Blog post
People often ask us how we named our characters in Queen of the Court. It’s actually, along
with imagining a setting, the first thing we did, before we’ve even outlined the
plot in detail. It’s difficult to imagine how a character would act or react in
a certain situation if you don’t even know his or her name. And once a character is named, so much about her (or him) seems to fall into place. Once Shana became Shana, we knew the color she would paint her nails, how she'd hug her little boy and even how she'd hit a tennis ball. So for us, names are a really critical part of developing the book.
For some characters, like Allie Beech, we followed the Charles Dickens
model, giving her a name that expressed her character. Allie is the “alpha
bitch” of Belle Vista and the ladies’ tennis team, and every time we’d see that
name it would remind us of her essential nature.
For Shana, we wanted a name that screamed “misfit” in a country club
setting. Shanna was a bodice-ripper romance novel popular in the 1970s and 80s. It seemed like the
kind of name that a 20-something single mother in West Virginia would think was
“classy” (and would misspell). As for Jones, it’s just a great, regular,
unpretentious American name, and it brings to mind country singer George
Jones. Wayne is another country classic, and having a husband named Wayne allowed Shana to have a son named Lil Wayne. We really, really wanted that to happen.
For Allie’s mother, we wanted something elegant, old fashioned and a
little cold, thus Lavinia Winter.
Some of the names, like Bethany Beech and Currituck Holmes, are teasers
for people who know the mi- Atlantic area (Bethany Beach and Currituck Sound).
Others, like Farrell Katz, are just fun. I mean, why not?
We even spent time on the names of the animals in the book. Sage’s
pets’ names, Sylvia and Mary Kate and Ashley, tell readers something about her –
she’s a serious poet, but she’s also still a kid who loves pop culture.
It’s interesting that there are rules for names in novels that don’t
exist in reality. For example, my daughter was once in a tennis clinic with four
other Elizabeths. Unless you have a comic or dramatic purpose in mind, you don’t
want to confuse readers, so duplicative names in novels are best avoided. You
don’t want both a Katherine and a Cathy, and you don’t want too many names that
start with the same letter. (Unless you are a Great Russian Novelist like
Tolstoy, in which case your publisher will include an index of all your really
confusing characters and their even more confusing nick names. But as anyone who has read
War and Peace will tell you, it doesn’t help.)
We’re already at work on a sequel, with plans for another, so we’re
going to need lots more great, creative names and we’d love suggestions. If
there is a name you are dying to see in a novel, email us at [email protected] If we pick your suggestion, we'll credit you.
Melanie and Andrea
People often ask us how we named our characters in Queen of the Court. It’s actually, along
with imagining a setting, the first thing we did, before we’ve even outlined the
plot in detail. It’s difficult to imagine how a character would act or react in
a certain situation if you don’t even know his or her name. And once a character is named, so much about her (or him) seems to fall into place. Once Shana became Shana, we knew the color she would paint her nails, how she'd hug her little boy and even how she'd hit a tennis ball. So for us, names are a really critical part of developing the book.
For some characters, like Allie Beech, we followed the Charles Dickens
model, giving her a name that expressed her character. Allie is the “alpha
bitch” of Belle Vista and the ladies’ tennis team, and every time we’d see that
name it would remind us of her essential nature.
For Shana, we wanted a name that screamed “misfit” in a country club
setting. Shanna was a bodice-ripper romance novel popular in the 1970s and 80s. It seemed like the
kind of name that a 20-something single mother in West Virginia would think was
“classy” (and would misspell). As for Jones, it’s just a great, regular,
unpretentious American name, and it brings to mind country singer George
Jones. Wayne is another country classic, and having a husband named Wayne allowed Shana to have a son named Lil Wayne. We really, really wanted that to happen.
For Allie’s mother, we wanted something elegant, old fashioned and a
little cold, thus Lavinia Winter.
Some of the names, like Bethany Beech and Currituck Holmes, are teasers
for people who know the mi- Atlantic area (Bethany Beach and Currituck Sound).
Others, like Farrell Katz, are just fun. I mean, why not?
We even spent time on the names of the animals in the book. Sage’s
pets’ names, Sylvia and Mary Kate and Ashley, tell readers something about her –
she’s a serious poet, but she’s also still a kid who loves pop culture.
It’s interesting that there are rules for names in novels that don’t
exist in reality. For example, my daughter was once in a tennis clinic with four
other Elizabeths. Unless you have a comic or dramatic purpose in mind, you don’t
want to confuse readers, so duplicative names in novels are best avoided. You
don’t want both a Katherine and a Cathy, and you don’t want too many names that
start with the same letter. (Unless you are a Great Russian Novelist like
Tolstoy, in which case your publisher will include an index of all your really
confusing characters and their even more confusing nick names. But as anyone who has read
War and Peace will tell you, it doesn’t help.)
We’re already at work on a sequel, with plans for another, so we’re
going to need lots more great, creative names and we’d love suggestions. If
there is a name you are dying to see in a novel, email us at [email protected] If we pick your suggestion, we'll credit you.
Melanie and Andrea