Canada has recently been host to the first official foreign visit of newly weds, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. William and Catherine have impressed the crowds with their grace, compassion and normalcy. Their names, now said in the same sentence, have intrigued me for various reasons. William shares a name with William the Conqueror who took the kingdom for his in 1066 so I have wondered if he has now conquered the hearts of Canadians who are relatively strong monarchists compared to their antipodean cousins. Catherine's middle name is Elizabeth which she shares with her grandmother-in-law and I have also wondered about when her parents chose that name, were they honouring their new daughter's queen?
Naming the characters in a novel is an important step for the writer as these names will stay with the writer forever. The characters take on a form as the novel unfolds and the writer starts to have conversations with their characters, or sees them in their dreams. However even as the story starts the characters have already approached the writer and made their presence known. Likewise, once the book is written and the story told the characters are still alive somewhere in the imagination of the writer.
How did I go about naming characters in 'A Place to Play'? I was firstly looking for English names such as Martha, Dr. Smith and Robert Baker to emphasise the English setting of the book and the 'Federation of English Cities'. By using European names I hoped to allude to a subtle discussion on European integration; I introduced Timea (Hungarian), Ferras (Spanish) and Rudi (German). I also wanted to suggest that despite the Federation's attempts at cutting off ties to the rest of the world, the ties that existed prior to 2040 could not be erased completely by using global names such as Chen and Trojan (daft name for a girl, I know, but have a look at North American girls' names and you'll see what I mean).
In 'An Immigrants' Tale' (working title) my two main protagonists are William and Catherine, hence the reason for mentioning the royals' recent visit. William does actually get a mention in 'A Place to Play' as the United Kingdom collapses after he dies but he is not the William of my second novel. There are coincidental similarities with the royal couple: my William and Catherine fall in love and they also come from different social classes. However, my William and Catherine are named after some of my great great grandparents and therefore I will not be changing their names as they are already alive in my imagination. Indeed they have been around for rather a lot longer than I have and even longer that the Duke and Duchess.
