When it comes to analyzing a character, names are extremely important. In a play, character names are always specifically chosen by the playwright to give clues on personality, status, identity, cultural connections, history, and expectations. That’s a lot of information!
There are many opportunities for students in your drama class to create names, from scene work to improv to writing projects.
Often, student writers use labels when they name characters: Teacher, Mother, Student Number Two. We want to emphasize to students that when they create names, they should come from somewhere and provide information.
Use this exercise to help your students think creatively about the power of names.
1. Start with a small group activity in which each student shares their first and middle name (if they have one; if they don’t, that’s a great discussion starter!). Each student should share what they know about their names (do they know why it was chosen?), and if they don’t know anything, they can speculate. Students should also share what they like or dislike about their names. If they don’t like their name, what name would they choose?
2. Bring the class together and have groups share their findings. What did they learn about someone in their group?
3. Ask students: What information can we learn from a name? What does it tell us about a person? Share with students that when it comes to analyzing a character name we can learn a lot. Playwrights spend time coming up with the exact right name to tell us something about a character. We could learn about their personality, status, identity, cultural connections, history, and expectations.
4. Share with students: When you create a character name it should come from somewhere and mean something.
5. Keep students in their groups and hand out the Creating Character Names Sheet to each group. (Download this sheet below!) The sheet has descriptions for four different characters.
6. Each group will read the descriptions, discuss possible names for the characters based on them, and decide on one name for each character. Encourage students to work quickly and emphasize that their decision must be unanimous.
7. Bring the groups together and have them share their choices and their thought process behind each name. Which groups came up with similar names? What was the reasoning behind each group’s choices?
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