but throughout her college experience.  Probably want to consider some sort of childhood experience that led to this submissiveness - maybe she grew up in an extremely patriarchal religious family or something like that, or maybe she didn't have a father at all and, along with skipping grades making her a social outcast, she subconsciously sought a father figure in the older boys in her classes or her male teachers and was willing to do whatever they wanted to get that kind of attention. 

Because what you're describing is a scenario where, whether she looks up to him or not, he is rejecting her by firing her.  And even the most submissive person will tend to lash out at the dominant who (in their mind unfairly) rejects them, even if they don't have the stones to do it face-to-face. 

[Noitard]

12 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

You're going to have to do some background development ahead of this scenario, then.  If you want to make her subby enough to take that kind of abuse from a boss who is firing her without her lashing back at him afterward, you'd better show (don't tell) one hell of a pattern of submissive behavior leading up to that point - and not just in her teaching job, but throughout her college experience.  Probably want to consider some sort of childhood experience that led to this submissiveness - maybe she grew up in an extremely patriarchal religious family or something like that, or maybe she didn't have a father at all and, along with skipping grades making her a social outcast, she subconsciously sought a father figure in the older boys in her classes or her male teachers and was willing to do whatever they wanted to get that kind of attention. 

Because what you're describing is a scenario where, whether she looks up to him or not, he is rejecting her by firing her.  And even the most submissive person will tend to lash out at the dominant who (in their mind unfairly) rejects them, even if they don't have the stones to do it face-to-face. 

Well, my plan is pretty much that--Mr. Hardman notices this sub tendency, and thinks it unbecoming a teacher, but how to show it?  Hm.  Well, in your final sentence, you answered my question.  She fist does get angry, but ultimately decides that he was RIGHT to fire her.  Her taking at least partial responsibility, to her firing can be easily led up to, because she is insecure, and has lots of doubts in her own leadership, then  comes to view Hardman as an authority figure whose opinion she values.  By firing her, Hardman comes across not as a heartless jerk, but merely applying a mercy killing on something which was bound to die later, and more painfully.  

All Hardman is doing is confirming the darkest fears she already possesses, fears she has already divulged to him.  It hurts, yes, but the principal asked for his opinion and he gave it, and he is not ashamed to to tell her what that assessment is--I think many submissives find that kinda guts attractive. 

That answer your question as to why she wouldn't see it as as personal rejection?  At this point she wants to prove herself to others, and views her failure to convince him she's a keeper on her, and not him.

[Cute_Kitten]

My character surnames come from all over the place. A lot of the times it's determined by what other posters already mentioned- ethnicity, time, and place. Aside from that, I try to go with something that feels like it fits the character or the character's station in life. At that point, surnames can come from anywhere- other characters in a TV show/book/movie, people or names I've come across in real life, phone book, historical figures, the internet, criminal records, political and court documents (part of public records, so anyone can access that stuff). 

[Noitard]

Well, I want a girl next door name, but don't want something like Jane, or Jennifer.  Other than that, I just want a name reflecting a shy, mousey personality, insecure, the type who spends Friday nights with her cats, reading romance fiction.  What names to mind under that character description?   

After assuming the identity of a high schooler, she becomes a cute, blonde little Heather, but I'm not totally sold on her working last name, Stevens.  I'm going with the idea that she just unconsciously assumed Hardman's 1st name as his last name, but I'm up to a better idea if anyone has any.

PS:  Brain flash--I think her name is an Alice--it evokes childlike wonder, strangeness, and being trapped in a bigger world.