Janet Woods
What’s in a name?
In
the application of story characterization – plenty.
I’ll
start with my own names. Janet (meaning in the grace of God) and Angela
(meaning angel-like). Okay, so Janet is not a bad little name, it’s comfortable
and safe, easy to spell and pronounce.
Angela
is quite a pretty name if one desires to be compared to an angel. I headed in
the other direction. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on my mother’s part,
though she wasn’t religious. Sorry mum . . . not this Janet!
I
think my parents were influenced by their workplace. Dad was a chauffeur and my
mother a housemaid. They, and my grandfather (who’d been the head coachman for
the same family before) worked for gentry, a family who made most of their
fortune out of the industrial era manufacturing and selling gas appliances.
Both
my grandfather and my father drove a Rolls Royce for the same family, with my
father inheriting the job. (sorry, I just had to name drop!).
I’ve
always found that, in writing, expectations come with names.
Picture
Janet as a trusted housekeeper in cap and apron wearing muted shades, the keys
to the stately home hanging from the chatelaine at her waist as she hovers,
quietly dependent and unobtrusive in the background. Being directed about their
work by the loyal Janet will be the Millies, Mollies, Nellies, Fannies, and
Bessies. They’ll be doing the dirty work, running around, raking ash from the
coals, black-leading the grates, washing the bedpans and making the dust fly.
Most likely they would chatter about boys and be generally frivolous as they
flirted with the delivery boys and stable hands. They might even flirt with the
son of the house, after he’d swallowed a couple of snifters of brandies.
The
handsome sardonic hero and heir is William Carstairs. His mates address him as
Big Willie with an exchange of winks and schoolboy chuckles. His sisters call
him Little Willie on account of them being older than him and because they are
virgins and totally ignorant about willies of any type. They don’t even know
what virginity is until they lose it, by which time it’s too late to complain, not
that they would now they’ve discovered the secret of life.
If
the sisters were unmarried as well as unfrocked she’d be called something
exotic, like Claudia or Jasmine, Rita, Carmen of Lola. Older spinsters would
have virtuous names and I sometimes think they were destined to be spinster
aunts since birth . . . Patience, Prudence, Charity or Hope. The heroine might
be Adelaide, Charlotte or Caroline.
Heroes’
names come in several styles. Solid and steady, heroic or unusual, try these
standards for endurance. They are always in fashion. Edward, George, Samuel,
Thomas, William, John, Roger . . .
Roger?
That one might be a bit dicey. You know the Roger-the-lodger jokes and the
occasional vulgarity men use regarding the name, I expect. Let me just say that
the meaning of the name Roger is “Famous with a spear.” That aside, one of the
best and most beautiful books I’ve ever read was “Through a Glass Darkly.” It
was written by Karleen Koen and first published in 1986. Her troubled hero was
Roger who struggled to define his own sexuality within a marriage to a woman
who cared deeply for him.
The
solid and steady hero always works well because the names endure. You need only
look up name lists for any given era to see that. My personal favorite is for
hero types that are easy to spell. Alex, Leon, Benedict, Nick.
I
also like unusual Celtic names. The trouble with them is although they look
good on paper they’re usually a devil to get your tongue round. My latest use
of a Celtic name is Tighe. I was often asked how it was pronounced. To the best
of my knowledge it’s Tie. However, in case the enquirer is a professor of the
Celtic language, I usually ask, “How would you pronounce it?”
Some
say Tiggy. Some Tigehee. Some prefer Tig-he, and an Irish man said “I T ” and
laughed. Old joke, I know, but you’ve got to love the Irish sense of humour!
So
what’s in a name? There are quite a lot of points to consider if you want the
right name for your characters, one that is suitable for their position in life
as well as providing a compatible union with the heroine’s name. Sharon and
Darryn? Elizabeth and Edgar? Nah, I don’t think so! My characters nag me if
they don’t feel comfortable with their names. Luckily we have a search and
change function, which means we can try out different combinations.
Now
back to Janet. Had she been a housekeeper in the historical past, she would
have been referred to as Mrs. Woods, whether married or not.
As
it happens, the family my mother worked for had two daughters. The younger of
the two was called Jane Alicia, and referred to rather reverently in
conversation as Miss Jane. It doesn’t stretch my imagination too far to know
who I was named after. When my mother was pleased with me, which wasn’t often,
or when she had visitors for tea and I was under a death threat if I argued,
she fondly called me “Our Jane.”
Otherwise
I was, “Where’s that Janet got to? Eh, but she’ll be the death of me.” That was
an exaggeration. Mum lived to be 105 and I had nothing to do with her demise,
promise.
My
first novel was written under a pen name. Being confronted by a name I’d chosen
for myself was traumatic. It felt as though somebody had stolen my work. It
reinforced the notion that names were an important part of my characterization.
So
from then on I was Janet (forget the housekeeper notion!)
I
do sometimes have a smidgen of regret for not soaring off on my angel wings
though. Who know how high I could have flown!
