In an older blog, we looked at the importance of names fitting the story. In a more recent blog, I covered some ways to come up with names. Today, I'll show the intersection of those two in some of the character names for The Dragon Lord Chronicles.
Sally is one of my two go-to female placeholder names I use when writing. A placeholder lets me write without stopping to think about the name; I replace it later. In this case, it just worked, showing up in Gaelic and Celtic lists, although I could not pin down when it came into use.
Gerald began as Fred (one of my go-to male names). Once I decided to keep Sally, I thought about an Irish couple I know- Sally (my editor) and Gerry. Gerry is a nickname for Gerald, which was in use as an Irish (and English) name at least back to the 1300s. Since there was immigration and commerce between the Scots and Irish. Gerald worked. I wanted common, relatable names for these two, so Gerald and Sally worked.
We first meet Kenna as a trader. Because of her origin, I envisioned her as reasonably tall, lithe, and red-haired. She needed a trade, preferably something artistic. In real life I knew a slender, red-headed artist who made jewelry, including wire sculptures. Her name was Kimmie. Perusing Gaelic girl names, I ran across Kenna- close enough to Kimmie, with just the right modern rarity to hint at someone different.
Names for most of Gerald's friends in Kiergenwald and at the castle were pulled from lists of older Gaelic, Scot, or Norse names based on sound, meaning, or both. The exception is Justin. While his name appeared in a list, I chose him because of a family friend, a teen, who fit the character I was writing. At one point when I needed to kill a character off, Justin died because he was on the scene. Between already having plans for Justin and feeling bad about killing a friend, I rewrote bits of two or three chapters and killed off a different character.
Clan names are real clan names, associated at least loosely in our history with the areas they occupy in the books. Since this is effectively an alternate history, their homes don't map exactly to those you will find on maps from that period.
Another time I'll talk about dragon names.
Copyright 2019 Miles O'Neal, Round Rock, TX.