28/04/2020
How Wrong Choice of Names of Characters Can Ruin Your Story (Part One)
As a book editor, without any affectation, I can say that I have been able to edit as many as up to a couple of thousands of fictional books over the years. As far as literary appreciation is concerned, I have discovered that the use of names in stories is not an area that many writers have much guidance. This is what informs the sharing of my opinion on this important issue on my EDITING, WRITING AND REWRITING page. I am convinced it is going to be of a great benefit to some of us who desire to keep improving in this remarkable art of creative writing. This is going to be the first part of four points so as not to bore you the readers and also to allow for adequate digestions that I believe the topic demands. The second and last part of four points on the topic will be posted later.
1. The first one is the use of common names. I am going to be particular about Nigerian writers here for some reasons, if you don’t mind please. Since Akin Goes to School, Akin, as a Yoruba name has been overused in storybooks and fictional works. Other names in that category are Bola, Ngozi, Bolanle, Tunde, Wale, Mohammed, Chukwu, Eze, etc. The point is this; it is always to an advantage to use a name that stands out in a story. This in essence will assist in easy recollection of the story for one thing. On the other hand, common names may be boring or may reflect lack of creativity on the part of the author. But then, my point is not that no character at all should bear any popular name please.
2. In this second as well as the third point below, I want to suggest choices that are open to writers who agree with my first point that using popular names may sometimes be boring to put it mildly. I've had to advise writers to cultivate the habit of coining names. I do it a lot. Once again, coining names is a further expression of your creative ability. Please permit me to use this local example here. There were two radio presenters on a local station in my State. I admire them greatly. They would tell stories with characters such Kuujo, Lanlatirikuota (Lanla ¾), Larungbekun, etc. On the opposite side to where I grew up, I remember a woman who sold moin-moin when I was a lot younger. She was stark illiterate but whenever you greeted her, she was fond of always saying ‘Yeesima’ (Yes, ma) and in the process of time, people started calling her Iya Yeesima. The point is that characters’ names can’t only be made unique but also funny to an advantage.
3. To avoid using common names also, it stands to reason to make use of uncommon names. If I am looking for names of hardened criminals, I won’t dream of names such as Tunde, Kola, Biodun, Mohammed, John or Jide (no, not because of what you are thinking). Names that would suggest themselves to me would be such as Aguda, Knife, Ogodo, Iku, Ojuelegba, Hammer, etc. What I am doing now, in case you may be interested in doing the same thing, is developing name banks for my writing; many of which of course are coined and unique names.
4. In Nigeria, many people have now imbibed the culture of placing the surname before the first name. I really don’t know how the culture evolved. Could it be the effect of school registers or what? If you say, for instance, Obama Barrack, one may think that you actually mean someone else and not the former president of America. How does Obasanjo Segun, Soyinka Wole or Achebe Chinua sound? Why should I write Ogunlana Jide as the author instead of Jide Ogunlana? A first name is a first name and a surname according to the dictionary is the family name or the last name.
