Saturday, October 24, 2009

Are you a Sparrow or an Apple?




Above is a clip from one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes called "The Seven," when George tells some friends that they should name their new baby "Soda" or "Seven" (after Mickey Mantle). I bet they never imagined that they tongue-in-cheek roasting of the trend toward "unusual" (for lack of a better word) baby names was only just beginning. I think I'd rather be named Seven than Sparrow, LOL.

Picking names isn't easy--even for characters. I get to cheat a little because most of the time my characters are based on "real" historical figures. But this also creates some challenges. In medieval/Stewart Scotland if you want to stay true to the period the choices are, shall we say, extremely limited. I've just about exhausted them all. Seriously. I've had: Rory, Alex, Lachlan, Jamie, Patrick, and Duncan for heroes, and numerous Callums, Colins, etc, for secondary characters. Women's names are just as difficult. I'm going to be repeating a couple in the next series (Lachlan and Alex).

What if you could pick your name, what would it be? I'm not a big Monica fan (especially after the Clinton thing). I'd probably choose something traditional like Katherine and go by Katie.