Over the course of writing The Last Heir, I acquired several methods of naming characters. One was to establish naming patterns – Greek and biblical were my origins of choice, and Gaelic was a resort after that. Lists of Greek names could be found on baby-name sites that sorted by origin. Biblical (or “Hebrew”) names could be found the same way – and by paging through Chronicles.
Sometimes I wanted the name to start with a particular letter, and I would pull up an alphabetical list. At other times, grasping for a fitting name, I would choose one whose meaning matched a role or trait of the character in question. Once, trying to name a hot-tempered character, I ran a search for meanings that included “fire” or “fiery”. “Stranger”, “leader”, “warrior”, and “black” are among other meanings I searched for, with varying success. (Theseus Declan illustrates both the origin method and the meaning method; Theseus is Greek and Declan is Gaelic and means “full of goodness”.)
Some names I use are wholly or partially invented. The ones I invented out of whole cloth are generally place-names or last names: Telnaria, Vonran, Uman, Regial, Anderliy, Shevyn … the list goes on. Kereth, on the other hand, was derived from a real name – an appropriately militaristic one: the Kerethites and Pelethites, David’s special guard, his mercenary soldiers. Usually it was the first names that were partially invented. D’John and Mareah were sort of variants for John and Mary. Calanthra was a combination of Calantha and Calandra; “Zelrynn” came about because “Zelrya” was almost what I wanted (a female name that suggested strength, if not beauty).