A Rose By Any Other Name . . .

(x-posted from First Edition)


When you were a kid did you dream your future husband’s name would be Poindexter? I know for certain I didn’t.(Though, okay, I've never heard of a guy named Poindexter). As a child, I dreamed of Jack, Hunter, Jacob, or Jordan(this last one was because of my love for New Kids on the Block. Looking back I can’t see the appeal. But boy did I ever back then!lol).

Today I want to talk about how we name our heroes, our heroines, and then, sometimes, ourselves.

When naming a hero it seems that every author has trod the same boards. There’s, of course, the ever present Jack, Devlin, Marcus, and Alec. Then with our heroines it’s Charlotte, Kate, Lydia, and Isabelle. (Of course there are other common names but I’m not going to list all of them. I don’t think the Originals page could fit them all. Also, since I write historicals, these are mainly names used in historicals. Hello Devlin?)

Now, I’m not knocking these names in any way, shape, or form. I love these names and I love sitting down to a book where characters bare these monikers. In fact, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t disparage these names because I use them in my WIP. They’re good, strong names. My hero is Alec, my heroine Chelsea. My hero's sister(a future heroine) is even Lydia*shrugs*. I’m cool with the tried and true.

Then this brings me to pen names. I have often considered writing under a pen name. In fact, I picked out exactly what it would be. I would be the national best-selling author(a girl can dream*g*) Kathryn Hincey. I love the way that name flows off the tongue and I love the sentimental value that name holds for me. But then that brings me to the abundance of Katharines(Like that one, Mary?) in Romance. Then there’s a lot of other different names that MANY romance novelists choose. I wonder if the authors choose these names for anonymity or just because they don’t believe their real name is salable. I don’t know if it would matter to me if instead of reading Nora Roberts on the spine of a book it read Wilencia Higgenbotham-probably not.

But I can't honestly say how I would feel about reading a Romance starring Drucilla and Frankenstein. Which may be shallow but there it is. Of course a good author can make anything work. So, I suppose I'm leaning toward the idea that I wouldn't care if the heroine and hero had different names. I guess I just wouldn't know until I tried it out.



So, my questions today are simple: Do names influence your purchases(either the author’s name or the character’s)? What names do you like in what you read? What names do you like when you write? (Bonus points for anyone that has truly Original names for their characters!!) How do you feel about pen names?