1. baviera

    baviera New Member

    Dec 17, 2015
    Likes Received:

    Having trouble narrowing down?

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by baviera, Dec 17, 2015.

    Hello, Currently seeking a last name for a female character named Michelle who belongs to a French/Spanish Aristocratic family.
    Michelle is well traveled, rich, successful, curious, compassionate, creative, classy, her family/kids, the environment, arts, tradition are important to her, but deep inside she is a complex character.

    Please help me out suggesting last names for her... I am stuck :/

    Thank you for your time and replies!
  2. Commandante Lemming

    Commandante Lemming Contributor Contributor

    May 8, 2014
    Likes Received:
    Washington, DC, USA
    I'm not sure a list of suggestions is something to do right now but here's a list of French marquisates and the families that received them. Maybe start there. If your work is historical, go this direction. If it's modern, you can really do anything French or Spanish, depending on whether their aristocracy comes from hereditary nobility or modern business.


    Have you decided if you want a French surname or a Spanish one (or a Catalan one, for that matter, or Basque, or Galician, etc....Honestly Catalan would be fun). Maybe figuring out what region her family is from would be a start, as France and Spain have a lot of internal regional differences.
    Tesoro likes this.
  3. Kittophoros

    Kittophoros Member

    Aug 4, 2015
    Likes Received:
    I'm definitely not an expert on the subject, but I could throw a few suggestions out for you!

    Augustin sounds especially aristocratic to me and I think it's just plain cool.
    I also read that Rey is a European surname that denotes royalty.
    Finally, Beauchene means "beautiful oak" which I think is pretty stately.

    Hope that helps!
  4. dedebird

    dedebird Member

    Jan 16, 2016
    Likes Received:
    I agree with the above person that you need to figure out if she has a French name or a Spanish name. Of course her husband matters as well (I assume she has one since she has children but she could not have one) I would find it helpful to google Spanish royalty or French royalty and choose someone who is cool that you think she should be related to! Puts fun Easter eggs into your story as well as depth! I love putting meanings to names for that very reason. :D
  5. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

    Jan 3, 2011
    Likes Received:
    A place with no future
    I think you first need to decide if they should have a french name or a spanish one. They're quite different from one another.
    Ps Michelle is neither a french nor a spanish-sounding name, so is the story set in an english speaking country and they gave her an english name?
  6. Michail Bulgakov

    Michail Bulgakov New Member

    Jan 20, 2016
    Likes Received:
    Michelle is a perfectly french name, the male version being Michel.
    What her family name is depends on her father's nationality, because children inherit their father's family name, in most cases. If it's an aristocratic family she could have her mother's family name in case there weren't so many heirs to that name, just to keep it alive. The spanish tend to have several names like Mendez de Sotomayor or Villafranca de los Caballeros, but you can't use the name of an existing family or "house". They also have a very complicated system of titles that differ from the english one. The french aristocracy has a 'du' or 'de la' , as in du Barry, de la Fontaine. Their system of grading the nobility is even more complicated.

Share This Page

    Dismiss Notice