Character Naming

As an Author naming your Character is an important step right after coming up with the plot. I am here to help you choose the right character name for you and your story.

Make sure your character name is Genre Appropriate. Make sure if it's a Historical Fiction novel or takes place in a real time period that the name was used then. Or if it's a fictionalized place then you can be as creative as you wish.

Just have fun with naming your character. It is after all your story.



Thursday, January 21, 2016

Catalapa / Catalape / Catalpa

Meaning: (Winged Head, The name derives from the Muscogee name for the tree, "kutuhlpa" meaning "winged head" and is unrelated to the name of the Catawba people. The spellings "Catalpa" and Catalpah" were used by Mark Catesby between 1729 and 1732, and Carl Linnaeus published the tree's name as Bignonia catalpa in 1753.Giovanni Antonio Scopoli established the genus Catalpa in 1777.

The bean-like seed pod is the origin of the alternative vernacular names Indian bean tree and cigar tree for Catalpa bignonioides and Catalpa speciosa, respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa )

Origin: (Native American, English)

Pronunciation: (Catalpa: ka-TAL-pa, ca-TAL-pa, ka-TALL-pa Catalape: ka-TAL-uh-pee, ka-TAL-uh-peh, ka-TALL-uh-pee, ka-TALL-uh-peh Catalapa: ka-TAL-uh-pa, ka-TALL-uh-pa

If you want to hear how this name is said then go to this link and run your cursor over the word to hear how it is pronounced:  http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=catalpa )

Gender: Uni-Sex

This is the name of another street I saw last summer when going to a religious convention. Meadowmere *see on list of posts* was about one or two streets away from Catalapa. I thought oh wow that’s kind of interesting and Native American like. So I put it on my list and as my list is always backed up for months and months I am just now getting to this name.

Now the street name was Catalapa but I could find no meaning for it spelled that way but I found it spelled Catalpa so I reason both probably mean the same but don’t quote me on that. It has an interesting meaning and long history of use so that is really nice. This name does seem Native American like to me but it could of course fit in a Fantasy or Sci-fi novel.

Now the pronunciation I found was for Catalpa so I tweaked it when putting together the pronunciation options for Catalapa and Catalape. Even with these pronunciations this name could throw some readers or even writers off so I think it would take a special kind of character and author to pull this off effectively.

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I try to have the most accurate Meanings, Origin and Pronunciations for the names on this blog. It is best though to do research into the names you decide to use for your characters as there can be errors on my blog. Or meanings, origins, and pronunciations I have not seen thus not been able to add to this blog.





Try some of the leading Baby Name Sites and Baby Name or Character Naming books as well.


The baby name sites below are where I collect many of the Names, Origins, and Pronunciations I use on this blog.

Baby Names Sites:

http://www.thinkbabynames.com
http://www.babynamewizard.com
http://www.behindthename.com
http://www.babynamespedia.com