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Away from the gathering crowd drawing into the Chamber of Jollity, Gairynzvl enjoyed the liberty of a hot bath and the opportunity to change his clothes.  Dressing in those Veryth had left for him, which seemed to have been adapted to fit him perfectly; he stood before a mirror inspecting his unfamiliar reflection while a male attendant laced the garments round his wings.  When the attendant finished this solitary task and had departed, a soft knock sounded upon the chamber door.

Starting backwards, Gairynzvl prepared to defend himself, his wings flexing mightily as he tested their strength, but no oppressor or diabolical demon burst into the room intent upon doing him harm and, after a moment, he let out a sharp hiss of breath in exasperation with himself.  The soft knock came again, this time slightly more urgently, and he stepped closer to the portal, reaching hesitantly for the handle even as, inwardly, he admonished himself for fearing what he knew was impossible.  He was within the halls of The Temple, what could possibly happen to harm him?

“Gairynzvl?”  A soft feminine voice spoke on the opposite side of the door; a voice so unlike Ayla’s that he froze once again, his thoughts spinning frantically.

“Are you there?”  The voice queried further; a voice familiar to his ears, yet muted and muffled so that he could not ascertain the speaker’s identity.  Swiftly, he reached for the handle, twisting it round and jerking the door open as abruptly as he could manage without fore notice; nonetheless, only an empty corridor greeted him.  Puzzled, he stepped out into the dimly lighted passageway, his lavender-ice gaze piercing the darkness; his sharp hearing acutely seeking the slightest sound of retreating footsteps or wing beats, but nothing could be seen or heard in the empty hallway other than the soft hiss and sputter of torchlight.

Twisting about, he gazed back into the brightly lit room, seeking shadows that lurked in corners, but there were none and the soft voice he had heard entirely vanished.

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A snippet from Dark Fey Standing In Shadows, Book Two of the Dark Fey Trilogy.

Here Gairynzvl encounters himself.  Having undergone the Prevailation, a transformative ritual performed by the Elders that released him from all vestiges of darkness that held him captive as a Dark Fey,  he finds his appearance unfamiliar.  He also encounters an unfamiliar Fey reaching out to him from the shadows…

~Morgan~

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Inspiration comes in many forms.  An image might capture our imagination; a song may sweep us up and away into realms otherwise unknown; a movie, a conversation, the bright moonlight or a sighing sea.  Yet when it comes to choosing names for our characters, what inspires? How do you choose from, literally, thousands of options, and can you ever be certain you’ve made the right choice?

Short of the character nodding in agreement or stepping out of the void and introducing themselves by name, you simply have to go on instinct. What sounds right or what feels right, or sometimes, what feels Wrong (as in the case of Uxvagchtr, the leader of all Reviled Fey who is the spawn of evil itself.)  Have you ever begun writing a story and part way through you decide the name you originally decided on is decidedly NOT the right one?  I have, and thank the merciful and ingenious Heaven’s above for Word’s Find/Replace function!

Choosing names for characters born in our own realm might be challenging enough, but how does one select a name for a character native to another realm, where languages differ and traditions vary?  For me, it has always been a relatively instinctive matter and one that is particularly difficult to explain or describe, although I’ve been asked on more than one occasion ‘just how exactly I came up with ‘that’.

For example:  take my protagonist in Dark Fey, Ayla Yna.  Her name sprang from a collection I have of fairies (created by the exceptional artist Myka Jelina.)  Her beautiful fairies all have relatively ordinary names, or so I tend to think (and I may be wrong, because what’s in a name?…but let me not digress too far).  So, one fair afternoon several years ago I decided to think up more interesting names for them.  How?  I simply created.  It’s always been a gift of mine, coming up with my own words (take Liquescent, a word I use often in my poetry, which isn’t actually in the dictionary {yet!})  I made up a few rules as I was naming these fairies: things like females all have a Y in their name (which I kept true to in Dark Fey) or that a double Y (yy) is pronounced E, or that there were common secondary names, like middle the names for we human beings such as Ann or Marie.  My fairies had similar secondary names such as Yna, Inna, and Elestra.  Why?  No particular reason, other than that’s what I wanted.

SO, to make a short story Long, Ayla Yna came directly out of that list of names I created out of boredom and a creative bent of mind.  Several of Dark Fey’s supporting characters names came out of similar imaginative turns.  The Healer/Counsellor Veryth was named for his distinctive emeraldine eyes, and his name sprang from the word viridian, a colour that is nearly green.  The beautiful waterfalls Veryn Falls was likewise christened because of its lush green bastions and the sparkling emeraldine pool at its base.

Perhaps less interestingly, the young Healer Evondair got his name simply as a derivation of the name Evander, which I took a fancy to, but found just slightly boring spelled that way.  Of course, all malefey have names that include a trilled R. Why?  Because I like it.  So Veryth’s name is more a sound than an actual word, as is the Fey Guard Captain Bryth.  (The Y in these names sounds like a short I by the way, as in IN or Fin.)

The key supporting character Mardan was named, I confess, for Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, who in part inspired the character, (Thanks Martin!)  Rehstaed, Nunvaret, Senzuur, Dravahl, Lorszan and, most especially the youthful Elder Zraylaunyth were names I created off the top of my head. I chose a letter of the alphabet I hadn’t used yet and played.   So you see, a name may be a name may be a name, unless the name is not the same as any other name that is merely a name.

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How do YOU come up with your character names? I’d love to hear!

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Learn to Speak Celebrae, the High Language of the Fey of the Light

Learn to Speak Dlalth, the Dark Language of the Reviled.

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~Morgan~

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What is in a name?  Does the name truly effect the personality, as some cultures believe? And would the rose truly smell as sweet if it was named skunk cabbage?  Honestly, I cannot say.

Names are exceptionally important when you are talking about characters for books, however; at least, I believe they are.  Would Robin of the Hood have been compelling if his name was Hubert of Shrewsbury?  Would Darth Vadar be quite as fearsome with a name like Mr. Watson? No offense to Mr. Watson, but let’s face it, it doesn’t send shivers.  Yes, names matter in the realm of fiction.

When I sit down to write a story, one of the first matters of business I tackle is names.  Often times I will look up the etymology of a name; study the characteristics said to be common of those who bear such a name, or at least consider carefully what the name means.  For example, in a Regency period piece drama I have been penning (literally) for over 20 years (that’s another post entirely!) the female protagonist is a delicate beauty of French/ Irish family history (peculiar, I know, but that’s that other post I previous mentioned), so when I was naming her I looked only at French and Irish names, paying particular attention to those names that meant beauty, graceful, delicate, etc.

So when the dream that Dark Fey started out as refused to leave my thoughts and I gave in to the incessant whispers of the Dark One speaking from the shadows, ( No not THAT Dark One!) I knew I needed to select a name for him that was unique.  Being male, I considered some of my favourite boys names like Joshua, Nicholas and Nigel, but the Dark One…the Dark Fey ….shook his head emphatically: NO!   Ok, what about Ciaran?  A Gaelic name that is not often heard in our modern days and it means Dark One.  Of course, we liked it.

But it was not interesting enough.  If this Dark Fey came from a dark realm, his name would reflect that, or, at least in my thinking, it should reflect that.  So I began to literally repeat the name over and over out loud, listening to different inflections and possible distinctive traits, which might set it apart.  I knew the Dark Fey spoke a harsh sounding language (how I knew this, I cannot say, except that it was obvious to me and I did not argue.)  Klingon isn’t exactly lovely.  The Black Speech of the Orcs doesn’t blossom lilies either, so it was obvious that the language of Dark Fey, soon to become The Reviled, would be similarly guttural and grotesque.

Ciaran took on a trilled R, which also made sense since it’s a Gaelic name, but the crisp C was just too neat and clean.  What’s closest to that sound? K is, as is G. Giaran.  That’s a bit more interesting I thought, especially with the trilled R thrown in; yet it was still lacking something.  It was still too tidy; too simple.  As I tried multiple possibilities, the Dark One listened and waited. He’s good at that.

Giaran transformed into Gairyn (remembering the trilled R; I never left that behind), yet to make the name even more slurred, even more severe, I added a sound at the end, something I thought sounded dark and almost like a derisive hiss.  I added the sound SVUL.

That was when I literally shivered.  The Name emerged from a torrent of names flooded over nearly an hour of time and the Dark One listening to my prognosticating smiled.  YES!  I repeated the name slowly, phonetically, fixing it in my memory.  A name that would never be the same as Ciaran.

Gair pronounced like Care

Rynz pronounced like Runs with a richly trilled R

Vl pronounced like Full, but with a V

Gairynzvl

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Learn More About Gairynzvl

Discover More about Dark Fey

Read MORE about how I named the characters of Dark Fey 

~Morgan~

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