The Meaning Behind the Names of the Characters in When Magic Calls
Do you know what your favorite character’s name means? Do you care? Authors put more thought into their characters’ name than you might realize. Some authors choose a name because of the way it sounds or where it comes from. Others choose a name because of its meaning.
Names Help Me Develop my Characters
The names I choose help me develop characters, find their voice, and build their personality. “Letters from a Wu” twists together the fairy tales “Snow White” and “The Changeling,” so I named the main character Li, which means pretty. Her full name – Zhang Li – means beautiful. But the mother who hates her calls Li “Wu”, which means evil sorceress. Li is tied to the “Snow White” retelling and Wu is tied to “The Changeling”. The old man Li writes to is named Wang Yong because that means brave, and he was definitely brave. His wife is Wang Jing, which means quiet. I chose this name because Jing is the type of person who is content to watch and pass peacefully. Some of the other character names and meanings are:
Zhang Min (Li’s mother) means quick
Chen Shing (Li’s love interest) means victory or accomplished
Wenling (Li’s nurse) means soft jade tinkling
Xia (Li’s grandmother) means summer
I don’t expect readers to know the meanings behind names like these, but they are fun Easter Eggs for people who are into names. Also, I find names through baby name websites and don’t double check the meaning. I care more about character development than if the name really means what I think it does.
I do hope more readers pick up on the meanings of some of my other character names. When I wrote “Wolf Girl”, I was playing with the archetypal characters in fairy tales. Traditional fairy tales don’t often name characters. Think about “Cinderella”; the father, stepmother, step sisters, prince, and fairy godmother don’t get names because they are meant to represent a type of person or character. So I named the girl raised by wolves Wolf Girl, the human male who traps her Guy, and her wolf brother Big Hunter. I used names to make the story feel more like a fairy tale.
Names Help my Readers Get to Know my Characters
Other times I use the meaning or sound of names to help differentiate magical characters from “regular” characters. The main character in “Borrowed Skin, Borrowed Year” is named Cassidy, a more conventional name for North America, but her magical love interest is named Marinus, a less conventional name that sounds like marine (as in marine life from the ocean).
Dmitri is the main character from “Smoke Whispers,” and Anang is the antagonist. His name is meant to sound a bit old fashioned and remind readers his ancestors are Slavic. Anang is meant to sound unconventional and remind readers she is Native American. (I had to look up excepted ways to name Ojibwe characters on the tribe’s official website for her name.) Thea, Dawn, and Anang all have meanings related to light – goddess of light, day break, and starlight.
Why Not All Characters Get Names
I don’t name every single character in my stories because I don’t need or want to. Minor characters like some of the convent people in “Wolf Girl” are not what I want readers to focus on. It’s not their story, so they don’t get names. A name subconsciously signals to readers that the character is important and should be remembered as such.
Other characters don’t get names for story reasons. The children in “But the Fairy Tale Isn’t Over” are constantly changing locations, times, and ethnicities. I don’t want readers to have to keep up with changing names too. The narrators in “Voices of Sacrifice” are a ghost-monster made up of a bunch of souls. They’ve lost their names just like they’ve lost their individualities and lives.
Now that you’ve seen why I choose the names I do for my characters, take a look at some of your favorite characters and their names. What do their names mean? Does knowing that definition enhance your reading experience? Let me know in the comments below! And subscribe for more Magical Musings
Caitlin Berve is the author of When Magic Calls: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales and currently working on a fantasy novel involving an arranged marriage, damsels who save themselves, and non-human shape-shifters. Through her company Ignited Ink Writing and MFA, she edits other people’s novels, creates video tutorials, teaches, and writes. Caitlin seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers, pet all the fluffy and scaly animals she can, and find magic in modern times.