Naming Names

            Tristan is not, as some have suggested, named after the character in All Creatures Great and Small. (Tristan Farnon was named by a Wagnerian opera enthusiast.) I read the books long before BBC TV cast the actor who would later be tapped for Doctor Who. My Tristan is named for Tristan of Lyonesse, one of the last of Arthur’s knights that I became aware of. Edward Arlington Robinson wrote a book length poem about Tristan of Lyonesse, which I found incredibly romantic. Tristan of Lyonesse is really sort of attached to Arthur’s Round Table because his legends seem to be contemporaneous, but he’s rarely a part of the frequently chronicled adventures, he’s not mentioned in Camelot, and so the name was fresh to me. The illustration here is the British bookcover, hardback and paperback, and until I did my own cover paintings, the best depiction of Tristan I have seen. I have no idea who the artist is--Fontana gave no credit. (So if you know who painted it, please comment and tell me!)

            Elisena—I googled it by accident once, and found out elisena’s a plant species. (The spiderworts) I thought it was a variant of Elizabeth, which it may indeed be. I used to work in retail advertising, and looked at Women’s Wear Daily tear sheets for inspiration. Someone names Elizinha got photographed at some gala, and I lifted the name.

            Esdragon was supposed to be Estragon, the French name for tarragon. I spelled it wrong, and decided I liked it.  Calandra is Greek, it means “lark”. I used to read name dictionaries regularly, keeping lists of those I thought would work for my invented world. Allaire is certainly from a “What Shall We Name the Baby” book.

            Polassar is named for Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Narbopolassar. And any resemblance between the big guy and Yukon Cornelius (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)  is something I didn’t notice till years later—but I did begin writing The Ring of Allaire just after Christmas, in January 1978. Reynaud was probably inspired by a Thomas Canty pencil drawing titled “Reynardine”.

            Valadan is a name I thought I coined. Turns out it really is a surname. I was after something that I would like as much as Ursula LeGuin’s dragon-names in A Wizard of Earthsea, something that would echo “valiant” in the reader’s ear. So far as I know, I’m the first to use the name for a horse—and Valadan has been mentioned in an article in Horse Illustrated about how to choose a good name for your horse. A thoroughbred named Valadan also raced at Philadelphia Park—though he was a brown gelding and not a black stallion, he was foaled after Prince of Ill Luck appeared, and I feel strongly that there’s no coincidence involved. Someone once asked permission to name an Arabian filly Kessallia—I don’t know that it ever happened. That one could have been a handful!