What's in a Name?

I've met so many kids this year and have considered borrowing so many of their names.

I tell them about my Name Notebook and warn them that I may just use their names if one speaks to me. So to speak. 

I know, I obsess over naming characters. I can't help it. If you type Character Names, or even names, into the search box on my blog, you'll find an
(Don't tell my Writers Group but I'm thinking of changing a character's name. He's got the best name in the manuscript. So good -I think- that I'm considering saving it for a leading man, later. I've been lying awake in bed at night going through the remaining letters of the alphabet trying to find a good name for this fellow.)

Recently a writer friend told me how a name and the resulting book title just magically came to her.  On a walk. I won't give more details-- they are hers to share-- but it involves the name IVY. Two members of my immediate family as well as my lifelong best friend are named Ivy. I thought it was a "normal" name until I moved out of the South and realized no one could even understand what I was saying. And that there were no book characters named Ivy!

That's sure changed.
Witness MOONPIE AND IVY. IVY AND BEAN. And the list goes on.



 (Three of my Ivys)

I found
Surprisingly, there were some names to think about on that name generator.
Bo Bones, anyone?