Lots of cool names in the giveaway post and Alison asked how I come up with my character names. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about before but, for me, characters arrive in various states of named-ness…some stride onto the page with a first and last name firmly attached, some have only first names and lead me a merry chase while I work out the rest of it and some are nameless.

In the Half-Light series, I only knew Lily’s nickname almost up until the point where she told Simon her name. I had to hunt for her first name and I knew I wanted a flower name (as that’s traditional for my Fae) and a flower that was both beautiful and sometimes deadly. So I read up on flowers and the language of flowers as well. Simon on the other hand, was always Simon and the DuCaine part came out of nowhere. Likewise Guy showed up as Guy from the get go.

For the characters who are less forthcoming, I fall back on good old baby name books and the internet (there are many many name lists from every country and time period and special interest you could want on the internet). Sometimes I want a particular sound or feel and sometimes I look at the meanings of the name as well. When I find the right name, something just clicks in my head. I know some writers who have renamed characters when they’re not working out but I’ve rarely had to resort to that (though I will confess to sometimes having to mentally re-cast my ‘stand-in’ for what they look like) The Half-Light series uses some Victorian names as well as French and other european names for the Beast Kind. It’s been lots of fun to hunt down those. The only problem with a series with lots of characters is making sure you don’t end up with too many characters whose first names sound the same or start with the same letters. I keep lists of names in my world bible, so I can keep them all straight!