Weekly Geeks v9.06: What’s in a Name?

This week for Weekly Geeks, we get to take a look at the various character names that we like.

What are some of your favorite character names?

Go to Google or a baby name site like this one or this one, and look up a favorite character’s name. What does their name mean? Do you think the meaning fits the character? Why or why not?

If you’d like, look up your own name as well and share the meaning.

There are a lot of names out there that I like – Ian, Zoe, Sophia, Anna, Rianna, Connor, Sean, Emmett, Xander, Ryan (for a girl) – but they don’t always show up in my favorite novels.  I like the names that are unusual, but not necessary unknown.  I’m sure everyone has heard of the name Ian, but how many have you come across?  Those are the names that stick out for me.

However, we’re talking about books and there area few that stick out for me, but there are only a few that always pop out at me: Micah and Asher from Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series and Riley and Rhoan from Keri Arthur’s Riley Jensen series.

The first name that popped into my head was MICAH.  I’m not sure why.  It has a very unique sound to it, yet you can still hear it in various places.  My husband went to school with a Micah and people don’t generally look at you as if you made the name up.  The name itself derives from Hebrew and means Who is like Yahweh? and is commonly seen in English, German, and Welsh areas.  The name was borne in the Bible by the 8th century BC minor prophet – he wrote the book bearing his name and prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem (BabyNamesPedia).

As for the character, I’m not really sure if this meaning fits Micah or not.  When Micah first shows up in Narcissus in Chains, he’s there because he has heard that the local leopard pard is without a leader and is looking to add to his pard.  The major problem (spoiler) is that he’s a puppet for a pyschotoic shapeshifter and ends up revolting and helping Anita destroy Chimera.

The other name from the Anita Blake series was ASHER.  I really like this name and I’m not sure why.  It’s unusual and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it mentioned anywhere else.  I ran the name by Jesse when we were picking out names for Ian, but he wouldn’t go for it.  The name is actually derived from both Hebrew and Old English.  In Hebrew, it literally refers to the element ‘asher’ which means happy, blessed.  In Old English, the name Asher was often used as a nickname for Ashley.

As for the character, the meaning fits a portion of Asher’s life.  There was a time when he was happy and blessed to have the company of his human servant, Julianna, and his best friend, Jean-Claude.  Of course, this all occurs in the background, so when Asher appears in Cerulean Sins, he isn’t the happy and blessed character that JC knew before, but now the bitter man that he became after the lost of Julianna, which he blames JC for since he was not there to save her.

Keri Arthur also uses two names that really stick out for me.  The first one is the name of her main character – RILEY.  The name itself isn’t all that rare, but you really don’t hear it used all that often.  I’m sure others can think of other examples, but other than in Full Moon Rising, the first novel in the Riley Jensen series, I’ve only seen the name one other time – Buffy’s love interest in season 4 (played by Marc Blucas).  The name is actually derived from Old English and means ryge which means ‘rye’ and leah which means ‘wood, clearing, meadow’.

As for the character, the name could have some significance on the Riley, but I’m not thinking a lot.  Riley is a werewolf though, so she does tend to run in woods and meadows during the full moon (or whenever she’s a wolf).

Now a name you don’t see all that often is RHOAN.  It’s one of those rare ones that I only found at mybaby-name.com.  Seriously, there’s just something about this name that seems to fit a shapeshifter, but you don’t see it all that often.  The name is derived from Old Norse and means mountain ash tree|little red-haired one.

This one actually fits the character really well in my opinion.  Rhoan is Riley’s twin brother and both of them are from the red wolf pack.  So the meaning of little red-haired one would fit well with them (since I also think they have red hair).

And I can’t talk about names without mentioning the one I love the most.  The name can be found in Jeaniene Frost’s One Foot in the Grave, but that’s not why I love the name.  The name is IAN and it’s what Jesse and I named our son.  I love the name – it’s simple, common enough that people aren’t surprised by the name (I heard the name Majesty the other day), and yet not so common that he’ll have 3 other Ian’s in his class (In 2007, it ranked at #74 with a usage of 0.283%.). Ian is derived from Hebrew, but is mainly used in English and Scottish languages.  The name is mainly a variant of John, which means God’s Grace.

Now I personally think the meaning so fits Ian to a T, but then again, he is my son so of course I think he is God’s grace.  He is my little angel, when he isn’t being the spawn of devil.  :)

And I should really do my name, huh.  Okay, why not, here we go for JACLYNNE, but what is this, there is nothing listed for my name.  I’m not really surprised by this since my mother wanted to change up the form of Jacqueline to include her middle name.  however, the name I normally go by – JACKIE – does have some translation.  The name actually has two different meanings depending on the sex.  For a female, the name means One who grasps by the heel or supplanter.  For a male, the name actually derives from Hebrew meaning God’s Grace.

So those are my names.  What are some of your favorite character names?