Writing How do you introduce a character's name?

[NotaNuffian]

Was in a midst of writing that I found myself with this question.

For the main character or currently using the character's POV, the author would just namedrop from the first few paragraphs or even as the first word. I never noticed how weird it is until the secondary or lower tiered characters popping up.

Be it first person or third person, I had seen authors introducing these new characters by their physical appearance first. Then comes the nameswapping ceremony or name drop by a party, random or otherwise.

So now that I have seen such a treatment, I can't really unsee it in written words.

In still (comics and manga) and moving (animation and live action), such a problem does not exist most of the times there are characters other than MC themselves to help them namedrop, ignoring self monologue/ narration.

So how do you do, fellow authors? How do you tell your name of the character you are currently shining the spotlight on?

 

[Fakeminsk]

Two books I've got on hand, with very different styles:

Here's the opening sentence from Stephen King's 2021 novel Billy Summers, 3rd person present tense: "Billy Summers sits in the hotel lobby, waiting for his ride."Other characters are summarily introduced as well: next paragraph, "... two men come into the lobby. One is tall with black hair... The other is short and bespectacled. [...] His name is Frank [...] Billy doesnt know the other one."

Meanwhile Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk, 1st person past tense: "Unfortunately, I couldn't choose a suitable name for myself. I regard the one that's written on my identity card as scandalously wrong and unfair--Janina. I think my real name is Emilia, or Janina. Sometimes I think it's something like Irmtrud too. Or Bellona. Or Medea." This is in chapter two, after the narrator and her neighbour Oddball have found their neighbour dead and called the police. The neighbour was introduced in the opening: "There was a crunch of snow, and into my field of vision came my neighbour, whom I call Oddball."

(I'd recommend both books, btw; they're fantastic. I'd never appreciated how good a writer King was until reading Billy Summers.)

So, I'd say don't worry about it too much. You'll find a natural place for the name to slip in, without falling back on artificial introductions, name-swapping ceremonies or the like. Neither books, incidentally, really bother with much in the way of physical descriptions of the character. If you check out King's On Writing, he's a big fan of letting the reader fill in the descriptive gap with their imagination.

 

[Tempokai]

In my observations, for first POV either the narrator introduces itself or other person in dialogue says it in first 100 words. For amnesiac plots there's either a convenient letter and whatever to introduce the narrator. In rare scenarios the narrator is nameless untill the end because the author is lazy or has an actual purpose.

Third POV as far I've seen it's just namedrop the name in convenient place and just roll with it. When introducing new unknown characters it's appearance description and either the narrator or the dialogue shows the name. In rarest situations, authors again, like with 1st POV don't use a name and just roll with appearance until the character's role is done for that scene (I'm guilty of using it for extras lol)

 

[melchi]

In my opinion sooner is always better. Paragraph's have the most important parts at the start and the same is true about sentences. The only reason not to is to put the emphasis on something other than the character's name. If the POV is really limited then the name might be unavailable but that also has the effect of making said character seem not important, intentional or not.

 

[TwistedRomcom]

My pov character often makes up a nickname to call a new stranger by before they learn their name. For example, I had a scene where the MC meets a guy with curly blonde hair and never learns his name. So he just refers to him as Blondie in his internal monologue. If it ever becomes important later, I can just say the MC learned what their real name was offscreen.

 

[LilRora]

If I'm writing in first person, usually in dialogue the first time it comes up. If it's in third person, there's usually no introduction.

 

[Thraben]

Depends on context. If a character's identity is important to the current perspective character, I'll have either the inner monologue or narration include it, to signify to the readers that the character's name actually matters. If a character's identity isn't important to the perspective character, but is important to the story overall, I'd typically include it in dialogue.

My absolute favorite way to introduce names is to start with friendly characters using nicknames or non-specific terminology to refer to each other, or just not using names at all, as it really does help make character relationships feel less sterile if they talk to and about each other the way that real people do. i.e.: only using names when we actually need to meaningfully specify who we're talking about, such as when they aren't actually there to point to or look at.