Thoughts on names and the sound of them

[valarltd]

This is mostly for reannon whose new book is being a dreadful child. This is me, talking on my own, expressing how names resonate with me.

Male names have specific sounds that are short and punchy and macho.
A good demonstration of this is in the movie Rick where Rick, Mick, Duke and Buck all share a scene. The hard k sounds fly fast and furious and you can almost smell the testosterone.

Short names, especially a short first and last name combined that have the same vowel sound is VERY masculine. Jim Kirk. Ron Moss. Jack Twist. John Wayne.

The longer the name gets, the softer it gets. By the time you're at four syllables between the names, you better have some serious ks, ds or ts happening or you've got someone who is bookish or sleazy.

Be careful of M and N. The nasals will soften any name. As will L and R and W. R in the wrong place, especially in a blend, makes someone evil. Nothing good will be expected of someone whose name starts with Dr-. It brings to mind dragon and drag and dread and Dracula and Draco.


Short hard names:
Pete
Matt
Cliff
Jake
Jack
John(can go soft, depending on surname)
Bill
Jim
Frank
Fred
Tom (see John)
Nick

These tend to be suited to rougher characters. Cigar chomping alpha males, blue-collar workers, etc.

The longer forms are more elegant
Peter
Matthew
Clifford
Jacob (still pretty hard)
Jonathan
William
James
Franklin
Frederick
Thomas
Nicholas

The change to longer vowels softens the names, takes the edge off of them. Patrick is one of the few that works well either way

Surnames: Remember there are four kinds.
1) Descriptive: Brown, Black, Short
2) Location: Bradley, Hill, Woods, Johnston
3) Patronymic: O'Conner, MacRory, Jackson, Fitzgerald, Williams
4) Professional: Carpenter, Baxter, d'Eath, Miller


And something I've learned?
Steer clear of names that end in S. it will make your writing ever so much easier.

Please add any thoughts to this ramble in the comments.