How To Name The Original Characters In Your Comic, Manga, Or Webtoon Series

[Music] how's it going everyone welcome back to monitor comics the channel where we create comics and manga if this is your first time stopping by my channel then i hope you can check out some of my other videos after you're finished watching this one we've already covered a ton of cool comic making tutorials including how to script your comic how to create storyboards for your manga and how to create interesting protagonist characters in today's video we'll be discussing how to come up with a character name for all the characters in your comics manga and webtoon projects thank you man and shababy france for the video suggestion make sure you watch this video in its entirety because we'll be going over all the elements that make a character's name memorable but first let's hear a word from today's sponsor this video is brought to you by skillshare skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creators with skillshare you can explore new skills 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for your character is honestly one of the hardest tasks you will have to complete as a storyteller the weight of that responsibility can often paralyze writers obviously you don't want to do wrong by your character by giving them an ordinary pedestrian name you also don't want to confuse your reader by giving your character names that are too creative distracting or hard to pronounce the wrong name for your character could take your reader out of the story and ruin their immersion common pedestrian names also run into the issue of being easily forgotten your reader may have to backtrack to remember who is who in your story sometimes the perfect character name will pop into your head before you even start building your character's identity other times you might fully flesh out your character's identity but the perfect name continues to elude you tip number one embracing the ordinary there are many tom dick and harry's in the world this is exactly why your story may need one your name choices should be authentic to the types of characters you live within the world you have created some stories heavily based on reality benefit from characters with ordinary pedestrian names think of iconic characters like james hallett mary jane and bruce wayne each of these characters have pedestrian first names their surnames or last names carry most of the verbal impact while it can be tempting to give your character a flashy name like lelouch v brittania monkey d luffy and violet evergarden sometimes a simple character name can better fit the world of your story tip number two consider the time period it is important to remember that names are a reflection of the times names that are common and popular right now are not the same as names that were popular in the past names often go in and out of fashion every year a data list of the most popular baby names is released to the public for example using the official data set on the united states government social security website i discovered that the five most popular names for girls in the 1930s were mary betty dorothy helen and margaret when i changed the year to 2005 we can see that the five most common names given to female babies were emily emma madison abigail and olivia it is also important to note that in different cultures some names that you think are masculine may be feminine or vice versa your character's name should fit the societal norms of when they were born it is fine to have one or two characters with unusual names but you shouldn't have distracting character names for no good justifiable reason tip number three parents logic unless you change your name later in life the name you currently have is usually given to you by your parents or a caregiver characters don't name themselves their parents do with few exceptions your character's parents will be conventional people who follow the rules and societal trends of the time period and world that they inhabit sometimes a family name is passed down onto the child there is always a logic behind your character's name choice that is either explained or easily understood by their reader think of a character like naruto uzumaki naruto's parent minoton namakaze and kushino uzumaki bestowed the surname uzumaki onto him so his identity as the fourth hokage son will be hidden minotau allowed his mentor jiraya to name naruto the name naruto came from the term naruto maki a topping found that jiraiya's favorite ramen naruto was also a name jariah came up with for a character in his novel tip number four genre influence character names must make sense within the context of your story's genre a genre can be defined as a category of literature characterized by similarities in form style or subject matter some genres you may have heard of include drama fantasy horror comedy mystery and science fiction think about it character names in a story set during the victorian era are not going to be the same as character names found in a story set on a colonized mars if your story is set in a future that no one knows you have the freedom to predict trends and come up with more unique names for your characters tip number five name consistency in real life people may associate more than one name with their identity think of nicknames pet names aliases and official titles when you are writing a story it's best to limit your character to a single name if possible a character was called jon one minute jonathan the next and jojo every now and then is bound to confuse your reader there are exceptions to every rule certain situations may call for your character to be called by another name for example in a work setting your character may be called mr or missus followed by their last name in cases like that it is justifiable to use multiple names to refer to one character try to use multiple names sparingly and avoid doing it with more than one character the last thing you want is a reader who is unable to keep track of who is who in your comic manga or webtoon project tip number six dissimilar names it doesn't matter if your story only has two characters or 200 characters each character should be given a uniquely different sounding name what this means is you should not have a character named lari if you already have a character named lauren you should not have a character named aiden if you already have a character named adam similar names as similar lengths can sometimes cause confusion for quick readers who gloss over names after reading them a few times a general rule of thumb is to avoid two or more characters having names that begin with the same letter sound similar or are shaped similarly an exception to this rule can be seen in tolkien's novel the hobbit in this story it is a cultural tradition for the dwarves and elves to share similar sounding names with their relatives an example of this are the brothers nori dorian ori you should try your best to avoid giving more than one character the same exact name this can easily lead to confusion tip number seven avoid name associations while it may be tempting to name the character in your comic manga or web team project if they're one of your favorite characters or public figures you should avoid it at all cost more specifically you should avoid choosing names that have become famous and pop culture are infamous throughout history the only exception that is rule is if you are writing a story that logically justifies why your character's name is associated with that well-known person or character an example of this can be found in the series arya the scarlet ammo the protagonist is named arya holmes kanzaki she is the descendant of the famous detective sherlock holmes more specifically she is sherlock holmes iv in the same series the character rico mean lupin iv is the descendant of the infamous thief lupin iii another exception to this rule is that the story you are writing literally involves a historical figure or pre-existing character an example this can be seen in the death note one shot where former united states president donald trump plays a vital role in the plot of the story the manga adaptation of shakespeare's romeo and juliet also features characters that share the same exact name as the iconic characters they were based on tip number eight easy pronunciation the characters in your comic manga and webtoon project should have easy to pronounce names nothing takes you out of a story quicker than being unable to pronounce or identify a word in a sentence keep in mind that just because you are able to easily pronounce a name a general audience may have a hard time interpreting it to this day i still receive comments that mock how i mispronounced the name modera in a youtube video that is now 2 years old in my defense i was a manga reader only with naruto i never heard the name pronounced in the anime adaptation despite this i'm still suffering the consequences of mispronouncing a character's name that i only saw in text tip number nine expressing character qualities every name has a meaning and an origin websites such as behind the name exist to share detailed information that different names carry this information usually includes gender pronunciation root meaning history variance and popularity in literature character names are intentional character names often shape who your character is or will become other times character names may translate into a phrase or a symbol that relates to your character in some way think of the main trio from kingdom hearts surah kairi and riku all translate to elemental names that connect to their predecessors sora translates the sky kyrie translates the sea and riku translates to land symbolically there are different attribute words associated with each element these attribute and qualities can be found in each character's personality and character development throughout the series in kingdom hearts birth by sleep we learn that the main trio of ventus aqua and terra are the ones who grant sora kyrie and riku the ability to use the keyblade these three have similar names to the previous trio vendus's name translates the wind aqua's name translates to water and terra's name translates to earth by giving these characters names with similar meanings a clear link is established between both trios the traits associated with each of their names also reinforces each character's identity tip number 10 name generators sometimes you just need to look at a list of names and pick out your favorite one one of the most popular methods for coming up in new character names is to pretend they are your baby literally baby naming websites have been an invaluable tool for authors for many years often times these websites offer name meanings trending names and even names that were popular during different years what's cool about these websites is how easy it is to filter and browse through thousands of different names some name generators i can recommend include name berry baby name wizard and baby name center well that's gonna wrap it up for today's video hopefully you were able to get some value out of it if you did please drop this video a like did you know almost 70 of my viewers are not subscribed to this channel please consider subscribing if you haven't already it really helps my videos get seen by more authors like you drop a comment down below telling us about the names you have given your characters in your story i would love to hear how you come up with your character's names remember you can read the first three chapters of my published saturday and manga series change the world by heading over to pilotmonger.com on january 15th and january 16th saturday am is hosting a virtual convention called saturday con different anime companies comic publishers influencers and artists will be presenting there i'll be hosting a live panel saturday con along with the other members of saturday afternoon so i hope to see you there you can further support me by shooting me a follow on all of my social media accounts like always they will be linked down in the description below as always keep creating everyone i will see you all in the next one [Music] you

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Id: RoOecFwMpsU

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 28 2021