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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33309
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33309
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Names are not a problem, nor do I worry about naming characters that won't be used again. For "extras" I give them forgettably common names, but for characters that serve some dramatic purpose, I give them a more rare and memorable name, even if they won't appear again (or may only make one more appearance).

If the POV character should remember them or what they did or suffered, I give them a more memorable and distinct name (and I keep a list of names used). So if I had a male, I might choose Jonathan or Michael or George for an extra, but if my male had a dramatic purpose, I might choose Sterling or Grayson or Conroy (all first names of people I have met).

For characters I intend to be forgotten, my writing reflects whether they can be forgotten as well. Extras may be introduced as a group, just a list of names with zero physical description; making the characters interchangeable extras in the reader's mind.

If it is necessary in the scene to single one out, I go back and add a note of physical description I can use to remind the reader later: Ariel had long straight brown hair, to her shoulder blades, parted in the middle.

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Grounding the scenes in reality is not being so meticulously realistic. If you need two memorable nurses, "Mary" and "Sue" are poor names for them, you might choose something besides [The #1 and #7](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/century.html) most popular female names of the last century. Which makes them very forgettable in the reader's mind.

But that said, in fiction, reality is not \*real\*\* realism, it is just not being **magical** or so improbable it breaks suspension of disbelief. Nobody puts your book down because you did not cover every shift with unique nurses.

Nobody puts it down because a boy's mother spoke to him without using his name. It seems realistic _enough_ to me a boy recognizes his mother's voice when she says "Come here." And just as realistic if, after referring to the "little boy," the only line naming him is "George, come here," to which the little boy responds. And there is another dodge: You can tell instead of show such interactions without losing any points: "The little boy's mother commanded him to return," which lets you specify the action without any names at all.

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A crowd scene: My current work has a large crowd scene, in which a dinner is held for thirty people, all the family of a man returning from a mission that had taken him away for four months. This returning hero is not the POV character, but my POV attends this dinner as his guest. He meets and greets everybody individually and calls them by name, but after the first, my POV gives up on trying to remember them. It would be a bore to "show" all these greetings, individually they have no real dramatic purpose, the entire thing is covered in a few sentences. _Collectively_ they have a purpose, proving our hero is emotionally connected to all of these people.

Intentionally, the **first** new name is a person she will interact with later, and the **last** person she meets comes in late, fifteen minutes after the initial greeting round, and comes to greet and apologize for her tardiness to the hero; and is introduced to our POV separately because of that. The POV remember that name too: Which just so happens to be another person she will interact with in the future.

Our hero is introduced to a twelve year old child his daughter has adopted while he was gone, they are given names, and during the dinner they sit close to him and my POV, and she remembers their names, essentially the dinner is described between her own servings and what the child and new mother do. There are kids, but their dialogue is described, not given: A child whispers to his mother, and she escorts him from the room; my POV character assumes to visit a restroom.

In that entire scene of thirty people, four previously introduced people are named, the two extras sitting next to her as a foil for describing the dinner and setting, and two (with uncommon names) were introduced that served a later purpose, and "luckily" were in plausible positions to be remembered; first and last.

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Ideal pacing: I engineer the story so I introduce characters "naturally" a few at a time. Even if my POV meets fifty people at once, I would never name them all, if the POV needs to get in touch with one, they "remember" the name when it is necessary. **Oh, Jason was the contract lawyer at Marcia's party, that's right.** Then meeting Jason, we can describe him as needed (though I tend to avoid physical description and describe personality instead). Or the POV happens to re-meet Trig, and recognizes him from Marcia's party, the funny guy with a crowd around him laughing at a story.

I think more than a few introductions per scene is too much, it is overloading the reader's memory.

Original score: 2