Listy Wednesday: 100

Since it's my 100th post today, I decided I'm going to push myself and list 100 of the names I like best. See, I like names. Who am I kidding, I love names. I have a bunch of baby name books (have since I was a teenager) and I'm always looking up new names and what they mean. So naturally I have a list of names I love. And today, I'll share 100 of those.

This list will consist of both male and female names in no particular order. They are names that I like for a wide variety of reasons, whether cause I would name my kid that or because it's a cool name, or because it works for a character I may one day create. As usual, I'm not telling you which is which. Feel free to guess. Also, tell me which names you like best from my list, or which ones you think I should have included.

1. Lucas
2. Caleb
3. Gavin
4. Brandon
5. Zachary
6. Levi
7. Nathaniel
8. Bryson
9. Cole
10. Braxton
11. Gage
12. Collin
13. Reuben
14. Brice
15. Benton
16. Efrain
17. Callan
18. Alden
19. Justus
20. Rowen
21. Emmitt
22. Matthias
23. Teagan
24. Brendan
25. Brennen
26. Zechariah
27. Emery
28. Braeden
29. Trent
30. Travis
31. Malachi
32. Corinne
33. Lorelei
34. Livia
35. Elaine
36. Kassandra
37. Virginia
38. Elisa
39. Elaina
40. Phoebe
41. Alexia
42. Genevieve
43. Tessa
44. Alexandria
45. Cora
46. Elise
47. Lydia
48. Victoria
49. Chloe
50. Sophia
51. Samantha
52. Zoe
53. Rebekah
54. Piper
55. Brant
56. Aidan
57. Alexander
58. Andrew
59. Asher
60. Benjamin
61. Bennett
62. Blake
63. Braddock
64. Bradly
65. Brent
66. Brody
67. Bryant
68. Cale
69. Camden
70. Christopher
71. Cody
72. Colin
73. Connor
74. Cullen
75. Gideon
76. Daniel
77. David
78. Dyllan
79. Ellis
80. Eli
81. Elijah
82. Elliott
83. Ephraim
84. Ethan
85. Evan
86. Everett
87. Ezekiel
88. Gabe
89. Geoffrey
90. Graham
91. Ian
92. Isaac
93. Isaiah
94. Tate
95. Alaina
96. Amelia
97. Aubrey
98. Tyler
99. Titus
100. Tobias

What are your favorites from my list? What names are missing? I know there are a bunch of guys names, so what girls names do you think I should add?

Names, Names, Names

So I know I talked about names in my previous post about characters. But I like them so much I wanted to do another post on them. Only I wasn't really sure what to write about them. Loving something and knowing how to write about it are two different things.

So names. Why do I think names are so important to a story? Well think about the effect a name has on your impression of a person. When you hear a name you automatically get an idea about how the owner of that name looks, acts, and even thinks sometimes. Things like your past experiences have a big influence on how you look at the owner of a name. For example, I have an (unfortunate) dislike of the name Angela because of a particular childhood acquaintance. There are other names that I dislike because of my past as well. In fact, there are whole name books dedicated to looking at how names are perceived. My favorite is The Baby Name Survey by Bruce Lansky. My friends became slightly obsessed with it when they started looking up what the book said about their names. If you're curious, you should check it out. It's pretty amusing, and sometimes, scarily close to accurate.

I talked about how I choose names in my last post. I always find that part of the naming process one of the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the whole character creation process. Sitting down with my pile of name books (one that has lots of unusual names and spelling variations, one that I can search for names by meaning, and one that I can just skim through for the more popular names), my laptop (babynamesworld.com has an excellent search function; babynamewizard.com has some amazing tools for checking popularity of names), and paper and pencil to jot down anything that strikes my fancy is my favorite way to spend some time. There are times I've spent an hour or more looking up names, comparing how they sound or feel, whether they fit with the idea of the character I have or if they make the character take an unexpected turn. Each part of this process is so fun to me.

Why do I spend so much time on the names? I mean besides being a little obsessed with names. Well I mentioned above how they change the way people see your character. To me, they help define the character. Until the character is named, it's almost like they don't really exist yet. Once they have that name, the name that says exactly the right thing about the character and their history and their place in the story, then they seem to be real to me. They come alive, ready to play their parts in the story.

So you see, names are one of the most important parts of creating a character, at least to me. It's also one of the most satisfying.

Short post, I know. But if I keep writing, I'll just start sounding crazier than I already do. :) See you on Thursday!