Where Do You Get Your Characters' Names?

[Lookin^Up]

If I knew how to make this a poll, I would have, but what resources/methods do you use to name your fictional characters? Telephone book? Baby naming book? Altering family and friends' names?

I have a resource that gives common names from different countries, such as German, Japanese, Egyptian, Greek, and so forth, which comes in handy for foreign characters. Sometimes I use friends' names and change the surname to make him/her dfferent, and change their physical appearance, too. Sometimes I start with a word that defines the character, then make a name of it, especially for alien characters.

So what naming conventions do you use?

[Pinecone Tortoi]

I collect spammer's names. My uni email account gets a lot of spam from folks who've figured out that putting a 'name' on the account seems to help it get past the spam blocks. Sometimes they even put another name on the 'To' address - which works as a two-in-one for me. ^^ Get some exotic stuff coming through there (like "Morris Zamora", "Griffith Guerra" and "Ehab Jubert") as well as more normal sounding ones (like "Sophie X Richardson", "Douglas Birks", "Roland Massey" and "Duncan Crowder"). I generally mix and match surnames and first names (just in case it's a real person's name and not a bot picking them at random).

When it comes to fantasy, I tend to give real names a miss and just tack together syllables that sound neat. Hence names like Mulath Amerate, Ruta Rurano and Momori Luka. Then there's Jatahokesh Kobaa - that came as after reading through the Old Testament and liking the sound of the names... though I feel kinda awkward about playing with it like that, so I may or may not use it. Mostly I just tinker with syllables until the result sounds nice or exotic.

I also feel awkard when it comes to using the names of friends/family. I imagine them coming across something I write and wondering if that's how I see them. Then there's the thing about being reminded of the namesake so it interferes with my freedom to characterise. Naw... I avoid the names of people I know and enjoy making up words.

Piney.

[DraperJC]

For a story set in the time of Jesus I looked up Hebrew names and chose words that matched the characters. The stonecutter was named Rock and the bad guy Chief Priest was called something like Deceiver or Big Giant Blowhard.

[jacks girl]

If there is someone I know that I'm not crazy about I can't seem to use that name. I often look at the Delorme Street Atlas because in my work it's open a lot, and I'll use the map to find a name. Once I wanted my lady to be name Candy so i found Canadensis, Pennsylvania and I even used that she was born there while her family was on vacation.

I have used baby names books a few times because here you can find out what the name means. I just hit google and start looking. I have been writing for over 20 years so I have a lot of favorites. I like my men's names to sound really manly and I'll change the form of a name like Rick to Ricardo, Daniel but not Danny, no Terry's or Jerry's nothing that could be considered a womans name.

But on the other hand I love men's name for women, Samantha, Billy, Jess.

If I watch a movie and i love some character in the movie I may swipe their name or a few quirks about that character. I also love finding different last names for my characters. I loved the character Jim Rockford, and Magnum Pi, they were great detectives and I love using little things that really clicked with my characters. James west and his cocky attitude of knowing how good looking he was often finds it's ways into my characters.

I know i went a little off topic but I love love love talking about characters.

GREAT THREAD

[pajarita_deDios]

Mmmm...A favorite subject! I love names. If I know someone whom I really like with a certain name, that name will always be one I like, and if it's someone I don't particularly like, I'll probably never like the name. I've always loved names from other cultures (Havilah, Milan, Azar, Fousta), but I usually try to keep the names within the culture that I'm writing in, unless it's an American. I don't think I could ever be satisfied naming a character "Sally" or "Jessica" or "Rob".

Funny story, when my sister was threatening to name my niece "Savannah" I almost had a heart attack, but didn't say a word, for fear of hurting her feelings. Thankfully, she stumbled upon the name Emma (one of my favorite names), and fell in love with it. Needless to say, once she was born, I realized I couldn't have loved her less if her name had been "Tree-stump" ;). All that is to say, I love names, character or otherwise.

[ProfessorAlan]

There are a couple of name generators on the Web that I have used before.

I needed ethnic names for a story once, and found a site (no idea how to find it now) that listed the top 100 first & last names from nations around the world. Awesome help!

[Phy]

I make them up out of whole cloth as I go.

[tlm]

I often use the first names of family or friends as homage to them.

[Naomi Musch]

What? You mean all writers are not obsessed with reading MOVIE CREDITS? Golly, that even helped with naming my kids: Evan Marie, Quinn Rylan, Cade Forrest, Beau Kenton, Jessamyn Winter. (Well, actually the last one was after the author Jessamyn West. Great name, don't you agree?)

Incidently, I've used my kids names or variations of them in my books, too. It's my credit to each of them. So far I have a David Quinn, Manason Kade, Zane Beaumont, and I'm working on the other two.

[Merry]

I love my kids names! I wish they'd okay me using them. They read my stories and Tim especially likes them, but they both turn all bashful when I suggest using their names. When my Matt was seven and I was making up stories featuring a character he really liked, I suggested we name the guy 'Matt.' And Matt said, No, he liked to hear stories about other people, he didn't want to be in one. So I let him help rename the character and that is why I still have a character named 'Danny Doc Dilly.'

I get stuck on guys names, since Tim and Matt are off limits, so when I get stuck I tend to just name them 'Mike.'

[Tarin]

What? You mean all writers are not obsessed with reading MOVIE CREDITS?

That would be me! I love reading movie credits - drives my family crazy when I won't let them skip to the actual movie or shut it off once it's over.:o

Naming characters is an ongoing struggle for me... and an ongoing joy. I suspect, when I die, my tombstone will include the phrase "Help me! I need a name for my character..." That's another thing that drives my family crazy, esp. since I rarely end up using their dutiful suggestions.:D

For the most part, I rely on baby name books, specifically The Greatest Baby Name Book by Carol McD. Wallace and Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon. The latter is good because it divides all the names into ethnic origins, but I think Carol Wallace's book allows me to be more creative. Often I won't know my characters' ancestry until I've selected a name.

I also make use of sites (such as the Social Security Administration (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/)) that list popular baby names for particular years. Because I write a lot of historical fiction, it's important to me to match the names to the time period. It drives me crazy when authors assign completely modern names to their historical characters: for instance, I'll never forget when Lori Wick named a male character from the early 1800s Dallas.:eek: :eek: I haven't read a Wick book since.

I do keep a running list of names I particularly like: first names, last names, place names, even animal names. Whenever I run across a name I particularly like, I'll write it down and enter it in my "name database."

You'd think with all those options that I'd never be at a loss for a name, wouldn't you? But I still struggle to find that "perfect" name nearly every time I begin a new story.

[righter1]

I have several ways I name characters. Often, a name will pop into my head and I'll be off and running. Sometimes, I have a character that needs a name and I have to figure out what would fit.

Like TLM, I will use friends' or family names to pay homage to them. The day I learned the associate pastor at my church was moving on to another church, I named a minor character after him... One that will likely only appear in my first book. My MC's boyfriend got his name because I liked the movie 'Casablanca' at the time I was developing (still do, but haven't watched it in forever) so he got named Rick. His last name was drawn from the list of former US Presidents, since he was into politics. (Pierce is his last name--how many of you remember Franklin Pierce, our 14th president, from your history books?) My current MC got her name, Amanda Jean O'Flannigan simply because I liked the name.

One of my bigger sources for names as of late is my job. I work in the claims department for an international insurance company (only handle mostly US claims, though.) so I come across some interesting names on a daily basis. When I do, I grab my notebook and write the names down. So far, I've taken some whole names and have developed potential characters for future stories with them. Some of the names give you this picture of this person (either real or fictional) that can be quite interesting.

[ProfessorAlan]

If the character is based on a real person I know, I may flip their initials and/or names. My old pastor Ken Peters became Peter Kendricks.

Sometimes I move their initials up or back one letter in the alphabet. The character most closely based on me, A W M, became Brian Xavier Norton.

These are both mnemonics for me, to keep a visualization of the character in my mind.

[mbeachbum]

So far, the names of my characters have just kinda popped into my head. Recently, I've been writing about teens, so I want the names to be rather common and believable. (Really, though, I've seen some really strange names on my class rolls over the last several years!)

Accidentally or unconsciously (or subconsciously??), the name of one of my characters reflected her job. She was a good teacher and her name? Mrs. Kidwell. Later, when I re-read my writing, I was happily surprised at how that happened. :p

[melw]

well most names i try to chose names that i don't know too many. I sometimes get a name into my mind and use that. On my main WIP i wanted to use some names that mean something.

But i use baby names sites and the phone book. Recently i have been looking for a unique name and wanted the surname to mean something. I found a link but can't remember where it was. Will post it if i remember it.

MEL

[Ransom v. Unman]

I like researching backgrounds for my character's names, but a lot of times it comes from some subconscious association.

Take one character from the parnoid-schizophrenic serial murder story 'm writing - his name's Stephen Mayhew. Well, Stephen Mayhew happens to be rather tall. I thought, "Who's someone who's rather tall and has an English, WASP-ish last name?" My mind drifted towards Peter Mayhew of Chewbacca fame. I saw him at a sci-fi convention once. He speaks with a deep, English voice, and the man is tremendous. So, I connected the two, threw in Stephen for a first-name, and there we have it!

Another character in the same story is Sgt. Mike Stenhauer. The city I set the story in had a long-standing and large German population back in the day, much like in New York you still find lots of people with Italian and Jewish last names everywhere. I just figured Sgt. Mike would be of German descent, and picked a German last name. That simple.

That's more or less the process I go through. It's really fun when I get into my fantasy worlds where I've made up a great part of the languages (or at least pieced them together from actual languages.)

I'm tempted to go into the etymology of several of my character's names, but I'll only bore you with those details upon request. :D

Good thread indeed!

[Naomi Musch]

Wow, you guys all have really great ideas! I think it's cool that some of you have paid homage to different important people in your lives by using their names in some way. I really didn't give my kids a choice, but they seem honored.

Tarin, you are after my heart with this movie credit thing! I laughed so hard, because just last night my family went to see the Fantastic 4, and since we got there at the end of the previous showing, we went in and got our seats just so that I could watch the credits and my family wouldn't have to wait for me after our showing! Even at home, they go crazy when I won't let them shut the movie off at the end, too!

I agree, as well, that it's so important to use names that fit the time period if you write historical fiction. That doesn't necessarily mean that every 1800s character has to be a George or Pearl, or that every 1950's character has to be a Dick or Patty. We can be original, but still sound true. It's part of the challenge of writing historical fiction.

Great ideas, everyone!~

[Elondra]

I love symbolism, so I will literally read a Baby Name book looking for a name that matches the personality or attribute I want for my character.
Internet has been a major blessing in that area because they now have search generators where you can put a name in and learn the meaning, or put a meaning in and find a name. woot!

As for minor characters, I'll pick up names from customers at my work that stood out to me - especially last names. And first names for minor characters I will often change the spelling of names I liked, but didn't necessiarly like the meaning of.
I also have a little plastic bag full of letters and if I'm in a real hard spot, I'll grab a letter out of the bag and find a name I like that begins with that letter

[paulchernoch]

Because I write a lot of historical fiction, it's important to me to match the names to the time period. It drives me crazy when authors assign completely modern names to their historical characters: for instance, I'll never forget when Lori Wick named a male character from the early 1800s Dallas.:eek: :eek: I haven't read a Wick book since.


You got me curious. Apparently the name Dallas comes from a small town in Scotland, and became the basis for the family name Dallas. No one actually knows who the city of Dallas is named after - the surveyor who named it just said it was named after a friend of his. One possibility is a man who soon after became vice president of the US, but there were several other people in the early 1800's in the Texas area with the family name Dallas.

As for me - I also named one of my characters after a town in Texas, one named Clute. I had a villain named Stellalucca who liked anagrams (like Tom Riddle of the Harry Potter series), and having chosen his name already, I used a program I found on the internet to generate anagrams for his name, and one of them was Clute Callas. Since my hero is also from Texas, I decided to create a scene of childhood rivalry between the hero and the villain's secret identity. Roundabout, but it worked.

I use a zillion ways to come up with names: babynames.com, various web sites for other countries, made up names using the common endings found in other countries (e.g. lots of Armenians have names ending in "-akian", Romanians end in "-escu", etc.)

I often take a character attribute and disguise it as a name. One character needed to be an expert at building planes and flying them, so I named her Lindy Shearwater, after Charles Lindbergh (a flyer) and a bird that can fly long distances. Another character was in charge of Orientation, so I named her Asli Mercator - after the Mercator projection, a type of map. (I knew a Turkish woman in college named Asli, so I used her name.)

A woman at my office is named Aiyana, so I named a character Anaiya (which it turns out is a real name).

One of my characters worked in sanitation and was an environmentalist who loved birds, so I named her Ellen Swallow, after Ellen Swallow Richardson, a fellow MIT graduate and the founder of the science of sanitary engineering, who conducted the first survey of water quality in Massachusetts in the 1800's.

One character was a profiler for the FBI. They look for patterns, so I named him Pat Turin.

I named a lawyer who became a judge Daniel Lidgate. Daniel means "The Lord is my Judge", and Lidgate sounds like "litigate". Of course, once I chose the name, I researched it and found there is a Lidgate castle in England, giving him a history.

Naming is a real game for me. I also take biblical names and change them slightly. I needed a planet founded by evil escapees from the flood of Noah. Since Lamech was one nasty mentioned in Genesis, I named the planet Lamecca. Their slaves were captured descendants of Seth, so I named them the Setians, which also sounds like Tau Seti (a nearby star) and SETI - the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence project. (I got a triple association for that one, which made me real proud.)

Recently, I had a villain trick the hero into taking him on a detour to the moon, where he had his own spaceship hidden. He needed details of a new scientific breakthrough in radiation shielding or his own ship would not be able to get through the stargate. He sneaks away with the plans and takes off. I love that old poem "The Highwayman" so I had already named the chapter "Ghostly Galleon." The ghosts were the villain's victims - the staff of the destroyed Chinese moonbase. The galleon was his hidden spaceship. When I realized I needed a place for him to hide it, I decided it was an abandoned vacation resort on the moon that is supposedly haunted. I needed a name for the wealthy industrialist who built it, so naturally I called him Marcus Galleon. The moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon cloudy seas...

Enough rambling. I love names.

- Paul

[Ransom v. Unman]

Paul - you're tempting me to go into that diatribe about my character's names that I was resisting the urge to go into. :p You might cause me to stumble here brother.

[Tarin]

You got me curious. Apparently the name Dallas comes from a small town in Scotland, and became the basis for the family name Dallas. No one actually knows who the city of Dallas is named after - the surveyor who named it just said it was named after a friend of his. One possibility is a man who soon after became vice president of the US, but there were several other people in the early 1800's in the Texas area with the family name Dallas.

The character's first name was Dallas, a very modern name. If his last name had been Dallas, I wouldn't have had any problem whatsoever. In fact, I probably could have forgiven the author if Dallas had been her only attempt to stuff a trendy name into the wrong time period - but her books are chock full of 'em.:mad:

[Lookin^Up]

Wow, this thread has really taken off! :eek: But why should I be surprised? We're all writers here, and naturally we regard our characters as our good friends--as one quiz put it, we know them better than our best friends. And naturally we'll want them to have the best name we can possibly give them.

I get stuck on guys names, since Tim and Matt are off limits, so when I get stuck I tend to just name them 'Mike.'
Interestingly, Merry, I wrote two brothers who are introduced later in my sci-fi series named Matt and Tim. You're covered.

For the most part, I rely on baby name books, specifically The Greatest Baby Name Book by Carol McD. Wallace and Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Kenyon's book is the one I have, too, which I alluded to when I started this thread. Great resource, for sure! !thumbsup!

A lot of you have come up with methods I've never thought about before. You're right, movie end credits would be a great pool of names to draw from, mixing and matching them so no charge of libel would be forthcoming. Of course, there's always the slight chance you'll make up a name someone else has, and an even slighter chance that the personality you make up for him/her would be very close. I once wrote a story including the name Sandy, and a girl named Sandy read it and completely identified with her! In this case, that was a good thing--and amazing, since I hadn't met her before writing the story.

[Ransom v. Unman]

I once wrote a story including the name Sandy, and a girl named Sandy read it and completely identified with her! In this case, that was a good thing--and amazing, since I hadn't met her before writing the story.

Phillip K. Dick mentioned experiencing a phenomenon similar to this with one of his stories. Somehow it's responsible for drawing him towards Gnosticism. :rolleyes:

Anyway, that's only if what that guy at the end of Waking Life says is true - which it probably is as the guy who made that is a huge Phillip K. Dick fan.

[VWeathers]

I've been using a baby name book. I am new to fiction writing. But I am going to check out the search engines. It's interesting last names I draw the most blanks on. Maybe the phonebook will be a great start.

So I guess there are no legal issues grabbing someone's name from the phone book. Is that a stupid question?:o :confused:

[Tarin]

So I guess there are no legal issues grabbing someone's name from the phone book. Is that a stupid question?:o :confused:

Names aren't copyrighted. However, most fiction authors put a disclaimer in the front of their books. Something to the effect of: "All people and places are fictional. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is unintentional."

[VWeathers]

That's good to know.

[VWeathers]

I am into name meanings. I want that name to fit my character's personaity trait such at loyalty, daddy's joy, honesty, deceitful. When I named my own children I researched the meaning of their names. One of my girls names (first and middle) means peace and happiness the other means little lamb and light.

What source do you use for last names?

[paulchernoch]

Ransom: Resist!

VWeathers: I came across a website that will generate Chinese names. It lets you choose a few personality characteristics and does the rest. I don't remember the site, but if you search for "Chinese name generator" lots of links pop up.

Wikipedia has an article on Indonesian names: Indonesian names (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_names)

I like to use babelfish at altavista. I take an English word and translate it into a foreign language, then change it a little to make it sound like a name if it needs it. (Potentially dangerous.) Then I search on the word, and sometimes it pops up as a person's name, or at least a real word. (This works well for latin names: Italian, Portuguese, French.)

- Paul

[Tarin]

What source do you use for last names?

As I've commented elsewhere in this thread, I keep an ongoing list of names. Whenever I see one somewhere that I like the sound of, I write it down. However, I also rely heavily on the "Boys' Names" section of my name books. A lot of the boy names in current fashion are, in fact, last names.

I used to assign minor character last names by choosing the last name of a character or author from whatever book I was reading at the time. But I've stopped doing this, in part because I've grown very particular about matching the name to the time period and such, and in part because it's too distracting for me to read my own work and start thinking about someone else's character.:rolleyes:

Sometimes I'll give my characters a last name related to their inspiration. For example, I once wrote a western that had a lawman inspired by Pat Garrett (of Billy the Kid fame), so I gave him the last name Garrett.

[DaisyMama]

I compiled a huge binder of names for myself. I used one of the baby names sites that lists the most popular names for any given year, and I looked up the 500 most popular names for every decade year going back to 1880. I have separate sections in my binder for boys' names and girls' names. There are so many great names around the turn of the century -- even great names for modern characters because you can say they're named after a grandma or something. Like others have mentioned, I hate when people use anachronistic names for their characters; this way I can make sure that the names I choose were actually in use when they were born.

Also, I looked up popular baby names for Kentucky, but it only went back to 1960, and it was only 100 names per year. My WIP takes place in Kentucky, so I can look up names that might be more localized to that area.

As for last names, I compiled a HUGE list of those, too. Again, specific to Kentucky. I looked up old census records (like from early 1800's) from a few counties in Kentucky, and combined them into one ginormous list. It's been great!!

If anyone is interested, I have all these lists in Word documents. PM me your email address and I'd be happy to share them!

[Samwise]

In addition to movie credits, baby name books & phone books, I tend to just look around me & see if anything pops out (I guess kind of like how L. Frank Baum supposedly came up with OZ). Right now I'm working on a story with two different classes/cultures & I want the names of the people in each group to have something in common that is not blatantly identifiable - I'm still working that out but I think I'm going to end up going with root origin or something along those lines.

[VWeathers]

Here's a "legal" question. Say I am flipping through a magazine and I see an ad for an upscale subdivision called Liberty Park. If I use that name for a character is that legal?

What if they are a villain instead of the hero?

[Alice]

I try to write down cool names I think of or run across. But most never get used.

When I need a name, sometimes I'll look through baby names books and wrinkle the ol' brow. More often, I'm in a hurry, trying to get something written down, and I'll just grab a name out of thin air.

Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't.

[righter1]

Here's a "legal" question. Say I am flipping through a magazine and I see an ad for an upscale subdivision called Liberty Park. If I use that name for a character is that legal?

What if they are a villain instead of the hero?

I'm no legal beagle, but from my understanding of the law (and I do know quite a few lawyers, because of my political involvement) you're okay on that. In all likelihood, the developers would never know where the inspiration was from, and in fiction, we get that little proviso on our copyright page that states that this is a work of fiction. Anything contained in this work is strictly from the author's imagination, and any similarities are purely coincidental.

Now, being a person named Liberty, since it is an unusual name, I may PERSONALLY have a problem with it, but that's because I've never seen my name used in a book, and the only place I have seen it in a public work is in a John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart movie. :p

[Tarin]

the only place I have seen it in a public work is in a John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart movie. :p


Oooh, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance... You do realize that from now on I will never think of your name without visualizing a psychotic Lee Marvin?:eek: :p

[righter1]

Oooh, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance... You do realize that from now on I will never think of your name without visualizing a psychotic Lee Marvin?:eek: :p

This is fine... Just remember that I am a girl, and check out my profile pic to reinforce it!!

:p

[Lookin^Up]

There was also an episode of The Big Valley featuring a sharpshooting woman named Liberty. I think she was someone Heath used to know in the past. But you're right, it's not a very common name, especially in fiction.

It does place an image in people's minds, however, before they even meet you, as though your life should have nothing to hinder you or hold you back. Logic tells me that that cannot be true, but still ...

For that matter, come to think of it, my last name Kissling can do that, too. I'm no Romeo or gigolo, but people who hear my name for the first time can get that impression. One amorous girl I knew once declared, "I love your name!", and I had to explain it's only a name, passed on to me at birth, and nothing more. When I was dating in college, people would jeer in fun, "Live up to your name, Dave!"

[VWeathers]

Liberty sounds like a protagonist's name if I ever heard one! Who could be the villain? AnJAILica?:cool: :p :D

[melw]

like i said once before LIberty was in a book by Lori Wick.

That is what i always think when i here Liberty

MEL

[righter1]

It does place an image in people's minds, however, before they even meet you, as though your life should have nothing to hinder you or hold you back. Logic tells me that that cannot be true, but still ...


Yeah, odd names are like that. At a baby shower recently, the new grandmother came up to me as I was being introduced to my friends' other friends and family, and my friends' mother said to me that she'd been looking forward to meeting me. She said that I must be a free spirit, and that she could tell that by looking at me...

I'm sitting here thinking, okay... I'm dressed NORMALLY (which for me is jeans and a polo or a button-down shirt), my hair's not in some weird spiky 'do and it's not neon pink... How can she tell this? And, I don't think of myself that way... the quirkiest thing I've got going on is my writing and my photography... Go figure. :)

So, what other names have you used that evoke an instant image or idea of a person, and have you done it intentionally or unintentionally?

[Alice]

Here's something about names that I learned the hard way. You should always know how to pronounce the name before you pick it.

Yes. I once picked the name "Sean" for a main character, but I thought (having only read it in books) that it was pronounced "Seen" as opposed to "Shawn." I was quite upset when I found out the truth.

Of course I was about ten at the time. ;)

[VWeathers]

Jezebel and Judas are names that are seldom if ever used except for the desired effect of the image they cast.

[Tarin]

Yes. I once picked the name "Sean" for a main character, but I thought (having only read it in books) that it was pronounced "Seen" as opposed to "Shawn." I was quite upset when I found out the truth.

Of course I was about ten at the time. ;)

LOL! Me too...;)

[Lookin^Up]

I haven't seen Sean lately ...

[Ransom v. Unman]

One of my MCs is named Séaneen, and called Sean for short.

:rolleyes:

Of course, I know how it's spelled and pronounced, and that epistimologically it derives from "Yochannan", i.e. John.

But Sean's a good name... ;)

[alison.strobel]

I auctioned off four of the names in my first book. :) I was teaching elementary school at the time, and we were doing an auction as a fundraiser, so I auctioned off the right to name the four members of the MC's best friend's family. For my second book, I used a baby name book and looked for names that meant things specific to the characters in French. "Alexine" means helper, and she was the MC's best friend. "Saul" means ashes and he was the MC's dead husband. Christian--this one should be obvious--was the MC"s new love interest that saves her from death, and his last name--Roch--means healer, I think, and he was a family psychologist. For my WIP I just pulled the names out of thin air.

[VWeathers]

You know I am a real names meaning something person. I also like to have fun with the names. I guess it is like my little joke.

In the book I am currently working on, the man stealing villain's name is Skylar Xavier Ellington. Now her monogrammed towels actually spell out sEx because of the way monograms are written. :eek: I may be the only one who thinks that is funny though.:D

By the way, my Baby Names book was a tremendous help in choosing a girl's name that began with "X." As it turns out Xavier could go either way. I also discovered that a lot of S names were used with the S being replaced with an X e.g. Xusan.;)

[Lookin^Up]

X names are so rare, I just had to have one for my stories. I didn't know any heroines whose names started with X, so I came up with Xida, and later on, Xertrie. Of course, that was before Xenia, the Princess Warrior made the scene, but I found her to be too ... X-rated.