A lot of you know that, besides being the co-mistress of Nameberry, I’m a novelist.  In fact, my new book, The Possibility of You, comes out today.

While writing about names and writing historical fiction are often very different enterprises, there are times when my worlds collide.  Like when it’s time to name my characters.

For some fiction writers, character naming might be a minor consideration, somewhere above comma placement but far below such elements as title and voice and what the characters eat for dinner.

Not so for me, of course, with the character’s name being his or her most important defining characteristic.   In my view, the character’s name contains a kind of DNA code for who they are and where they come from, what they value and how they hope to change.

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