A Goodreads user asked Shannon Messenger:

How do you think of names for you characters? I've noticed some of your characters names a regular names but changed a little. Alden--Alvin Biana--Bianca Fitz--Fritz I was just wondering do you change names? Or do you just think of them.

Shannon Messenger Actually, I choose 99.9% of my names based on what they mean, so most of them are real names, despite being somewhat unique. Alden, for instance, means "wise protector." Della (which is short for Radelle) means "Councilor to the elves." Fitz I took from the name "Fitzroy" (which is technically Fitz's full name, though I don't think I've ever used it in the book) which means "son of the king." Dex comes from "Dextrous" since he's good with his hands. Keefe means "good looking one." Edaline means "noble." Etc.

But I was also drawn to those names because they were similar to names that were more common, so I figured that would make it easy for readers to know how to pronounce them. I didn't want them to be too strange, but I always default to the meaning (except for a few RARE exceptions where I couldn't find a name with a meaning I liked, in which case I just made something up)

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