Monday, March 2, 2020

Character Names

The main characters of my film are the married couple, and I need names for them that fit their personalities.  For the man, he is an established business man, so I looked up a list of business-like names, and found a list of the most "successful" names.  I scrolled through and the top names were ones like John, Micheal, and Joseph;  I liked the name David from the list and felt that it was a tiny notch less basic than the other names.  I wanted a classic businessman name, and I thought David would work well for this purpose.  I then looked up a list of last names, and after looking through the long list, I settled on "Harker", because I felt it sounded good with David, and sounded good alone.  As a white couple, I want David and his wife to have very American names, and Harker sounds very American. I also think it sounds powerful, and I could imagine male coworkers in the office casually calling him Harker, but also people lower than him referring to him professionally as Mr.Harker.
     For the mother, I looked up popular female names from 1980, because even if she’s older than that, it still sets the names in the right age range.  I want her to also have a pretty basic name, to make her and David fit in with average American couples.  I settled on Jackie for the mother, because I like the name and it gives her a casual feel.  I want her character to be well liked by all of David’s coworkers and the other adults in the film, and I felt like Jackie was a very friendly and inviting name.  Jackie Harker also flows, so the name works. 
     I also need a name for the son, because even though he isn’t in the opening scene, the scene discusses his future.  I got a list of the current popular male names, since if the parents have a basic name, then their son’s name should match with that.  I scrolled through a list of 100 names, and decided I liked the name Aiden.  It’s basic without being completely overused, and also sounds good with Harker. 
   

Sources:
https://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/25-baby-names-that-spell-career-success-01375026
https://hobbylark.com/writing/cool-last-names
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a29351513/popular-baby-boy-names-2020/
https://www.momswhothink.com/top-100-baby-names-for-the-1980s/

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