Daphne Du Maurier's Big Mistake

Recently, Wendy Percival, author of the Esme Quentin novels, blogged about choosing names for her characters and why the right name is so important.

It set me thinking. The heroine in the book I am editing is called Carrie, though she started life as Julia; but Julia was the wrong name and so began the process  of finding the right one. For a while she was Polly, then, briefly, Kitty. Then Carrie sprang to mind, and that was perfect.

That's the thing about the right name. When you find it, you recognise it instantly.

There are all kinds of reasons for picking a name. If a story is set in the past, the name must be of the time. Or perhaps you want to create a particular impression - John Wayne as opposed to Marion Morrison.

And then, of course, there's hair colour. Please tell me I'm not the only one who assigns hair colour to names.

I once had a character called Rachel. The trouble was, she was fair-haired and - with apologies to blonde and auburn Rachels everywhere - inside my head, Rachel is a dark-haired name, so a new name was needed.

Which brings me to Daphne Du Maurier.

Rebecca is a wonderul novel - except for one thing. To me, Rebecca is a dark-haired name and yet Daphne Du Maurier persisted in referring to her as fair. All these years later, I still remember that feeling of wanting to shout, 'No!' whenever Rebecca's colouring was mentioned.

Is it just me? Do others assign hair colour to names? Please put me out of my misery and tell me I'm not alone.