Character Names in The Caein Legacy and The Mage War Chronicles
I have often been asked by readers how I come up with the names of characters in my books. Given that I write fantasy, some of my books have some relatively fantastical and unique names, though others feature characters with more average names.
Note: I’m going to focus on The Caein Legacy and The Mage War Chronicles for this post, even though there were a number of very interesting human and non-human characters in The Moon’s Eye Trilogy (since my publisher for that series is no longer producing the paperbacks, and the books are dated, I’m don’t plan to promote them any further). Both The Caein Legacy and The Mage War Chronicles are set in the same world, though at different periods in time.
There are a few things I considered when naming my characters:
1. What region are they from (in terms of the book’s setting)?
When it came to the writing of The Caein Legacy and The Mage War Chronicles, I opted for a simpler approach. Many of the names are more traditional, and therefore, easier for the readers to pronounce. (I received a number of comments on The Moon’s Eye Trilogy regarding how difficult some of the names had been, which factored into this decision).
Most of the main characters follow this pattern: Andrew, Alexander, Colin, Thomas, Vera, Lydia, Claire… There are more, but you get the idea.
There are, however, a few significant naming conventions I employed in this new series, as well. Characters from the area of Dwymm & Corynn’s Harbor, in the Southlands, have names using “y” and double-consonants, but they are variations of common names (examples: Altynn, Syllas, Rynn – which is a short version of the full name, but I’m not going to list the full version here because I don’t want to engage in spoilers. You’ll learn Rynn’s full name one day, when Harbinger is published. And yes, I do make the reader wait until well into book 3).
2. What species is the character?
The above examples were specific to human characters, but now I’d like to talk about the non-humans in the books.
First, let’s discuss the Corodan. This is a race of very large, insectile creatures with some features akin to that of praying mantis, and others that are more similar to ants. They are intelligent, though they communicate with one another primarily through pheromones. Only the females of the species are capable of vocalizations, and it is they who are most often featured in the series. I wanted the names of the Corodan to phonetically sound like noises real insects might produce (examples: Rizzt-tok, Krizzt-keh). Keep in mind, this species has mandibles, rather than jaws, which would also factor into how names are pronounced (think buzzing and clicking noises).
Next, there are the Merael. They are a people who dwell in the great forests of the Southlands, and though they are largely humanoid, there are significant differences in their appearance, most notably that they have green skin. The Merael names are not too far off from what you might expect for some human-style names in the fantasy genre, though they are a bit more on the whimsical side than the humans featured in the series (examples: Tylmar, Emmarie, Shiala, Yndora).
The Sevanni, who have (so far) only been mentioned in passing, are a humanoid race that dwell in the sea (they are not merpeople – but that’s a post for a different day). They don’t often interact with other species because the Sevanni cannot breathe air, and most others cannot speak underwater for long, if at all. The Sevanni have short names, often no more than two syllables in length, that end in a vowel for females, and -n or -m for males. (Examples: Aila, Teru, Coren, Bann).
Last, but definitely not least, are the dragons. What I did for the dragons of this series was to take a common name, or the shortened version of one, and then added onto it. Most of the male dragons have names ending with -ion or -ian (examples: Zayneldarion, Dantellion, Ikessalion), while the females, which are rarer for the species, commonly end in -ona, -etha or -essa (examples: Viressona, Miranetha). The dragons often call one another by a shortened version of their names; Zayne for Zayneldarion, or Mira for Miranetha.
3. Surnames
The human characters in the story have surnames, and some are region-dependent. Names from those hailing from Novania Kingdom range from Marsden and Ellington, to Everly and Crossley. There are a larger variety of surnames from characters in the Southlands. As stated earlier, characters from the region near Dwymm have more unusual than the rest; I was drawing on some inspiration from Welsh and Gaelic names for that area (example: Gwyllias).
Among the Sevanni, each character is given a name indicating who their primary parent was. For females, the name is da’ followed by their mother’s name (example: Aila da’Miru, meaning Aila daughter of Miru). For males, it is do’ followed by the father’s name (example: Coren do’Bann, as in Coren son of Bann). The reason for this is that the Sevanni’s society is severely split in terms of gender roles, and the names are an extension of this.
The dragons also have surnames, but the surname is dependent upon the clan the dragon is born into. A dragon’s parents may be from different clans, but the child’s clan is determined by the color of its scales. For example, all dragons belonging to the Caein Clan have black scales, and all those in the Zorai Clan have red scales (this naming process is also extended to the half-human members of the dragon-kind). For these surnames, I didn’t follow a set naming convention, and used names that seemed to “fit” with the dragons’ primary names.
The Corodan and Merael do not employ the use of surnames.
I hope you find this little insight into my naming process interesting, and thanks for reading!
In other news, I’m running a poll on Facebook asking readers to vote on which character profile I should release next (Alexander vs. Colin, in The Caein Legacy). If you have not yet voted, please do so! The poll will end Monday, February 15, 2021. I will be releasing the chosen character profile next Thursday, and the runner up will be featured in March.
I am also setting up a newsletter, for those who would rather hear from me quarterly, rather than once a week on the blog. You can sign up for the newsletter on my website; the form is on the left menu bar, part way down the page. It will be sent directly to your email, and will not be posted to any social media platforms. (I will have different content in the newsletter vs. the blog.)