Naming Names
Jeannine Garsee aka onegrapeshy has a fun post today on how she named her characters and asks the rest of us to play along, so since play sounds like a whole lot more fun than work, here are mind:

Raising the Griffin - In spite of hours spent pouring over Eastern European name lists and studying naming conventions, Alexei was Alexei from the start, even though I had been looking for something a little more off-beat. But I needed a name that had an Anglo nickname and...well...I always thought Alex was a sexy name.

I made up the family tree for the Varenhoffs before I ever started the first draft, so the rest of his names were right there. Alexei Nicholas Tibor Ivorovich. (How much fun is making a fake family tree? Way too much.)

The girls' names, Sophy and Isabelle were the kind of names that just came with the girl. It was only fairly recently that I was rewatching the 1946 version of The Razor's Edge that I realized I might actually subliminally have gotten their names from that story! Weird.

DeBatz was the tough one. His name was kind of a placeholder. I forget where I had heard it, something in connection with d'Artagnan. (Dumas borrowed the d'Artagnan name from the real deBatz family or something like that.) So it's a French name in a made-up Eastern European country. So I knew it was wrong. And yet...

Halfway into the first draft, when I tried to change it, I couldn't. He was deBatz and that was that. So in my head, I have an idea that many centuries before, a deBatz ancestor was captured in a battle or something and fell in love with the country of Rovenia and settled there and blah de blah. Sue me. I made the whole thing up, anyway.

I also didn't really like his first name, Stefan, and tried to change that, but again, he wouldn't let me. He's a man with his own mind. And, y'know, Stefan is a pretty sexy name.

King Ivor, well, again, sexy name. Sue me some more. One of my critiquers early on objectted to Queen Marie Alexandra's nickname, Minnie. But it's a legitimate royal nickname! Maria Feodorovna, empress of Alexander III of Russia, was affectionately known as Minnie to her family.

And then there was Rovenia itself. I spent days and days looking over maps of Eastern Europe and writing long lists that combined aspects of those place names, looking for something that was new but sounded legitimate and not too Ruritanian. Because I didn't want this book to feel anything like a fairytale.

Funny How Things Change - Remy's name was a problem. The first paragraph of the book was one of those things where you hear a voice in your head and you know you have to listen to it and write it down because it's important. That first paragraph is almost the same in the finished book as it was when I first wrote it down. And in that paragraph was a line about a tattoo the MC has on his arm, spelling out his initials: RAW.

So there it was. I had to come up with a name that matched those initials because the initials played into the story and the theme. I really really REALLY REALLY didn't want to give that MC a whacko name because too many people think Southern people all have whacko names anyway. But I didn't like any of the traditional, blah "R" guy names. And Remy...well...what can I say? Sex-ee. (It's a problem. I am seeking therapy.)

And then there's Lisa, his girlfriend. Not long after I sold the book, someone somewhere blogged a list of annoying stereotypes and conventions that YA authors put in their books and that they should stop putting in their books, posthaste. One of those was the naming of girl characters "Lisa." It seems this gives away the advanced age of the YA author because nobody is named Lisa anymore.

But to me, Lisa was the name of the sort of beautiful Everygirl this character needed to be. So there.

Dana, on the other hand...er...I can't even tell you where that came from.

Couple of the names of Remy's family members came from Wyatt family members. Aunt Helen (and her hummingbird cake) was very real and very charming and I wanted to give make a little tribute for her.

And there's a reason the town is named Dwyer but I'm too embarrassed to admit to it.

I'm having a lot more fun naming the characters in my WIP.

Lady Aberlin, the mother, got her name from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I loved this show as a child and wanted to grow up to be Lady Aberlin. Of course, my Lady Aberlin is quite a bit different than the first Lady Aberlin, but it still tickles me whenever I type out that name.

Hugh got his name from My Darling Hugh, a once-promising Irish actor whose career has stalled. (Time is running out, Hugh! You need a breakout role pronto!) I can't help feeling responsible. I am, after all, the fangirl of career death. Sorry, Hugh.

Snotty sisters Olivia and Chloe got their names from two very un-snotty young ladies I adore. Actually, three, because I am privileged to know two wonderful Olivias.

Mr. Marswell's name and the name of the town comes from Clark Gable's character in Mogambo. Don't ask me why.

And I chuckled a lot over naming the innocent, diffident, uncomfortable-with-women young reverend Mr. Clinton.

And that's enough of that. Ironing calls. Thanks, Jeannine! That was fun.