Character names are sometimes a point of contention from my readers. And also a subject that gives rise to a number of questions. Not least: where do they come from?

I often get picked up on my character names. Even before The Berylford Scandals were a thing and the 10-year-old me was writing stories about French vampires… And much as I have visited this subject in a previous post long ago, I thought it worth another look. Especially as people often ask me where I get these, often unusual and ‘complicated’, character names from. This post explores some of the places I’ve found inspiration, and where you can find it too.

FAMILY NAMES

This really ought to be a goes-without-saying go-to for all aspiring writers. I often think that an interest in one’s own family history and the stories there associated is an invaluable asset to authors. If you deal in stories set in real-life settings, and in the past, as I do, then having a knowledge of your roots and what your ancestors got up to can provide a wealth of inspiration. Not least in giving your characters realistic but no less memorable names. Some of the fan favourites (the loves and the love-to-hates) were named after ancestors of mine. The Whitlockes and the Warwicks, just to name a couple.

PLACES

I took a leaf out of the book of everyone’s (or… well… still some people’s) favourite witchcraft and wizardry writer for this one. J.K. Rowling borrowed a number of place names to assign as surnames for her characters in Harry Potter. Snape, Flitwick and Dursley are examples. And you don’t have to use the place name in its exact form either; just use it as a base from which to manipulate. The Lancashire town of Urmston got modified slightly when it came to creating Mrs Urmstone in the Berylford books; the same goes for Hathersage in the Peak District, which was reworked a bit to become Haffisidge.

As a side-piece of advice: don’t just look to villages and towns and other such locations. Even something as simple as road names is just as valuable for inspiration.

MANIPULATING OTHER NAMES

Off the back of that previous point, a number of names that I created had relatively commonplace, or at least less flavourful origins. Take Lady Vyrrington, my chief Berylford anti-heroine, for example. She began literary life with a name at which I can barely write without cringing — Lady Selina Goodsby — before I decided that was hardly becoming of such a character. It needed gravitas and memorability. I settled on the final surname far quicker, beginning with Barrington, a fairly commonplace “posh” surname. It just took a bit of letter play. Barrington became Berrington, then Berrington to Verrington, and finally Verrington to Vyrrington. It’s original, memorable, and, if people actually take the time to read it properly, not actually difficult to pronounce.

RESEARCHING REAL-LIFE FIGURES

The former three suggestions work perfectly fine when you’re writing a story set in your home country. There’s no language or culture barrier to fight against; you know that these names will belong with such characters. So, when it comes to my current work-in-progress, You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic, set in Germany, I have no such luxury. I have had to do a bit more research to ensure the correct style and flavour get captured. Where better to find genuine German names? By looking into real-life German people from the period. Names such as Upfauer (manipulated from Hupfauer), Verschuer, and Seyß came to me this way.

BE OBSERVANT

As should be the case with everything you do as a writer: pay attention to things and people around you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a full-time author or working an office job for 40 hours a week — inspiration for characters, events, stories… it’s everywhere. I keep a list of interesting and/or unusual names that I intend to use for future stories. For instance, just the other day at work, I came upon the name Argyrides. Something that I would never have dreamt up myself. But already I can envision it belonging to some antagonist… of Greek extraction… for a new story that may come to pass. And now that I have it, I’m damn well keeping it!

FINAL NOTES ON CHARACTER NAMES

Just a last bit of passing advice when it comes to naming your characters. Be mindful of period, style, flavour, and setting. This is where your all-important research skills will come in useful. Reading other works set in that time, with that setting, will give you more knowledge in terms of what names were fashionable at the time. Or the naming conventions observed by certain cultures. For example, you couldn’t have a story set in 19th Century Russia wherein the main character’s name was Alice. Alice becomes Alisa in Russian. Furthermore, the Russians observe a patronymic naming system, and so, at least at points during your story, for increased authenticity if nothing else, you or your characters would refer to Alisa as Alisa Mikhailovna (or whatever you choose to designate).

Like a lot of writing, it isn’t a simple matter of chucking any old shit on the page and thinking it works. There is so much more to it than that.

Got any other ideas? Let me know in the comments section. For more author news and views, my Facebook and Instagram pages are here. And drop a subscription to my YouTube channel to remain informed of the latest, plus some exclusives. Furthermore, my fortnightly podcast, The Dale Hurst Writing Show, is available to listen to here on Spotify.

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FULL NAME: Amethyst Judith Hazel Whitlocke (née Cheshill)

BORN: 20 August 1763, Maidstone, Kent (aged 30-31 in Lust & Liberty; 51-52 in Sin & Secrecy)

EYE COLOUR: Brown

HAIR COLOUR: Brown

FAMILY: Judith Cheshill (mother, deceased); George Whitlocke (husband)

ALLIES: Lady Oliviera Vyrrington, George Whitlocke, Judith-Ann Haffisidge

ENEMIES: Luke Warwick

OCCUPATION: Lady’s maid, housekeeper and cook

PERSONALITY: Timid, subservient, kind, unconfident; inferiority complex sufferer

POLITICS: Unknown

FAITH: Catholic

Who is Amethyst Whitlocke?

Amethyst is probably the purest member of the Vyrrington household. But that’s only because she would be too frightened to be anything more or less. As a character, I set her up to show redeeming qualities of both her mistress Lady Vyrrington and her husband George Whitlocke. Both have an affection for her that they do not display to any other characters.

But by characterising Amethyst like this, I have allowed her to be an unlikely suspect in a few of the mysteries involved in the Berylford Scandals. Pushing Lady Vyrrington down the stairs was one. It showed a depth to Amethyst’s personality – while she fears almost everyone, she is still also capable of anger, even towards someone like the Countess. And when Lady Vyrrington threatens to kill any hope of her marrying Whitlocke in Lust & Liberty, that’s a step too far. In Sin & Secrecy, I have had a chance to show a newfound confidence and calm in Amethyst, in a conversation between her and her husband after Abel Stirkwhistle gives him an awkward task…

from Chapter XVI of The Berylford Scandals: Sin & Secrecy

“What did Mr Stirkwhistle want?” she changed the subject as the butler finally seated himself on the edge of their bed and began to remove his livery. He did not respond immediately. If there was one person Whitlocke felt he could confide in, it was his wife, but his protectiveness over her was fierce. And from the conversation he had just had with Abel – a scenario drowning in secrets and, for all Whitlocke knew, far worse – it was imperative that Amethyst be spared any association. Not just for her own sake, but for that of Lady Vyrrington. Her lady’s maid was as good as a little sister to the Countess, having been in her service since she was an emaciated, frightened ward of the workhouse. Under the tutelage and hitherto unfamiliar kindness of Lady Oliviera, Amethyst’s sense of total inferiority was gradually eroded and, now in her mid-forties, she was confidently in charge of the upkeep of Beryl Court alongside her husband. While the numerous losses she had suffered had rendered the Countess a frigid and loveless shell, that sororal affection had lasted. In that familial vein, any scandal associated with the Whitlockes extended to Her Ladyship. And that would never be acceptable.

“Nothing of consequence,” at length the butler to his wife replied, cursing himself mentally for deceiving her.

“Thought it might have had to do with that boy brought to the house,” returned Amethyst, resuming her book. Whitlocke at once wheeled around.

“The boy?”

“Yes; as a matter of fact, Lady Vyrrington’s appetite only seemed to change after that little episode. It might be bothering her.”

“I doubt that.”

“You never know, George – there may yet be the slightest maternal feeling left in her.”

“Hardly the sort of child to rekindle that, though!”

“No, I suppose not.”

As he loosened his cravat, a synapse fired in Whitlocke’s shrewd mind that gave him an idea. An idea to fulfil the task Abel had put upon him, while not lying to his wife any further.

            “She was interested in the boy, come to think of it,” he observed. To himself, Amethyst thought.

            “Yes, she mentioned him to me as well while I was helping her retire,” she replied, not looking up from her book.

            “Perhaps it does do her good. To have young people in the house again. Now it’s only us two, Mr Stirkwhistle, Mrs Urmstone and Mrs Haffisidge who are ever here with her.”

“Lamplighter boys don’t make good companions to ladies of rank, George.”

“I’m not saying he’d be her companion. A junior servant, nothing more. But a young face she’d see in a daily capacity.”

Amethyst chuckled.

“You actually sound serious,” she said.

“I am serious.”

Her mouth hung open.

“And just how, pray, are you planning to persuade Lady Vyrrington to approve this? More to it – since when did you care so much how she feels?”

Whitlocke had not thought that far. Fortunately for him, he was a skilled improviser – a trait that made him all the more efficient as a butler – the ability to expect the unexpected – and so his answer came swiftly. He disguised the moments it took to think about it with more grumbling of begrudging concern for his mistress’ welfare.

            “Well, we’re neither of us getting any younger, my love. And, if Lady Vyrrington dies, and Master Spencer or Master Edward don’t come back from the wars-”

            “Oh George, don’t say things like that!” Amethyst interrupted in a moment of uncharacteristic exasperation, “Those dear boys – of course they will come back!”

            “But suppose they don’t, dear. Lady Amelia cannot inherit until she comes of age or until she marries. And if she does marry, control of the estate passes to her husband. He’ll probably have his own staff.”

            “So… what? You want to stay in Her Ladyship’s favour? And pray that she leaves us a stipend in her will? I think you know the money for that kind of thing has long been spent.”

Whitlocke, at last undressed for bed, laid back next to his wife. He had no further words – she had thwarted him in a rare instance of confidence on her part. But in the moments of silence that followed as she continued on with her book, the butler remembered that there had been two questions she had put to him, and he had only answered the second.

            “I was thinking you might put the suggestion to her, Amethyst,” he broke the silence.

            “What suggestion?”

            “That we hire that boy as a servant. It may do Lady Vyrrington good, as I say. Will you do it as a favour to me?”

Closing her book, for she knew she would be in receipt of no peace now, Amethyst sighed a heavy sigh.

            “Of course I can’t deny you, George,” she murmured, taking his hand in hers, “Though you must know the outcome you want is far from likely.”

            “I know that. Just want you to ask her. Mind you – if she were to say ‘yes’ to anyone, it’s you!”

            “She has said ‘no’ plenty of times as well! But very well – I’ll mention it to her when I’m delivering her breakfast tomorrow.”

Origins & Basis

Amethyst went through a lot of changes from her inception back in 2008. She was one of the original 40 characters that went into the first Berylford story, but her name was actually Imelda Burgess (her husband also had this surname). Imelda was deliberately after Imelda Staunton, one of my favourite actresses. I can’t actually remember why I changed her forename at all. Amethyst is my sister’s birthstone, so it’s something of a homage to her, while Whitlocke is a manipulation of one of my great-grandparents’ surnames.

Over the course of writing, the only thing to change about Amethyst’s character is the nature of her relationships with her husband and her mistress. Whitlocke was originally quite abusive (albeit not physically so, just verbally threatening), while Lady Vyrrington was as cold with her as with everyone else. I refer back to what I said earlier in the article – I ultimately decided Amethyst was to show off these two characters’ redeeming qualities. Her backstory, involving near-starvation in a workhouse and being rescued by Lady Vyrrington’s father, came in the early drafts of Lust & Liberty, when trying to justify why Amethyst was so timid and easily frightened

Literary Inspiration

Whitlocke is something of a sympathetic version of Jeremiah Flintwinch from Dickens’ Little Dorrit. With this in mind, Amethyst is loosely based on Affery, Flintwinch’s wife. The meek little maidservant who lives in mortal fear of everyone and everything. But with the changes I put into Amethyst over the years, she became less and less like that original model.

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