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I've been blogging about how to make a piece more literary. A lot of authors just randomly choose names. It feels right, or it's personally meaningful to the author. They randomly choose it from a phone directory. They arbitrarily choose it because ... fill in the blank. Literary authors do very few things randomly and without meaning. Yes, some have randomly chosen names. But if you want your piece to feel meaningful, start by giving careful thought to your major characters' names.
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Think through classic works. Willy Loman is the main character of Death of a Salesman. His name tells you right away he's not high status that, in all ways, he's a low man. Think of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. She's always exploring the world around her, socially, emotionally, and physically. She is always asking questions and scouting out the truth. Luna's name from the Harry Potter series brings to mind the moon and its associations with the word "lunatic" because she's both dreamy and pastel like the moon but also a bit nutty. These names suggest to the reader a meaning that helps enhance and enlighten their character and their place in the book.
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Alternatively, you can use a character's name as a literary allusion. If you were to name your character Peter, James, John, James, Mary Magdelene, Adam, Eve, Gabriel, Moses, Noah, or a host of biblical names, you'd want to know the figures from the Bible in order to make your character more meaningful, to draw on a source that much of the modern world knows. Peter from the Narnia series is noble and heroic, a leader like Peter in the Bible, for instance. It's one thing to name your character Gabriel and have him be just a guy named Gabe. It's yet another to make a sly and clever biblical allusion with a character who is by action or calling an angel. The author should know exactly what he/she is doing with the name and what kind of literary history he or she is referencing. The same is true if you use any literary name. If you name your character Darcy, Perseus, Lizzy, Hamlet, Emma, Don Juan, Alice, Anne (with an E), Cordelia, Juliet, Miranda, or any other name your reader will automatically recognize, use it carefully. A literary name is a quick and easy way to call on a wealth of literary allusion, but only if you, the author, know the history of the name.
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Then again, you could use the name for ironic purposes. Your character may be named Chastity and yet be a lady of the streets. Suddenly, her name means more and makes your reader want to know more. What if you had a Lucifer who sought to live in an upright and kindly way, while his neighbor, Jean Baptiste, is stealing from him and smearing his name? Such irony (as in defiance of expectation) can be used to make a statement, bring in some other meaning, or for humor. In the series "Sleepy Hollow," a character started to pray, "Jesus..." The other inmate in his cell responded with something like, "Yeah? What do you want?" The name is automatically humorous because of how it's used in the story. But if you use a character's name for humorous or ironic purposes, that should be clear. This use of literary names should result in a clear addition of humor or meaning. Otherwise, a reader could easily consider your choice of a name a poor one and question your skills as a writer.
Think through the names you're using for your characters. What do they suggest right away, just with the word associations therein? Is its meaning appropriate to the character? Does your character's name bring to mind another literary character? Does it work? How can you bring out more meaning than you already do? If it doesn't work, is there a better, more meaningful name you can use?
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