Graveyard? More like Name-yard
The truth of the matter, as I sit and start this blog post, is that I haven’t written much over the past two weeks. I went out of town on a nice, long roadtrip with my mother and grandmother. The priority was memory-making, not sentence structuring. Good food rather than good grammar. Spending time with loved ones instead of my characters.
But everywhere you go, even if it’s nowhere more special than the walk you take every day around your neighborhood, gives you the chance to look around and see what might be gathered and stored as story fuel. Inspiration. Ideas.
You better believe I took the opportunity, one of the days we were in Salem, Massachusetts, to do my very favorite thing to gather inspiration: I visited an old cemetery and wandered amongst the headstones.
My mother went with me, too. It was early on a morning we’d already been up to catch the sunrise, literally. So infrequently do I make myself get out of bed to witness the sun’s awakening, but I couldn’t resist since we were so close to the ocean.
Anyway, Greenlawn Cemetery was all of five minutes away from the place we were staying, and we both wanted to get in a walk before the day fully started. So, once back from the beachy sunrise, off we went.
Aside from names that I can use for characters, I like to jot down any epitaphs I like or that lend color to the name on the headstone. Greenlawn seemed to be a fairly old cemetery, though, so many of the inscriptions we came across had been mostly weathered away. The names alone, though, were enough to keep us intrigued, as we wound our way through different sections. There were also a few areas for veterans of the Armed Forces, and we saw our first ever Civil War headstones. For us two history nerds, that was pretty neat.
I thought it’d be fun to share the names I wrote down and a little blip about why they caught my attention. If any of these names ignite creative sparks within you, feel free to use them!
Norman Bishop
At first blush, this may not seem like a stand-out name, and perhaps it’s not. But you know what can be tricky sometimes? Coming up with solid, normal-sounding names. Norman Bishop, to me, could be a next-door neighbor or a friend of the MC. He could even be the MC, too. There’s a lot of possibilities with this name because of its ordinariness.
Ives, general surname
This surname has the potential to be paired with a whole host of names without it sounding stilted or trying to be too Unique. Yes, a capital letter on that word because that’s how it feels when you’re reading a book and you can tell an author is trying really hard to have a quirky character or be different. Sometimes the story calls for that. Sometimes you just need a name that’s not going to pull your reader out of the story because of how it doesn’t seem to fit. Finding the “best fit” is important, and this last name could be a launching off point to get there.
Cornelius Nolen
Now here’s a name that is both unique yet normal. Maybe you have a different perception of the world, but I don’t know anyone named Cornelius. So, that name might give me a little pause; however, when it’s paired with a common surname, I don’t bat an eye. It still seems one-of-a-kind but not jarringly so. It then opens the door to provide a memorable anecdote about why this character ended up with this name, if it’s passed down through the family, if his parents have specific passions, etc. There are possibilities with this name, which is key.
Helen & Edward Heffernan
Picture this: you’re writing a story featuring a young lady who’s especially close to her grandparents, and you want to give those grandparents sturdy yet gentle names to capture those same qualities they possess as people. Enter Helen and Edward Heffernan. And, when you dig deeper into that surname, you learn there’s Irish heritage in that. You learn that such a name comes from a Gaelic word that could suggest a person who bears it is a fierce or formidable ancestor. Interesting, right? There’s a lot to explore there. All that from a name.
Perley Derby & Harriet (his wife)
Okay, this one isn’t actually about a story idea. This name—Perley—isn’t one I’ve ever heard before, and it made us chuckle. Perley Derby just has a humorous ring to it, and sometimes you simply have to write those names down. Bonus is that his wife, Harriet, has such a practical name. I love the contrast and how that could lend itself to a comic dynamic of one fictional husband and wife duo.
Theodoros & Stella Vasiniotis
We saw quite a few headstones with Greek surnames, and this was one of them. I’m intrigued by what story could be told about this husband and wife, Theodoros and Stella, and then their last name throws more color onto the page. To me, there’s adventure here. There’s romance. I see ships and beaches and beginnings, when their names roll around my mind.
the Berekchyan Brothers
Another interesting surname, right? And their tombstone was a shared one—four sides with each side dedicated to a different brother and his family. Google suggests this name as having strong Armenian roots, and it makes me wonder about the journey these boys, men, must have gone on to settle north of Boston. Did they make the journey, or was it their parents? Grandparents? What was life like for them, as brothers? It calls to mind the classic Little Women (Alcott), but instead of the March girls we have the Berekchyan boys.
Roswell & Esther Taylor
Here’s another case of a curious first name—Roswell, obviously, not Esther—followed by an ordinary surname. Naming a character Roswell provides flavor, spice, but not too much to throw a reader off because we’re rooted with Taylor. It’s a good balance. And then there’s his wife, who I also had to write down because 1.) I see potential not only from a singular Roswell but who he might be with a partner and 2.) Esther is a lovely name.
Oramel Durgin & Ellen
Another odd one I had to write down. Sometimes when I see names that strike me as so rare or unique, I gotta put them in my Commonplace book simply so I can remember it later and say to boysy, “Hey, listen to this. Once upon a time there was a guy named Oramel.” And isn’t it interesting that these strangely-named men marry women with practical names? Ellen is a solid name. No-nonsense. By far and away, it’s the men buried around the cemeteries I’ve been to who’ve borne the most curious names. What do we think of that?
Octavia & D. Webster Dodge
Okay, this husband/wife duo sounds cool, right? Here’s the rare case of a guy and his lady both contributing to the spice of a story’s life with their names. I see these two as being characters full of fire. Maybe D. Webster’s the sheriff of a Western town, and Octavia’s the woman everyone knows you don’t dare cross. Maybe they’re residents of 1920s Chicago and have their hands in speakeasy business they’d rather the cops never know about but that everyone else can’t get enough of. Or what about the fact that it seems he went by Webster? Why? What’s the D stand for? Lots of possibilities to explore!
Your mind might have read these names and either not been as energized by them as I am or thought up totally different ideas for them. Both things are okay! It’s enough, sometimes, to just be reminded that stories are all around us (I know I’ve written about this before), and a simple name can unlock your next project or crack the code of what you’re going to name the character you’ve been agonizing over.
And, if you’re interested in wandering whatever cemetery’s near you for name inspiration, I highly encourage you to go! Everyone laid to rest in there was once a person just like you and I. They were born and they died—and there’s a whole lot to wonder about what happened in between that. Go and let them stir up your curiosity. Your creativity will thank you later.