X is for Xavier Chanceworthy

What’s in a name of a character? Or a book title? Or even a chapter? Lots.

We went to a Family Game Night and I was amazed at the creativity that goes into creating each game. A (board) game developer was in attendance and he had such passion for what he did, it was admirable and I was envious.

One was called Get Lucky and it’s a short version of Kill Doctor Lucky. Without even learning how to play, I was already impressed with the time the game creator had taken with just the names of the characters. Then if you look at the drawings, colors, and overall style, you could tell it was worth at least giving it a look. Now I’m no game developer so I don’t know if just the pretty box is enough, but I’d like to hope that if they have such creativity for the outside, what’s on the inside has to be at least partially as good.

Does the same go for the name of your book, article, or even blog post? How important is that title? Plenty important. How about the characters in your book? Even chapter titles? Seeing this game and the names of the characters reminded me how important a name is and how much sway it could have on the prospective buyer. Check out the names below, see if the spark some creativity for names for your own work.

What’s in a name? As much as you like.