Naming characters - how hard can it be?
Naming characters I think is a little like picking a name for a baby. Everyone has an opinion... which often entails wrinkling up their nose and saying "Really? I went to school with a 'insert name', and they were a real piece of work."
And I'm no less guilty of that syndrome. There are several names you will never see in my books, unless I need a bitch/bad guy to lay all the blame on... then automatically I insert my childhood nemesis's name into the slot. But never as the H or h.
So where do I get my inspiration for the names I have chosen? Invariably I'm looking for strong names or names that can be shortened to cool nicknames. From day one, or should that be Book One of the Southern Sanctuary series, I always knew Charisse would be the lead h in Book Four and that the H would nickname her Cyd (after Cyd Charisse)
Mostly when I'm looking to name my characters I tend to use a mix of friends names and cool sounding surnames as first names.
People have asked how I came up with the name Hadleigh for my Book One heroine.
Well, the answer is kind of embarrassing on this one people, but when I was younger I had a crush on the lead singer of Spandau Ballet, Tony Hadleigh. Plus, have always thought Hadleigh would make a cool girl's name.
And the lead H, from Book One? Vaughn was named in honour of the male lead character from the TV show 'Alias' - yes, another crush.
Names go in and out of fashion as well. Once upon a time the name Jane (yes, my real name) could often be found front and centre in a book as the heroine. Nowadays, Jane's in literature are the secretary, the plain girl or someone's elderly relative.
The real challenge lies in having to identify a lot of characters names early on in a series. That's where the planning comes, as I tested names and pairings thoroughly to see how they would look on paper.
Though it didn't stop my mother from calling me after she finished reading Book One, To Woo a Warrior, to tell me how she couldn't believe I'd included a character called Gigi. Wondering why I'd failed to remember that she'd gone to school with a horrible girl called Gigi, and that she'd been a real piece of work.
Sigh, like I said, naming characters... how hard can it be?
And I'm no less guilty of that syndrome. There are several names you will never see in my books, unless I need a bitch/bad guy to lay all the blame on... then automatically I insert my childhood nemesis's name into the slot. But never as the H or h.
So where do I get my inspiration for the names I have chosen? Invariably I'm looking for strong names or names that can be shortened to cool nicknames. From day one, or should that be Book One of the Southern Sanctuary series, I always knew Charisse would be the lead h in Book Four and that the H would nickname her Cyd (after Cyd Charisse)
Mostly when I'm looking to name my characters I tend to use a mix of friends names and cool sounding surnames as first names.
People have asked how I came up with the name Hadleigh for my Book One heroine.
Well, the answer is kind of embarrassing on this one people, but when I was younger I had a crush on the lead singer of Spandau Ballet, Tony Hadleigh. Plus, have always thought Hadleigh would make a cool girl's name.
And the lead H, from Book One? Vaughn was named in honour of the male lead character from the TV show 'Alias' - yes, another crush.
Names go in and out of fashion as well. Once upon a time the name Jane (yes, my real name) could often be found front and centre in a book as the heroine. Nowadays, Jane's in literature are the secretary, the plain girl or someone's elderly relative.
The real challenge lies in having to identify a lot of characters names early on in a series. That's where the planning comes, as I tested names and pairings thoroughly to see how they would look on paper.
Though it didn't stop my mother from calling me after she finished reading Book One, To Woo a Warrior, to tell me how she couldn't believe I'd included a character called Gigi. Wondering why I'd failed to remember that she'd gone to school with a horrible girl called Gigi, and that she'd been a real piece of work.
Sigh, like I said, naming characters... how hard can it be?
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I love the variety of names you have picked for your characters and while they aren't common names, neither are they difficult to know how they are pronounced!