The Sisters with No Names

So, we have our characters. However, the names need work.

    Person A - older sister, put together, overall a happy life, responsible, but will most likely fall apart after     the opening events occur

    Person B - younger sister, under pressure, stress, leading her to be put up with everything, quiet, in her        own world

    Person C - close friend of Person A (not much is shown about her, she is simply introduced to be part of     the story later)

    Doing research on naming seems hard, because so much of naming characters simply depends on the author and the state of the character. A few strategies I've found are making a reference to an old book or movie, make root meanings, or simply looking at a baby book or a name generator. It is recommended that you make the character names distinct, to make sure you avoid the audience confusing their names. This part is important to me, because it also shows how different the two characters are.

    Most names with special meanings that are common in the U.S are hard to find. I started with looking at names for Person B. I was looking for a name with a negative feeling, maybe even a name that means death or ghost. I found a website that showed baby names with negative meanings. You can find it here. Looking at them, I spotted a few names I can name my character.

• Dolores/Lola: sorrow
• Leah: weary
• Mallory: unlucky
• Mara: bitter
• Rue: regret
• Zillah: shade/shadow

    I think my favorite one out of these would be Dolores (nicknamed Lola or Loli) or Leah. I love the names Mara and Rue, but Mara's meaning doesn't fit as much with her character. Rue, however, is also the name of the main character from the popular show Euphoria, and as they have similar personalities, I want to avoid all confusion between both. So for now, it's between Dolores and Leah.

    For Person A, I thought deeply about who she really was. She's a bright and positive person, but she is also heavily affected by this situation. She goes into a really low state before learning how to manage her feelings and finding out in depth about what happened to her sister. I was looking for names that symbolized "falling down" or "breaking down". Ironically, in a list of baby names who were born in the fall (found here), I found the name Jordan, meaning the falling down of leaves. As I looked more into the name, it turns out it generally just means to descend. Not only is it an easy name to memorize, but it adds slight symbolism to Person A's character. The name itself doesn't have such a harsh meaning compared to Person B's name, as Person B is the one going through the most at first.

    Along with searching for slightly negative meanings for Person A's name, I also wanted to look for more positive names so they could contrast more with Person B's name. I looked through a variety of websites to look for strong, beautiful names.

• Valentina: strength, health
• Sasha: defender
• Lara: citadel (shelter)
• Lena: bright, beautiful
• Mira: admirer, peace
• Zoe: life
• Nia: resolve, brilliance

    When I found Mira, meaning admirer or peace, I thought it would be cool to make the sisters named Mira and Mara. The two names sound alike, which is how sisters are commonly named, and they contrast in meaning completely; one is bitter and one is admired. However, that would be going against my own research. When it comes to books or film, its best to make each name distinct to avoid mixing up the names. My favorite ones out of the list that work well with its meaning are Valentina, Lena, and Nia. They all resemble how Person A is at certain points of the film.

    

    I didn't want to look too much into Person C, but I looked up names that meant helper or supporter, as that is what she does during the film. One of the most common ones was Alexandra, my name, but to avoid confusion in the credits, I'm unfortunately taking it away from the list. With a few websites, I found these names:

• Faye: loyalty
• Yara: friend, helper
• Alesia: help, aid
• Isabela (name generator)
• Phoebe (name generator)

    From here, I want to discuss the rest with my group. We'll share each of the names we came up with and choose one. For Person C, I believe any are fine, but I want to see if anyone has any ideas. We will also discuss last name. Last names seem trickier. Should it be common? Rare? From a certain country? I want to see what Andrea and Lucia think about naming the characters.