Today, I will be talking about a specific and important aspect of a character, their name. Unlike some other concepts that I've tackled on this blog, I don't think I have to explain what a name is. Most people have them, and a few people adopt different names in their life. Now, this isn't really going to be a history lesson on names. Instead, let's take a minute to really talk about what a name does.
Names are identifiers. My name is Robert Jackson Palmour. If someone says that I know they are talking about me. While I've met other people named Robert, Jackson, and Palmour, I've never met someone with all three. Of the 7.53 Billion people in the world their is probably at least one other person in the world with my name, but notice how I still call it my name. Names are themselves a sign of personal identity. They are also a sign of a family. Sure, Jackson was given to me because my parents liked the name, but Robert is from my Uncle, and Palmour is my father's family name. It also says a lot about a culture with how names are ordered. What's more important, an individual or the family they come from. But I digress. This is about names in literature.
So, what does all of this mean and how can we use it?
It can be worth looking at how just a character's name but how they are referred. Are they called by their name in the text? Are they called a wide verity of things? Or are they constantly called something aside from their name? The Bride in Kill Bill or Mr. ____ in The Color Purple. Why are they called that? These are worth looking into.
On a similar note, what if a character has no name at all or the audience never learns their name? In this case, the person in question might not have name because they are not suppose to be an individual. They could represent an group then if not one person. As such, what are the traits of this no named character? The story could be saying that everyone in this group is like this.
A character with no name can also be a commentary on someone's lack of personal identity or autonomy. In the short story Barn Burning, the names of female characters can be seen in relation to how able they are at resisting the patriarchy binding the family. Those with more resistance have their own names while others don't.
And finally, the obvious one, what does their name mean? Now, I saved this one for last because it's honestly the least interesting one in my opinion because in some cases an actual character's name does not matter. It's just their name. At the same time, sometimes what a name means can be very blunt and can just hit you on the head with it's symbolism. The funnest example of this, in my opinion, is in the Ace Attorney games. Those names are the best and tells you everything you'd even need to know about the character.
So yeah, those are my thoughts on names. As with everything, I am not the be all end all expert on names, and you can and should read more into it. Well, that's all I have. Until next time.
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