H.R. Kasper
H.R. Kasper asked Mistral Dawn:

How do you come up with names for your characters?

Mistral Dawn Hi H. R.! Thank you so much for your question! :-) The short answer is: It varies. The longer answer is, some of them come to me from spending time with my characters, some of them come from people I know who ask to be in my stories, some of them come from research into mythology, and some of them come from name lists (like in baby name books) with name meanings.

Usually with my heroines, I'll spend time getting to know them and after a while it'll be like: "Hmmm...you seem like a Veronica to me." And then I'll have to look at the name and say: "What can Veronica be shortened to, or maybe there's another nickname you'd prefer?" Once that's sorted out, then I have to name my hero. In the case of Cadeyrn, I did a lot of research into the myths of the Wild Hunt and the Erlking. Then I sat down with lists of Celtic names and looked for one that meant something that "was" the Erlking in my mind. Some of his names come from the myths, but Cadeyrn came from what the myth represented to me. A lot of my character's names are like that, which is one of the reasons I put a list of who's who at the back of my books with names and meanings. :-)

Occasionally, people I know will be kind enough to ask to be a character, and then I use their name, or at least a version of it. For example: Lynn might become Lynda or Lenore. Something along those lines. :-) And then sometimes I'll have a character who is a bit generic, like a servant or a bad guy, and I'll want to do something to make them a little more unique. So I'll spend some time with them and try to figure out at least one thing about them that makes them who they are; something that motivates them or that they're passionate about. Then I'll take that thing and go looking for a word for it in another language, usually on names lists, and, when I find the right word, I'll make that their name or I'll modify it and make the modification their name.

Anyway, I know this was a bit long-winded, but I hope I answered your question. :-)

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