Jessica asked C.C. Aune:

How did you come up with the names of your characters?

C.C. Aune A lot of factors go into the choosing of each character's name. First of all, the story is set in England during the early 1800s, so I consult online lists and make sure the names were either common or at least in some use for that time and place. Obviously, modern names like Tiffany and Zayne would not ring true for my genre, and I'm not a big fan of making up silly names that sound legitimate but also somehow fit the character's personality (like Charles Dickens did). OATH contains one notable exception to this rule, but if I explained the name now, it would be a spoiler for a revelation much later on. So...sorry!

Secondly, because I'm a genealogist with mostly English ancestry, I have a lot of family names from which I can draw. There are several characters in OATH whose names are pulled straight from my family tree, or have been modifed somewhat. People who know me well are privy to which characters those are.

My third rule of thumb comes from a pet peeve of mine: I can't stand reading books where several characters have similar names, or whose names all begin with the same letter. It's too easy to get them confused in my mind. So I usually make sure a new character's name begins with a letter that does not compete with the names of the other characters around him/her. This goes for first and last names, titles, and even locations. With only 26 letters, one can't always achieve perfect uniqueness, but I try. (OK, I admit this might be a bit OCD.)

Generally speaking, I don't have much trouble choosing character names. Unlike babies, you already know what their basic personality is, so you can choose one that seems to suit them just right.

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