What’s In a Name?

Recently I was asked how I kept up with all the many characters in my books. Believe me, that was not an easy task. Having ten members in the immediate Bailey family plus other family members, friends and secondary characters, I had to write their names in a notebook I kept during the writing process. I also recorded the color of hair and eyes for each character to help remind me whenever a description was needed. I created an excel spreadsheet with the names and ages of each main character to determine their age in a particular year.

My spiral notebook as well as my laptop are valuable resources to me. My ideas for each decade and each character were recorded in the notebook. I utilized Microsoft Word to record website addresses to refer back to for current events, technology, fashion, automobiles, music, books, etc., for each decade. I purchased a couple of books with information about the 40s and WWII.

How did I name each character? Finding just the perfect name reminded me of naming my own two children. My husband and I didn’t want to choose a name that someone we knew had named their child. Naming a child is so important as that name is the child’s identity…something no one else may claim.

When naming my characters, I began with a compilation of the Sullivan family ancestry that one of my cousins researched years ago before anscestry.com was a thing and when only paper and a typewriter were used to record the researched results. This helped determine common names used in the 1880s and 1900s. Names I liked and used and others I avoided entirely…such as Moses, Ulysses, and Enoch. I used the internet to search for popular boys’ and girls’ names used in each decade…English names as well as Spanish and Japanese names. Not only did I choose a proper name for each character, but I also chose a middle name.

Did I name any of my characters after family members or people I knew? Yes, I did. I chose the name Lynnette for William’s girlfriend in Seasons Under the Sun. Lynnette was a little girl my mother babysat in our home for six years. I always loved Netty’s nickname. In the chapter “Flee From Self-Pity 1945,” the reader is introduced to Lt. Glen Lewis. Glen is my father-in-law’s and my son’s middle names. Lewis is my husband’s middle name. The name Polly, one of the Bailey grandchildren, is my mother’s name. As a reminder, you may find the Bailey family listed in the introduction of each book.

I have heard some say they hate their proper name. Some prefer their nickname instead. Others change how they’re addressed completely. I have always been called by nickname. Being called by my proper name sounds foreign somehow. So, what’s your name? Does it have a special meaning? Are you named after someone famous? In the Bible, Hebrew names described a specific moral character or had special significance. Jesus’ name in Hebrew means “God Saves,” Abraham means “Father of Nations,” David means “Beloved.” The Apostle Peter’s name in Greek means “Rock.”

So, other than being a proper noun, what’s in a name? If your name described one of your best qualities, what might that be? That answer may take some thought. It certainly will for me.

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