The Rose Throne: Names

I knew from the beginning that Issa and Ailsbet, the two princesses, would have variations on the names “Mary” and “Elizabeth” because of the way they are anchored in my mind to the historical Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England. Other characters in the novel also have names that are references to figures in Tudor England, though it may be tricky to figure them out. In general, I used Dutch equivalents because I wanted to give a feeling of difference from historical England, but I also wanted the names to seem familiar in an eery way.

Haikor=Henry

Jaap=James

Ailsbet=Elizabeth

Mary was trickier because I wanted her name to be more different than the Dutch variations, so I admit, I mixed up some Mary-like names and came up with the combination of “Marlissa.”

In the first draft of the novel (and some of the subsequent drafts), Ailsbet also went by the nickname “Bez,” an analog of the nickname “Bess.” Ultimately, I chose not to use that name  for two reasons. 1—Ailsbet’s position at her father’s court is not one likely to lead to her having a nickname. No one seems to have that kind of affection for her. 2—“Bez” didn’t work for some readers. They thought it sounded odd.

Just for fun, here is a list of other variants of Elizabeth that I considered for Ailsbet/Bez:

Ailsbek (Bek)
Ailsbet (Aila)
Ailusa (Lusa)
Elzavetta (Zava/Zavi)
Izabetta (Zaba)
Sabeta (Beta)
Elzunia (Zuni)
Chabika (Bika)
Chelbeka (Bek)