I love names. Really love them. I think one of my favorite things about starting a new manuscript is choosing my characters’ names. But it’s also one of the most challenging. For me, a name can’t just suit a character (strong or weak, masculine or feminine), but also has to help define him or her. Names have meaning. They have power. And they have to echo who the characters are, what their purpose is, where they fit into life.
We chose the names of our children with great care, and have seen firsthand how each has almost eerily grown into the meaning of her name (my husband would call this one of my woo-woo moments, but I know what I’ve seen! 🙂 ). With that kind of proof, how could I offer my characters less attention when it comes to naming them?
Sometimes, of course, a character comes into my head fully named and I don’t really have much say in the matter. Most time, however, I start with a baby name book. The one on my shelf–20,001 Names for Baby–is dog-eared, well-thumbed, and worth its weight in gold. Sometimes I flip through it for the sheer joy of savoring names that have come down through history, names from every corner of the world, names that will help to shape my characters and my story.
Nowhere is this more true than in SINS OF THE ANGELS, where Alexandra means ‘man’s defender’, Seth means ‘the appointed’, and Jacob (the name by which Alex knows the angel Aramael to begin with) means ‘he who supplants’. All names that are evocative. Descriptive. Powerful. Heck, just by knowing the meanings behind the names, you have a hint of the story itself (and doesn’t that make you want to know more? ;)).
Names. Easy to bestow on a whim or a fad, but capable of so very much more. What about you? On what basis do you choose names for characters (or children or pets)?
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