What’s in a name?

Years ago I was in a Kohl’s department store with a friend and we got to talking with the sales clerk. Come to find out she (sadly to say, I forgot her name) was originally from England, and when we told her our names she repeated them.

“Such a lovely British name,” she said with her perfectly beautiful Brtish accent. “Derek.”

The word tumbled out of her mouth like a breathy whisper. I’d never heard anything so beautiful, so … well, so … sensual. It was like the deep triple purr of a Siberian cat.

“Do that again,” I whispered back.

“Derek.” This time she elogated each syllable just a tad more. “Is that what you mean … Derek?”

I turned to my friend and said, “Now that’s how you say my name!”

I’ve long been fascinated by names. Where they come from. What they mean. I even had a name meaning book back in high school (I know, kinda nerdy). These monikers by which we know and are known sometimes speak very directly to who we are as a person, but more likely than not they speak to who our parents hoped we would be. I’ve often wondered what my parents had in store for me when they named me Derek Dwayne. I bet they didn’t say my name like that wonderful British sales clerk at Kohl’s!

I’m constantly on the lookout for great names to use in my writing. Interesting names, I hope, and names that speak on the subconscious level about the character. Names like Mike and Tom and Susan and William and Kathy and Betty are great. Nothing wrong with those. Not one bit. And they all have wonderfully significant meanings in and of themselves (I know because I once had a name book). But if you’re like me, sometimes the names we’re most familiar with get kind of mixed up in our minds when we’re deeply imbedded in a novel.

Was that Mike who’s married to Kathy or Tom?

Was it Wiliam who told Susan’s secret to Betty or was it Tom? Or maybe it was Betty’s secret of Susan.

I’ve been known to make a list of cast members on a blank page at the back of the book just to keep track of all the players.

Maybe it’s just me that has this problem, but when I started writing I wanted characters who names stuck out. Cast members that were memorable, if for no other reason than their name. I always think of the name as the starting point. Remember the name and the reader has a better chance of remembering the character’s history and true intentions.

Think about the original Star Wars. When you saw it for the first time did you have any trouble remembering the three heros? Luke Skywalker (what a great last name for a boy whose thoughts are in the stars!). Princess Leia (I’d never seen it spelled that way, nor had I ever seen a woman wear her hair that way either). Hans Solo (a strong, masculine, loner kind of name). And of course the ultimate bad guy name: Darth Vader. I was living in Germany when the original was first released. I should’ve realized that Vater was the German name for Father! What a clue as to what would come in the very next episode (The Empire Strikes Back).

When I was working on my first novel, We Planned a Murder, I was desperate for original names. Thankfully I found a few that I thought worked. I had a teenage character who was quite wealthy and originally gave her a rather normal name. One day, waiting at the stop light across from the Frisco Police Station the name Price jumped into my head from out of nowhere and suddenly she became Price Patterson.

On a trip to San Diego around that same time I visited the Old Town square and met the owner of a wonderful little candle shop. Her name was Story. Straight away I was enamored with her name. I told her right then and there I was using her name in my book. She laughed and asked if I would send her a copy. So, the principal’s wife became Story Whiffletree. Along with her, my femme fatale became Zadie, my hero’s right hand man became Steele (because he was always solidly there for him), and my hero became Nacho, the nickname for Ignacio. There were others but my hope was that these more original names would help differentiate the characters from each other.

Oh, and I had a Holiday in that first novel, too, a name I loved so much that I decided to use it again in my second book and in my new series “Resorting to Murder.” For years I’ve known a family who lives nearby and has a daughter named Holiday. Holiday is a young woman now but I told her back then when I was working on We Planned a Murder that she had the perfect name for a character. Four years later I decided to use it again in my new novel, Seven For a Secret Never To Be Told. New character. Same name.

And thus began Jaxson and Holiday Bridgewater, the married sleuths in the “Resorting to Murder” series.

I’m currently working on the third volume in the series, The Eyes of Murder Are Upon You, and besides Jaxson and Holiday I’ve got a Trinity (love that name), a Temple, an Indigo, a Bizzie, a Chinasa, a Lock, a Mars, and a Clover. They all check into Galveston’s Grand Galvez and find themselves embroiled in a triple murder, locked room investigation. And again, my hope is that the names of the characters will help differentiate their motives. I mean they couldn’t all be killers. Right?

For whatever reason interesting female names are easier for me to imagine than male names. Regardless, anytime a name comes to mind I add it to my ongoing name chart so I don’t forget it.

Oh, and you want to know something? I’m trying to decide if I should use the name Story again. I’m already reusing Holiday. Can I do it again for a new character with Story? I just might! Maybe in the fourth novel in the series.

What interesting names have you come across in books you’ve read, or movies you’ve seen? Did the name help you understand and go deeper with the character?