Names are very important to writers. For example, we were trying to name a Russian noble for RUBY FEVER and it turned out to be a two-hour endeavor. Because Russian Imperium is alive and well in the world of Hidden Legacy, the traditions of dvoryani, Russian aristocracy, are also alive and well, which makes things complicated.
For example, some names are traditionally “farmer” names, like Molchan or Kuzma, and other names were “merchant” names, like Akakiy or Vadim, and yet other names were aristocratic names, like Alexander and Mihail. It gets even more complex from there. If this aristocratic family favors interaction with the West, they might name their child something like Segey or Roman, which is easy to pronounce for English speakers. They could take it a step further and pick a European derivative, like Filip or Artur. Maybe they are populists who purposefully might choose a “farmer” name for political considerations, like Ignat or Timofey. Perhaps they are nationalists and they might select a name associated with the Rurik Dynasty or even a “pagan” name like Yaroslav, Igor, and Ratibor.
So names are important, and overwhelming majority of writers gets stuck on them. With that in mind, naming Julie’s eagle took a while. The original name was Nasru, which literally meant eagle in Akkadian, but it also meant vulture in some languages, so we scrapped it. We went with Abra instead, which was a butchered version of something like soar. We wanted a strong name that indicated the eagle’s predatory drive and general awesomeness.
Except I kept mistyping and mispronouncing the name.
Gordon: Will you pick one spelling and stick to it?
Me: I can’t. I keep defaulting to Amra in my head.
For those of you who don’t read Howard, Amra was Conan’s pirate name. It means “Lion” in Howard’s universe.
Gordon: Let’s just change it.
Me: Look what about Turkan? It’s a variation of Tarkhan, a title used by a variety of Central Asian people. It sounds badass and it nods at the Mongolian practice of eagle hunting. He is a golden eagle and that’s the primary bird the eagle hunters use.
We decided that Turkan was the one. We tried the more phonetic spelling of Toorkan, but it seemed awkward so Turkan it was. The name was painstakingly replaced from Amra to Turkan.
During beta read:
Friend: Hey, so you might want to change the eagle’s name.
Me: OMFG. Why?
Friend: Because it sounds like Turken.
It only sounds like Turken if you are an English speaker. Russian default to an uh sound at the end, because that’s the way khan is pronounced….
Me: And?
Friend: Link.
Me: Oh.
Me to Stefanie, our proofreader: We need a global replace to from Turkan to Turgan, because of this.
She: Oh. Okay, will do.
Gordon: Why are we changing the name again? Can we move on past the damn name?
Me: Link.
Gordon: Oh.
I now present to you the reason why the mighty raptor who soars gracefully above post-Shift Atlanta is now named Turgan.
Tell us your funny name stories in the comments. We can’t be the only ones with egg on our faces.
Naming errors, or more like initialism errors are something I find funny… because who thinks of what your child’s initials will spell? Until its too late!
My grandfather was named George Oliver Dumas. For a family of strong catholics this raised quite the uproar.
A coworker named their son Finnigan Allistair Grey
A college friend was Sarah Louise Ursula Thompson
I’ve decided to take advantage of this and named my babies: Elizabeth Leigh Louise Andrews and Rose Olivia Sue Andrews for funsies.
(Last names have been changed, but initials kept).
I’ve been scratching my brain for my “funny name stories.” Hmm. Does this memory count? 🤔😅
I sat with a man I’d started dating at a mid-sized diner in a rural area of New Jersey on a busy Sunday afternoon. While perusing the menus, we discussed our southern hometown and tried to figure out how our paths had never crossed; although he was only a year older, we hadn’t known each other as kids. Discussion revolved back to people we knew in high school, hobbies, and after-school activities. We discovered we had both belonged to the bowling club (held at a place long since burnt down by an arsonist from a competing bowling alley) and learned that his late best friend (a marine named Harry who died in Iraq, too young) had been my teammate half a lifetime ago.
My date hurtled through his mental list of other possible connections and acquaintances, trying to find our common ground and experiences (and – with any luck – some lighter topics), as I scanned the salad list.
“Oh, hey, did you know Tini? The little blond girl, who was friends with Jesse?” he asked in a jovial tone. He had pronounced it correctly as “teeny,” a nickname born in 4 feet, 11 inches of height (149cm).
I paused to sip my iced tea and consider this. Well, this answered one question on my mind: he hadn’t looked much up on Facebook. “Yes.”
“Tini was cool as sh*t!”
I smiled at him and spoke slowly, eyeing him. “Yes, I knew ‘Tini.'” Another pause. “I was married to him for 5 years.”
My date’s jaw dropped, his eyes bugged out, and he froze.
At that moment, the waitress returned to our table to see if we were ready to order our meals. He couldn’t seem to move his jaw or form words, much less full sentences, so I answered, “I think we need a few more minutes, thank you.”
The turkens made my day, thank you so much for that .
On the theme of parents not thinking about initials, I worked with a girl called Caroline Ruth Anne Peters (names changed for privacy but initials retained).
And because of where we worked, it was a frequent requirement to initial (or sign) documents …
Almost named my kid Daniel Jack. It kept sounding familiar, but I blamed it on those names being my dad’s and my grandpa’s… but it finally dawned on me. Jack Daniels. LOL. Didn’t end up naming him Daniel or Jack, but I got a good laugh at it all.
I love the ones where the emails smoosh the name. There’s a meme somewhere about a Sarah Hart where her Univeristy used the initial of her name + her full surname, bless her.
Similarly when we got our mortgage, our solicitor’s name was O’Neill Patient. We received our official documents via email from oneillpatient hehe
I just finished reading Blood Heir and it is incredible, when is the next book in the series out??!
When I start reading a new book I have to stop early on and see how much is left, I need to confirm it’s got a good long way to go. I only do that with your books. Thanks for bringing Julie into her own. Now I have to go back and see how it goes.
Both my husband & I have slightly foreign names. We used to keep track of the variations we found in junk mail addressed to us. The funniest was one addressed to “Grunter Weasels” 😂
I get the name thing. I’m a ghost writer, which means I can’t really talk about what I write much beyond that because of those Non-Disclosure Statement thingies, but when you are writing about a specific time in history or a specific location, you have to be careful. It can get pretty silly.
But more than that, I want to say Thank you. Thank you so much for a wonderful, uplifting book to start 2021. I loved reading the snippets. I understood when you took them down so you could edit, change, and make things better. And I am so very happy that you kept some of the fun things in the appendix or as epilogues, or whatever. (At the end, anyway.) I won’t say more because I know there are many other people who are reading through it for the first time. But…just…Thank you! It was ever so much worth waiting for.