Avoiding writing (again), I wandered Orson Scott Card’s Uncle Orson’s Writing Class. And just for the hell of it, clicked on the character naming article.
First rule: No two characters in the same story can have their key name (i.e., the one most commonly referred to) start with the same letter or the same sound).
Oh, I’m okay on that one. I’ve always hated that in others’ long works. So I’m pretty careful. Changed from Mark to Ben because Mark and Marcori (Eve’s last name and commonly used) were too close, stuff like that.
Except–oh wait. Marcori, Mikey, and Meera, all on the Dream at the same time. Snitch and Snipe. Elf and Eve. Cat and Kat.
Oops.
So I’ve spent the last two hours or more putting together a list of everybody in all the books, and I’m not close to done. But I’ve got all the major characters (I think) I’ll add everyone else in as I go. And I’ve got Eve and Ben twice each, since Eve nearly always calls him Doc, and Marines tend to call her Bitch a lot. I put them all in a table so I could sort alphabetically. I put in the key names, as OSC put it, and their full names, affiliation (so I can keep Marines and colonists and spacers, etc, straight) where they are when the story hits them, and where they’re from if I know it. I’ve used every letter but O, U, V, Y, and Z at least once, several of them more. But I’m making sure that the ones that start with the same letter aren’t in the same story.
I have over fifty names. Many of them are minor characters, some never actually appear alive in any of my planned stories, but I put them in. So I don’t have three Thomases all coming from the crew of one small freighter or something. And so I don’t nickname too many Marines Flat, as it’s such an appealing Marine name…