The meaning behind the names

I put a lot of thought into my character names, and they are each very meaningful to me in some way that affects the character’s personality or role in the series. I actually planned out most of this story (all 12 projected books) from the beginning, so I know where the characters are going, for the most part, and who they will be in the end. (Although, they often insist on taking me on unplanned detours along the way…) That allows me to foreshadow, shape, and evolve them during the story, knowing who I want them to be in the final book, including how I name them. I thought it would be fun to share their origins with you all!

Cain/Christian – his name is the most obvious, chosen almost as antonyms due to their biblical associations, and the character’s struggle to balance good and evil within himself not to mention the very literal associations between the biblical story of Cain and how our Cain had ended up killing his brother – leading him to change his name from Christian to Cain after becoming a vampire.

Felicity – is a “Virtue” name (a Puritan given name, derived from one of the Christian virtues) and it means “Spiritual Happiness”. I thought it was a good representation of Cain’s desires.

Benjamin – means “son of my right hand”, which I thought would be perfect for the son of a vampire hunter – and its shortened version, “Ben” means “son of my sorrow”, which seemed appropriate, considering his father Bernard’s betrayal of marital trust and the loss of Ben’s mom.

Bernard – means “Brave/Bold/Strong as a Bear”, and I thought it was perfect for his bold, self-assured personality. I was hesitant to use it at first, if only because it breaks a writing rule: never give main characters similar names that start with the same letter, (since he is Ben’s father) but it suited him well.

Arif – means “Wise and Knowledgeable” in Arabic – this makes more sense when you remember that this was not the name he was born with, but one he chose for himself. I have actually met 2 Turkish men named Arif in my real life. One was my dentist, who is a great guy, LOL. But the first Arif I ever met made a strong impression on me as a very controlling, self-centered, and slightly creepy, although attractive man. He would not remember me – I barely knew him, he was a parent in a private school of which I was the Director, but he (and the fact that he would sometimes be accompanied by his mistress instead of his wife) inspired the character of Arif.

Sindy – Her real name is Cynthia, which is Greek, and literally means “Woman from Kynthos” – an epithet for the “Greek Moon Goddess, Artemis”, who is also the goddess of the hunt. A “Moon Goddess on a Hunt” sounds just like Sindy to me! It also feels serendipitous that she should have a Greek name considering her later associations with the Greek werewolf Felix. She chose the nickname “Sindy” for herself to be representative of “Sin”…both instigated by her and inflicted unwillingly upon her.   

Felix – He explains the origin of his name in the story, but I’ll reiterate it here. I researched Greek naming customs, and normally, the firstborn child is named after the father’s grandfather, and the second is named after the mother’s grandfather. This results in many cousins having similar names, but I wanted Felix to stand out and be different. Sometimes children are named for saints…

“Felix” is the patron saint of lost animals. As Felix tells it: “My mother was a pure Lycan, but she was orphaned and lost when she was young. She knew enough to hide what she was, but she couldn’t find her pack. She prayed every day for Saint Felix to find and return her to other werewolves, and then my father’s pack found her. She and my father fell in love. To find a pack with another pure Lycanthrope that would become her mate seemed a miracle, and I was named for the saint that brought them together.”

Selena – Since Felix has a unique name I thought his twin sister should too, so I strayed from custom. While Selena is a popular name in Spanish countries, it also has Greek origins and derives from another Goddess of the moon: Selene. It is usually associated with mystery, femininity, and fertility. Considering her family hoped she would further the Lycanthrope line, I found it appropriate.

Lorelei – “Temptress” – pretty self-explanatory since she tempted Bernard into cheating on his wife.

Elric – “Noble Commander” (Perfect for head of the Royal Guard). *It’s also important to remember that although Elric was born in Cameroon, West Africa, as a very young man, he was educated in Germany as part of a gold mining alliance. He chose Elric as the German name to go by at that time.

Kieran – “Little Dark One” (although he has a light countenance and fun personality, he does have a dark sense of humor)

Maribeth – “Sea of Bitterness”…yeah.

Khalon – Means strong warrior. Our Khalon is the leader of the Crimson Coven of red-eyed shape-shifting vampires and is originally from Kenya. Interestingly, an alternate spelling of his name, ‘Kalong’, had also become the common name among locals in Kenya, for a large species of bats that were once ‘mistakenly’ thought to be a new breed of vampire bats. Specimens of these large carnivorous bats were never caught. Biologists finally announced that they were simply a colony that proved to be fruit bats, mistakenly thought to be vampiric.  They were now known as ‘flying foxes’, but Khalon insists that the original name stemmed from the discovery of a coven of true vampires he had led for a time, who could actually take bat form, as in legends.

Mattie (Matthew) – “Gift of God”. Mattie has a very important role to play in steering the fate and future of many people…hopefully in a good way, as an “instrument of God”. I see him as being the voice of conscience for Allie, which becomes more and more important as the story progresses.

Allie/Alyson – I saved Allie for last because her name origin has the longest and coolest story, if only because it seems more like she orchestrated it than I did (she’s independent like that sometimes, LOL).  When I first started envisioning this story…I’m talking about the first hours of inception…I knew all about Cain, Felicity, Ben, and Sindy, and I thought to myself “I need another human friend for Ben to talk to when he’s complaining about Cain and Felicity”. I decided it should be a female character, and I knew that personality-wise she should be very different from Felicity and Sindy. I came up with the idea that she was secretly in love with Ben’s dead friend Mattie, who was now a vampire, she would someday become a vampire herself, and that I was going to make her very powerful to eventually skew the story in a more epic-urban fantasy direction.

Since Allie was a best friend to Ben, suddenly another, very different character came to mind: Willow Rosenberg from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love Willow’s character! She is very different from my Allie, but she began as a best friend to the main character, who seemed (forgive me) deceivingly inconsequential, and then evolved to be arguably the strongest character (magic-wise) in the series. The parallel to what I wanted to do seemed very cool to me, so as a nod to that character, I chose to name her Alyson, after the wonderful actress who portrayed Willow, Alyson Hannigan, and I spelled it the same way she does. I learned that Alyson means “Of Noble Kind” which was absolutely perfect for my purposes since she was destined to become the vampire queen! So, Alyson was born.

Now, here’s a twist… early on, as I wrote, I found that Alyson’s hair and attitude began to remind me of the music artist P!NK. I love P!NK’s music and how she alternately shows the tough, fun-loving, and vulnerable sides of her personality in her songs. P!NK is often good inspiration for me when I’m in “Allie-mode”. Somewhere along the way, I found out that P!NK’s real name is Alecia…another version of Allie. Wow, kind of cool! Then P!NK had her first child, a daughter. You know what she named her baby girl? Wait for it… WILLOW… the original inspiration for Allie’s name in the first place. Talk about coming full circle!

I hope you enjoyed learning about my character names! Have some ideas for future names or just want to chime in with what you think? Leave a comment! I do sometimes name minor characters after loyal readers. So if you’ve supported my series you might see your name pop up somewhere!