What's in a name?

It all depends I reckon.

On what I'm writing, how I feel and how the name fits.

Not that long ago I started a new story, and decided my heroine was called Hester. I have no idea why I just thought, oh yes, that's nice.

5K later I realised that Hester just didn't fit her. I couldn't write that story with a Hester in it. She wasn't a Hester. An Annabel or a Susie? Hmm, nope. In the end I shelved it, put it in my to be continued file and wondered just what went wrong.

(Source: pinterest)

Sometimes it's painfully obvious that a name can't work. For instance the name Wendy didn't exist in Regency times. There's nothing more likely to pull me out of a story that something  that is obviously not correct for the era the story is written in. I once ready a Regency story with names that were so unlikely I lost all interest in it. (Ditto if phrases were used that in effect didn't exist—but that's for another blog)

Horatio or Gertrude aren't that popular in this era. Last years top ten name might well be next years bottom thirty. Who knows? Names go in and out of fashion just like clothes and genres. How many of us remember, (or have a name) that several of our classmates had? 

That apart, sometimes I really want to use a name and then realise another character in the book had a name that is very similar, or starts with the same letter and it would make things confusing. 

In my current WIP my heroine is called Lois. A secondary character was screaming at me to be called Lola. Nope, sadly it wasn't on. I knew I'd end up getting confused and might even write the wrong name somewhere. She's now Zola, and it suits her, but...is it too similar?

We will see.

Meanwhile on with my current book,

happy reading,

love Raven xx