Naming My Characters

I’ve had people ask how I name the hundreds (nearly 300) of characters in my Bond-Wolf series, so here’s your answer: it varies.

Many of my main character names have meaning in the original language. For instance, Alex means “Defender of Man” in Greek. That’s the perfect name of my hero. Nissa means “friendly elf,” and in the first draft of this series, the Jeelys people had slightly pointed ears (but that changed, of course). Kane means “battle,” so that’s a great name for a warrior. Anika means “very beautiful.” Gabriel means “warrior.” I choose many of my names by meaning, but not always.

I’m a huge fan of irony in names. In the Bible, Peter and Isaac are heroes of the faith, which makes them perfect names for bad guys if I want the reader to wonder if they’re good or not. When Alex came across a mostly-dead woman who seemed hopeless, the name Hope was wonderfully ironic. Valor is a Lorcan adversary who’s anything but valorous. Leah from the Bible is a mousy, insecure woman, so Leah the Barmaid is friendly, outgoing, and likes to kiss people (mostly warriors). Lonegan means “fierce,” but in my stories, he’s meek and quiet.

Sometimes I used famous names to infer personality on my characters. Jael in the Bible is an ordinary woman God used to kill an enemy general, so that’s a fantastic name for an ordinary Jeelys woman who marches to war with Alex. Rachel in the Bible was gorgeous and bossy, the perfect fit for Lady Rachel of House Prudence.

Sometimes I went for humor, mostly in the Lorcan names. A girl called Runt. Warrior Tide. King Frank. Shepherd Mutt. Noble Narcissa. Archer Pluck. General Sly. These were super fun to make up, most of them on the fly has I was writing and needed a quick name.

The wolves, you may have noticed, all have Native American names, aside from Shannon, who was a special case. It would have been best to use names that come from the region where the stories take place, but back when I started writing this series (in 2000), access to those types of lists was limited. I found a few websites with names, so I jotted them all down on a chunk of paper and cycled through them. So apologies if anyone found the wolf names offensive. That was never my intent, and I was doing my best with the information I had at the time.

Occasionally, I need a name for a minor character, someone who will only appear once or twice. For that, I go to my “Character Naming Sourcebook,” which has millions of names organized by nationality. Because I have such a huge cast, I needed a way to quickly tell if a character was from the Lorcan (bad guy) side of the continent or the Kiaran/Dryden (good guy) side. I gave all my Kiaran/Dryden people names from the Bible, Gaelic names, or Greek names whereas the Lorcans all got names from nature or virtues.

This method of picking a name from the book has backfired on me a time or two. Bina was supposed to be a throw-away character, only used once in a tavern scene. But then I found other uses for her, and she became a main character. I never liked her name, and if I could redo it, I’d change it. I love the name Rafael and should have given it to a hero, not some knucklehead who’d die in book 1. But too late now.

I did change some names, though, before publishing. Eryn was Jenna in early drafts. In the original book 1, a beta reader told me I had too many names starting with the letter K. It’s a weakness of mine; I love that sound. Anyway, King Kenneth became King Orin. Healer Kyna because Healer Eva. Kaba became Nashoba. I think I changed nine names that started with K. And once, I goofed and used the old name! Readers may have noticed a reference to King Kenneth in book 5 (I think). I’ve since edited it to the correct name (Orin), but some of you may own a paperback copy with the typo. Hold onto that! It’ll be worth money some day, I’m sure 😉

For human characters, I tried to steer clear of any that might sound Kiaran or Lorcan (though I used Lance for a gag). Sometimes, I’d figure out what year the character was born, then look at Social Security records for Top 20 Baby Names of that year and choose from the list. A few times, I chose a letter of the alphabet I hadn’t overused too much, pulled out an old phone book I keep around, and found a name that way. I tried to get a diverse mix of nationalities in the human names, and I think it worked.

Sadly, with 300 characters over the spread of seven books, mistakes were bound to happen. I keep a chart of characters, but they’re sorted by their home kingdom before alphabetically. I once re-sorted by name first and found I had duplicates! But in real life, most of us know more than one Peter or John, so I figured it’d be okay in my books to have two Brandons, two Jonases, two Seans, two Davids, two Michaels (though one is spelled Mikal), two Aarons (one spelled Aran), plus a Bria/Brian, and a Rian/Roan. Oh well.

One time, I had a fan who wanted her name used in a book. I thought it would be fun, so she got her wish. Then another fan found out I’d done that, and he wanted his name in a book, too. So Hyun Ah and Wooddy, thank you for lending your names to my beloved characters.

I hope this satisfied your character-naming questions. If it didn’t, leave me a reply. If you enjoyed the post, leave me a reply. If you are ambivalent… I love reading the replies 🙂