Currently writing a novel struggling to come up with a name for a MC. here’s some details that might help any suggestions.
-This character is a woman, born and raised in the United States, in the area of the southern great plains (think along the lines of Wichita, a bit more north, a bit to the west, a bit south too)
-Definitely raised in a “Family First” type family to the worst degree, they all have it tattooed on their face the second they can or something, they are overbearing and controlling. (Family of mother, father, grandmother, 2 sisters [one 4 years older, one a year younger] and 3 brothers [3 years older, twin who remains unnamed intentionally, one two years younger] living together)
-On living together it was a lot of moving around, usually between trailer homes, converted mobile-made-stationary homes, and the occasional apartment in earliest childhood.
-The story is a horror that plays with a two-narrator perspective in order to inspire such horror feelings in not only the narrators, but also the reader, who is led to initially trust this character’s perspective more. To validate their emotions or ideas more, only to be subverted later on and become unsure of who to trust.
-She sees herself as passive, virtuous, respectful, truthful to a fault, doing what’s right, conceding to others out of politeness, overly kind to a fault, doing her best to understand others
-The other MC comes to see her as entitled, lying, aggressively defensive, pushy but only when it suits her, completely in denial of herself and others, without regard for other’s feelings, manipulative with intention, and completely unwilling to listen.
-The time period of the story is a post 1990’s U.S. but not explicitly any year post 2011
-This character is in her mind twenties at the time the story takes place.
While note all of this HAS to come into play can anyone think of names that feels sort of like this energy? I’ve been thinking for weeks on it.
Backing out from an estimated time frame for the story of 2005, and making her ~25 years old (you mentioned mid 20s), these were the top ten names for baby girls in Kansas in 1980:
Jennifer
Amanda
Sarah
Melissa
Jessica
Amy
Angela
Amber
Heather
Michelle
You can find the top 100, by state, for any given birth year, here:
Families of that sort either went for the most popular names (Jennifer being the most likely, or Sara with no “h”) or a hand-me-down name of a grandparent or great aunt (like Mabel, Heloise, or Alice). Last names could be anything, but a good character name would be easy to remember with no more than two syllables with a consonant at the end, like perhaps Solvang, Betters, or Batton. Try not to overthink it or try to make the name fit most, or even all, of that back history-names just don’t work out that way.
It would be useful to know at least some other names in the story. (While chess pieces have standard point values, their real value depends on the context, that is the values of the other pieces and the board’s situation.)
Good point of the names of the other members. I noticed something on the chart. I came from a large family (8 kids) and all but one was a very common name. Except one sister had a very unusual name.That would seem out of place, unless there was something unusual about the character where it would fit.
Sorry, but what’s “MC” refer to? I’ve been googling and all that comes up is “Motorcycle Club” (like the first twenty "MC"s), which doesn’t make sense… Middle Child, but what’s the “other MC” then?
Or a Master of Ceremonies?
