It seems scarcely necessary to point out that it is both easier and better to call the young people by whatever Christian name you decide to give them and to refer to their elders by their last name.  You can say Freeman or Mr. Freeman, when speaking of Jess’s father, but do not say that Tom and Miss Freeman are discovered by her father making love.  Simply say Tom and Jess.  If Jess’s father is a farmer or a miner, it may seem more natural to say Freeman, or Jess’s father.  If he is a banker or a stock broker, you may choose to speak of him as Mr. Freeman.  The most important thing is to make the name, as clearly as possible, suggest the age, rank, and general characteristics of the person to whom it is given.

A good deal has been written concerning the advisability of using only short and simple names for most characters in the photoplay.  Others have advised photoplay authors to try to discover unhackneyed names for their characters.  There are, of course, hundreds of short and appropriate “first” names for people of different nationalities; the trouble, especially with amateur writers, is that such names as Tom, Jack, Jim, and Charley, and May, Mary, Grace, Ethel, and Kate, are used over and over again, and without any regard to the surname which follows them.  Simple and common names are desirable, so long as they really fit the characters who bear them.  John and Tom and Mary and Kate are names that will be used over and over again, both in fiction and in photoplay.  But unusual names are desirable too, provided they fit the characters.  The work of an amateur writer can almost always be told by the names he gives his characters.

In the writing of photoplays, where the author has no description to rely on to explain who and what his characters are, there is especial need of names that will help to indicate the social status of his different characters.  In real life, a bank president is as likely to be a Casey or a Smith as he is to be a Rutherford or a Pendleton, but the chances are that, when given to a great banker, either of the last two names would make a greater impression on “popular” spectators.  Again, certain names instantly make us think of villainy, while others as plainly tell us that the owner of the name is an honest man.  The authors of the “good old” melodramas used exaggerated names that today would probably be laughed at.  “Jack Manly” and “Desmond Dangerfield” would hardly “get by” in modern drama or in present-day picture plays; but the idea of appropriateness that was responsible for such names being used is what is needed by photoplaywrights who desire to name their characters convincingly.  Percy certainly does not suggest a prizefighter, any more than Miriam portrays a cook.