I like my names to sound
like what they are—that way they’re easier for the reader to remember. So for
instance, in Witch Song, one of the villains names is Wardof, which I created
by combining ward (magical barrier) and off. ward off = Wardof
Garg, another villain,
ends up blabbering a lot. He’s also kinda fat. Garg just sounds like a fat,
blabbering kinda guy.
I always wanted to name
Brusenna (the heroine) Senna, but that didn’t sound witchy enough for me. So I
took brew (as in witches brew), changed the spelling, and added Senna to the
back. Brew + Senna = Brusenna.
Joshen (the hero) is an
easy going, laid back kind of guy. He’s always kidding or joshing around. I also have a
cousin named Josh (I pull in family names every once in a while). Plus it just
sounds good. Though I wouldn’t recommend pulling family names into books. All
of a sudden you’re hounded at family reunions (especially when you have as big
a family as I). Then they don’t like that you made them a villain, that the
character was bald, or had some other random imperfection that they think was
pulled from them.
I introduce some new
characters in Witch Born. Krissin is named after my sister-in-law, Kristin.
Ellesh is named after my MIL, Ellen (please see above for why you should NEVER
do this).
Cord is named after my
son. Also, he’s kind of tied to
Senna.
Prenny after a high
school friend named Penny.
Drenelle just sounded
like a woman who adores lace.
Ciara from Tiara, cause
Ciara acts like a princess.
Pogg is a frog man. Pond
+ frog = Pogg (I added an extra “g” to
make it look more name-like).
Harshen is a harsh
land.
Espen is from Aspen,
because *spoiler alert!* the dark witch is turned into a tree with circular
leaves. J
Grendi is taken from
Glenda the Goodwich in Wizard of Oz (cause I like to twist things like that).
There’s also a couple
names in there that only people from a certain demographic will recognize. ;)
Arianis is kind of a
rival to Senna. And she’s a pain-in-the-ass = Arianis. See how that works. ;)
Reminders:
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