Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is Top 10 Books With Character Names in the Titles. Instead of actually doing that, I instead decided to rank, from best to worst, the different ways of including a character name in a title (with examples), because they all give off distinctly different vibes.

I also apologize in advance if the formatting on this is wonky; my computer broke, so I’m having to type and format this on my phone.

The [blank] of [character name]:

  1. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
  2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
  3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
  4. The Life (and Medieval Times) of Kit Sweetly
  5. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
  6. The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre
  7. The Secret Life of Kitty Granger
  8. The Miseducation of Cameron Post

I really love these titles. They have a nice flow to them and sound nice, and tend to give a good sense of what the book is about. This style may be a tad cliché, but classics are classics for a reason.

Referring to an actual item with that name in the book:

  1. 10 Things I Hate About Pinky
  2. Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee
  3. Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares
  4. Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating
  5. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

I really like this style as well, though it obviously only works if you have a relevant item/list/etc. already in the book. This doesn’t work if the reference isn’t a major plot point.

It’s just the character’s name:

  1. Jane Eyre
  2. Fire
  3. Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter
  4. Romanov
  5. Elatsoe
  6. Nimona
  7. Mayhem
Honorary mentions:
  1. Anne of Green Gables
  2. My Lady Jane / My Plain Jane / My Calamity Jane / My Contrary Mary

It’s simple, it’s classy, it’s short, it’s snappy it’s never going out of style. If your character has a distinct-sounding name, this is absolutely the way to go.

A descriptor of the character:

  1. Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize
  2. Tash Hearts Tolstoy
  3. Zoe Rosanthal Is Not Lawful Good

I like these sorts of titles because you get an idea of who the character is and what their story arc is like.

…it’s what the book’s about:

  1. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
  2. When Dimple Met Rishi
  3. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me
  4. Harry Potter and the…

You can’t go wrong with this approach. I slightly prefer a descriptor of the character to this action-based title format, but they’re both great and difficult to do poorly.

Vaguely Meta

  1. A Study in Charlotte
  2. Always and Forever, Lara Jean
  3. From Twinkle With Love

A Study in Charlotte for a book about descendants of Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigating a mystery, thus making it both a character-name-based title and a pun on A Study in Scarlet, which is top-tier titling. I also really love Always and Forever, Lara Jean. From Twinkle With Love, however, does leave something to be desired, though it’s still pretty good.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The Bane Chronicles
  2. The Sky Blues
  3. Aurora Rising

The Bane Chronicles doesn’t really fit here, but I wasn’t sure where else it would fit. I can’t really cast judgements on this as a whole because the point is that they don’t really fit into other categories, so it’s automatically shooting to the bottom.

Look at this quirky character!

  1. There’s Something About Sweetie
  2. Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
  3. Leah on the Offbeat

Okay, sure, this could technically fall within the “a descriptor of the character” category, but I’m separating it because it doesn’t tell you anything about the character other than them being “different,” when they’re usually pretty freaking normal. (Okay, There’s Something About Sweetie doesn’t really deserve to be in here, as that isn’t really the tone used in the book, but I needed it to not just be Becky Albertalli, even though I do spend a lot of time complaining about her writing. But I would like to add a formal apology to Sandhya Menon, whose work I adore). The point is, I hate this approach to titling.

How do you feel about these rankings? Am I being too harsh towards any trope? Comment below!