Using Names from the Bible for Characters

My youngest goes to a Christian high school and has many classmates named Luke, Ben, and Caleb. There’s a little more variety to the girls’ names, but my niece went to a small Catholic grade school and had five Graces in her class. So if you want to try using names from the Bible for characters, try find unusual ones. But, of course, the name has to fit the character.

The Fun of Finding Unusual Names

I love naming characters. It’s more fun than naming my kids because I don’t have to consult anyone. I have almost unlimited freedom, but I should follow one of the golden rules of naming characters–names should be easy for readers to pronounce . If the name is Tchakach, but it’s supposed to be said “Take”, don’t use it. Here is my post on the two golden rules for naming.

A third rule to keep in mind is the reputation of the name. Ahab and Judas are easy for English-speakers to pronounce. But they come with a ton of baggage. There’s a reason Herman Melville named his mad captain Ahab. If you use a Biblical name like that, you have to consider the impression it will make on readers before they’ve gotten to know the character.

Following those rules, here are some overlooked Bible names that will make your characters stand out. I put “f” for names that are traditionally female, but for English-speakers, many of these names could suit either gender.

Abel, Amasa, Boaz, Bilhah(f), Cozbi(f), Damaris(f), Dinah(f), Emmanuel, Festus, Gad

Haggar(f,) Hiram, Huldah(f), Ibzan, Japheth, Jehu, Joab, Joram, Justus, Keturah(f)

Kish, Laban, Merab(f), Mishael, Neco, Nemuel, Onan, Oreb, Palti, Rizpah(f)

Rumah(f), Sally, Sceva, Sharar, Shem, Shua, Terah, Tema, Tobijah, Vashti, Zebul, Zeba

Biblical place names that can work as given names.

Edom, Haran, Rome, Zioń, Canaan, Aram, Emmaus, Gilead, Nazareth, Zair

Carmel, Galilee, Havilah, Sinai, Bethel, Beulah, Cana, Judea

Virtue names that go beyond Faith, Hope, and Charity

Content, Mercy, Justice, Temperance, Patience, Peace, Zeal

Cherish, Honesty, Able, Prudence, Honor, Truth, Noble

Here are more tips for writing Christian fiction.

August 21, 2025 0

Bible Verses for When You Feel Overwhelmed

Writing inspiration for Christian fiction

When I first created Monday Sparks, it was with the idea of providing writing inspiration for stories and poems through photo prompts. Since my focus this month is Christian fiction, I’m turning to the Origin of all inspiration–God and His word. So for the next few Mondays, I’m highlighting Bible verse that provide inspiration to deal with a variety of feelings and situations. Since I often feel like I’m just crawling by in this life, I chose bible verses for when you feel overwhelmed for my first post. I decided to highlight some less well known ones associated with stress and feeling like you can’t cope.

Psalm 142

Verses 1 and 2 “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my troubles.”

Verse 6 and 7: “Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.”

Isaiah 43:2

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

John 16:33

“In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

1 Peter 5:7

“Cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

1 John 4:4

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

With any Bible verse, it’s always good to read some of the text before and after the highlighted verse so you get more context. Here are more prompts related to Christian fiction.

August 4, 2025 0

Dealing with Difficult Characters

Some characters seem to come with diaries that a writer only has to consult to figure out their personalities, motivations, and goals. Others seem like old friends you’ve known for years, and the words flow effortlessly. But some characters stubbornly refuse every attempt to get to know them better.

When I wrote the first novel of my Rae Riley Mysteries series, the extended family of my main character Rae Riley was critically important. I decided to give her father an older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother. The dad and his two sisters came to life early and easily. But Younger Brothers turned difficult. No matter what approach I took, I couldn’t develop him into an interesting character, one who would contrast with his siblings.

If you are dealing with a difficult character, try these four trouble-shooting techniques.

Change the Name

Naming characters appropriately is critical for me when developing them. If I give a bubbly character a name that somehow suggests a quiet, sensitive type, the character won’t work for me. But the name wasn’t Younger Brother’s problem.

Change the Face

This is the same as changing the name. Usually when I build a character, I start with a face that I’ve seen somewhere and that signals a certain kind of personality. Younger Brother’s face suggested a reserved, intellectual, but I had another character like that who was working well within the story. I thought maybe I just needed to …

Write a Scene with the Character

This technique had worked with Rae’ grandmother. I knew I had to have a grandmother, but she proved a slippery character, her personality assuming all sorts of traits as I tried to structure her in my mind before I began writing. Finally, I decided to stick her in a scene and see what happened. Pretty soon, Gram’s mellow, warm-hearted personality shone through, making her a nice contrast to her son, Rae’s father, who is a worrier.

But when I wrote a scene with Younger Brother, he became irritating, sounding whiny. So the only thing left to do was …

Combine or Eliminate the Character

I offed him in cold-blood with a a lot of relief. I simply didn’t need him. If I hadn’t already had a character similar to him, I might have taken his qualities and those of another character to combine them into someone new.

I think the reason I worked so hard to keep him is that I often create groups of four characters. I’m one of four sisters, so I understand how that group dynamic works. What I had failed to realize was that I already had a group of four characters. Older Sister married the neighbor boy, whom Rae’s father and sisters grew up with. So he’s like a brother, although an older one to Rae’s father. But I’ve had a ton of fun writing about how the brothers-in-law jab at each other.

Click here for more tips on creating characters.

What are your tips for dealing with difficult characters?

July 31, 2025 0

How to Write Sneaky Characters

My advice on characters today concerns how to write sneaky characters. I had to create one in my second novel, A Storm of Doubts, and he proved to be a challenge.

What Do I Mean by Sneaky Characters?

Since I write mysteries, of course the guilty party is always sneaky because he or she has to cover their tracks after committing the crime. But for this post, I’m referring to characters who are sneaky by nature. The weaselly police informant who will tell the cops anything for a price, making his information suspect. The high school girl who is so sweet to everyone’s face and yet anyone who associates with her is always caught up in some kind of drama.

These are characters whose actions, words, and expressions mask their real thoughts and feelings. A writer can approach this character one of two ways–either, the main character (MC) is completely taken in by the performance and the revelation of sneaky character’s true intentions is a big plot twist. Or the MC is suspicious of the sneaky character to begin with or soon after meeting him but has trouble deciding if the character is a sneak or trustworthy.

By the way, if you want your MC to be the sneaky character, you are allowed. Just remember–most readers enjoy a book because the MC is someone they want to spend time with. A sneaky MC could get very old, very fast.

Creating a Sneaky Character

In A Storm of Doubts, I adopted the second way of developing a sneaky character. Rae’s Uncle Troy returns to Marlin County, Ohio, where he grew up. Everyone there knows he’s a grifter, so Rae, my MC, is suspicious of him from the start.

I’ve read a lot about grifters and realized Troy would never be aggressive or combative in any situation. Grifters don’t want to bully you into doing what they want. They want to entice and manipulate you. This is harder to write than a blunt bully. A bully’s intentions are obvious and therefore easy to convey to the reader. Showing Troy entice and manipulate Rae was much harder because I had to write him in subtle lines.

What helped me was to realize Troy would agree to anything anyone said if it gave him an advantage. Unlike a lot of characters, who would take offense at being criticized, Troy goes along with the criticism because agreeing with someone puts him in a position to get closer to them. He’s like a snake who can pivot and twist in any direction he thinks necessary.

In this scene, Rae’s dad, the sheriff, is questioning Troy.

“You need to come up with better excuses.” Dad put away his notepad. “You made a mistake two years ago, and I got jumped. You made a mistake today and put my daughter in danger. You can’t keep saying you make mistakes, Troy. You’re forty-three. Not fourteen.”

Tory sighed, his tiny mouth drooping. “I’m just not as smart as you are. “

I also use several two-person scene between Rae and Troy so I have the time to describe in more details his expressions and mannerisms and how Rae analyzes them to figure out what her uncle’s true intentions are.

Have you tried to write a sneaky character? What helped you to write them? Who is a convincing sneaky characters in a book or show?

July 10, 2025 0

Write a Backstory for These Characters

All my prompts this month for Monday Sparks deal with characters. When I was looking at photos for this prompt, this one leaped out at me. The two figures inspire so many questions. So my prompt today is to write a backstory for these characters.

What is the relationship between the little girl and the robot? The obvious one is that the robot protects the little girl. But what if we flipped it? What if the robot protects the girl only until someone tries to rescue her. Then it is programmed to kill her before that happens, Why?

Or maybe the girl belongs to a family that is protecting the robot. It stores the last program to fix a computer virus. And certain governments are after it.

Let me know how you’re inspired in the comments!

Find more character writing prompts here.

July 7, 2025 0

Tag: Author JPC Allen