FAQ - Names

Q: How do authors decide on names for characters?  For example, in OLD WOUNDS, where did the names "Bib"  and “Moon”  come from?  Are names meant to symbolize the character and if so how?

 A: Basically, for me the name just needs to be believable. It may or may not carry symbolic weight. (I'm not writing Literature - just popular fiction.) 

I chose my protag's name rather quickly (when I took the one and only class that got me into writing mysteries) since I've always liked Elizabeth as a woman's name because of its many permutations. My Elizabeth is also called Liz, Lizzy, Lizzie Beth, 'Lizbeth, etc, depending on who's talking to her. 

 Goodweather was chosen partly to denote Elizabeth's generally optimistic attitude and partly because I liked the sound of it. (I considered Merriweather but that seemed a little too sweety-sweet.) But in general I don't use names that are symbolic for fear of sounding ridiculous. Phillip Hawkins sounds strong to me (Phillip of Macedonia, Hawkins, the Elizabethan privateer come to mind) but no way would I have given him a name like Manly Armstrong or Peter Steele.

Bib -- this is funny. I was going to call the guy Big Something or other and the first time I typed it, I hit b instead of g. Liked the looks of it and that's where Bib came from. If I had to defend it as a believable choice, I could spin a tale about it being a childhood nickname and having something to do with bib overalls. There’s a guy living near us who’s known as Slab, I think from a nickname.

The book OLD WOUNDS grew out of my seeing the name Maythorn somewhere and immediately wanting a character named Maythorn.  One could make an English-major kind of argument for the name Maythorn containing both a gentle (May) and harsh (thorn) element, but this one won't; I just liked the name. 

The idea of pairing the lovely name Maythorn with a kind of pedestrian-sounding name like Mullins also appealed to me. Then Mr. Mullins needed a first name. Many of you are undoubtedly far too young to remember this but there was once a comic strip called "Moon Mullins." It seemed reasonable to me that this fella might have picked up Moon as a nickname when he was very young. No symbolism intended.

Back to Maythorn: A student once pointed out the Rosemary Maythorn connection (rose thorn) which is a good call on her part – even though it was inadvertent on my part. Someone else pointed out a thing I did do on purpose. Maythorn’s real name is Mary Thorn: hence Rosemary/ Mary Thorn which strengthens the girls’ blood sister bond in that they share a name.

But many of my names, probably most of them -- Asheley, Krystalle, Jared, for example -- are just representative of what seem to be popular names at a particular time, in a particular place. I have spent time in the Records office of our county, writing down names from various time periods that caught my fancy. I also pay attention to obituaries and note down interesting names.

And some names are there because their owners won a raffle or something where I promised to use the name they asked me to. Ronnie Winemiller, James Suttles, Lee Palatt are three that come to mind.