Naming Characters

My first novel, one that was critted to death before it was half finished, featured a villain patterned after a real person.

This man was the principal at a high school where I taught. His name was perfect for the character! The first name was ironic, and the last name was similar enough to the most famous villain that the students called him Hitler. Yes, he deserved it.

Obviously, I couldn’t use his real name. And I struggled to find an alternative that was half as good. I finally ended up choosing Simon Atlee: Simon in hopes of a Simon Legree echo, and Atlee because the students could call him Attila the Hun. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I could do, and I figured I was safe since Atlee is a very uncommon surname.

Fast forward to last week: in an old Reader’s Digest, I read an excerpt from Love Always by Petra Nemcova.

You may remember, Petra was the supermodel who was vacationing with her boyfriend in Thailand when the tsunami hit. She clung to the top of a palm tree for eight hours with a broken pelvis and internal injuries before she was rescued, and Love Always is about the experience.

And the boyfriend, whose body wasn’t found for months.

His name? Take a guess….

Yep. Simon Atlee. And by Petra’s account, he was a great guy. Not someone to model a villain after.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board. Who knew it would this hard just to name a character?

Note: Thanks to for the great new icon!