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Hi, Livejournal! So you know that book I’m writing? The core cast of characters had some issues with names recently, so I spent some time today and yesterday sorting it out. Which probably looked really boring from the outside, but was secretly really cool, because names are awesome.
But the coolest part wasn’t the sifting through books of names and trying to fill in the blank parts* in everyone’s triple identity while making it both sound cool and do some story-work. The coolest part was scanning the stuff I already chose at whim and discovering that I have been either A: dipping into a much deeper linguistic well than I thought I was, or B: getting very very lucky.
For example!
_____
* They all have middle names now!
** … well, not quite, and she’s quite a bit more besides, but that’s for later. In the meantime: werewolf. Totally.
*** Well, okay, that’s an unfair characterization. He was feral for a while, but that was like fifteen years ago, and was only for like eight months anyhow. He’s actually quite sophisticated, but has deliberately neglected to file off his rough edges. It’s okay, the werewolf knows how to get his goat.
**** These are both from this dusty-ass self-published book I found by sheer luck in the stacks at Central: Brown, Samuel L. Surnames are the Fossils of Speech. 1967. Self-published. USA.
But the coolest part wasn’t the sifting through books of names and trying to fill in the blank parts* in everyone’s triple identity while making it both sound cool and do some story-work. The coolest part was scanning the stuff I already chose at whim and discovering that I have been either A: dipping into a much deeper linguistic well than I thought I was, or B: getting very very lucky.
For example!
- Our werewolf’s** name is Melanie Levisse, and has been for a while. But as of yesterday, I get to claim that Levisse is a corruption of Louvel, an Old French personal name meaning “wolf.” Awesome.
- Our half-feral rainforest witch-boy,*** in his previous life, was named Rellin Jaixa. This name was obviously completely made up by someone who has played a lot of Super Nintendo. But! Finland to the rescue: turns out that the surname Jylha means “[Dweller in] a wild, rough area or locality.”****
_____
* They all have middle names now!
** … well, not quite, and she’s quite a bit more besides, but that’s for later. In the meantime: werewolf. Totally.
*** Well, okay, that’s an unfair characterization. He was feral for a while, but that was like fifteen years ago, and was only for like eight months anyhow. He’s actually quite sophisticated, but has deliberately neglected to file off his rough edges. It’s okay, the werewolf knows how to get his goat.
**** These are both from this dusty-ass self-published book I found by sheer luck in the stacks at Central: Brown, Samuel L. Surnames are the Fossils of Speech. 1967. Self-published. USA.
