“Once upon a time there was a little chimney sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it.”
– The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley
Lately, I’ve found myself turning over character names like shells from the ocean – testing their weight, feeling their texture, holding them against my ear to hear the echoes of my novel.
When it comes to names – in fantasy especially – I expect everything. Names are personality, destiny, history, myth and legacy encoded in a few letters. Whether they belong to people, places, animals or objects, the right names build the world. They’re not decoration – they’re scaffolding for belief and meaning. Fantasy as a genre has always understood that names are maps and symbols in disguise. These names are spoken in languages we’ve never heard, but somehow understand, creating something that feels older than the page.
Beyond their practical function, names carry an almost sacred energy. In many spiritual traditions, a name is more than a sound or label. It is a vibration, a frequency that holds the essence of a being’s soul and destiny. To speak a name is to invoke that spirit, to call forth the unique light within someone or something.
This idea is so literal in Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story when the fate of Fantastica (Fantasia in the 1984 film adaption) itself hinges on a name. The Childlike Empress, timeless and radiant, is dying. Her world is unravelling. The only way to save her, and Fantastica/Fantasia, is for a human child from the real world to rename her. A name, truly given from emotion, reawakens life and reclaims story.
The Water-Babies casts its magic through simplicity. Tom is simply Tom – short, familiar and chosen so you won’t forget him. Around him swirl Ellie, kind and gentle, and Mr Grimes, harsh and cruel. Then come the living lessons: Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid – names that double as guideposts through a moral landscape.
Names connect us – reader to character, character to world, world to story. When a name is right, it lingers, resonates and means. You don’t always remember battles or plot twists, but you do remember Katniss Everdeen or Violet Sorrengail.
Photo by Jay-Pee Peña on Unsplash