Character Naming November 11, 2006
Posted by maryjaene in My Writing Life.add a comment
I’ve been searching for a new name for the leading male character of my book. I had a really good name picked out for him but upon considering it decided that it sounded too cultural. Not that I have anything against ethnic names. The character however is culturally neutral (at least as far as human culture) and I needed a new name to reflect that.
So I come across the most perfect name and it has been, is being used by about a thousand peoples. The name is Morpheus and fits the character perfectly as that’s what he does. He is the manipulator of a dream world called Aetherya.
Morpheus was the Greek god of dreams. He was the son of Hypnos the God of sleep. I really like this name but as I mentioned before it’s been used a thousand times already. Not only in mythology but also in the movie the Matrix and there are several record companies with variations of that name. I even thought about changing the spelling to Morphius (which is a much cooler spelling in my opinion) but alas another record company is using it. I don’t want to run into any copyright or copycat issue.
I think I’ll use it as I’m writing the first draft and hopefully I’ll think of something else as the character’s personality gets fleshed out.
