Q&A 7: naming names

Andrew Dederer writes:

"Is there a plan or pattern to your character's names?  I ask because there seems to be some latent jokes and symbolism behind some of them.  First of all, I can't believe Susan made it over 50 issues without having a "Queen of De-nile" joke thrown at her (though maybe that's more an American joke).  Along the same lines, is there any meaning behind Esther's name?  I mean all the guys want her, massive alcohol consumption trails in her wake and I'm sure some folks getting impaled on stakes has been in the realm of possibilities with all the trouble that seems to follow her."

I fear that the answer to this question is going to throw a little too much light on just how pedestrian my creative process has been over the years. My characters have been named, historically, based on very limited criteria. Theft.

Sometimes I just steal a name outright. This isn't always intentional. On the first drawing I ever did of Shelley Winters, I think she was meant to be a mermaid. That's why she has red hair. She's like Ariel from the little mermaid. And shells come from the sea, right? Yeah? The idea that she was a mermaid lasted for one drawing, the name persisted. When I started Bobbins, I had to give her a surname, so I used Winters because it sounded right. Of course it sounded right, as I was reminded a little later, she's a grande dame of American cinema - in The Poseidon Adventure and many more.

After I realised that I'd taken a name outright, I didn't want to do that again, so I played mix and match with other good names, often taken from the end credits of TV shows. Myra de Groot was an actress seen in the UK on the Australian soap Neighbours in the late 80s. Names like that stuck with me and I've drawn from a huge bank of them in the process of naming dozens, if not hundreds, of characters. I had a print rep called Traci Grote whose business card was pinned up over my desk for a few years, that's where Lottie's surname comes from.  

There is one Giant Days character whose name is just the name of an actual person. A cartoonist friend would always say her sister's boyfriend's name in full whenever she mentioned him in conversation, and he seemed to come up quite often. I just used it, never thinking that he would appear, again, dozens of times. After 60+ issues I felt quite bad about that one.

Susan Ptolemy's surname comes from one of the experts on Channel 4's Time Team. I was drawing while watching the show, and the first time I drew her, I wrote "Susan Ptolemy" next to her. I have never really looked into the Ptolemaic Dynasty and I suspect I probably never will.

I work at such speed and with so little forethought at times that characters tend to get first names from the bank of names I have to hand in my limited mind. I have to work very hard not to accidentally call characters the same name. There are multiple Claires in my comics. Several Barrys. Garys are a constant threat. de Groot and Grote are essentially the same name (both meaning "the great" I think). I'm not smart enough to know anything about the book of Esther. Sometimes I don't spell names consistently. Is Daisy "Daisy Wooton" or "Daisy Wooten"? Reader, she's both.

For a few years there was a carefully-maintained Tackleford Wikia that helped me with these things, but I think the most enthusiastic contributor has now moved on to other interests. They spared my blushes many times.

Names: a tricky business and I'm not even joking.

--

If you have a question you'd like to see answered, about art or writing or anything else creative, please ask - in the comments, via email, or a Patreon message.