“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Okay, Romeo and Juliet aside, what is involved with picking a name? Of a book? Of a character in said book? For me, some names come quickly. Like Eleanor. From the first words I wrote of Knightess, this fiery, brave woman was always Eleanor. Other names took a little creativity, like Raganor. I wanted something with a little bit of a Viking feel, yet not, since my Raganor was technically Germanic. Tweak the famed name Ragnar and you get Raganor. Then there are characters who are so difficult to name that you ask for suggestions, throw them out, spend hours scouring naming sites, and still end up inventing yourself.

Like Eleanor’s child.

You may have participated in one of my events last year where I had a jar requesting suggestions for Eleanor’s child. He appears in all three of the Swords of Resilience books, and until late in the editing process of Book 3, he still didn’t have a name. I used tags like “KID” or “AL” as placeholders. I experimented with names, only to decide I didn’t like them. Let me tell you, it’s a nightmare to try to find every name change and make sure it’s right in the final version, even with the help of Microsoft Word’s “Find” feature. As recently as draft 11 of 12 I was still fixing “Al”.

Here are some of the names you suggested:

As I thought of Eleanor’s struggle to both have Benec and then what they go through in Book 3, I wanted a name that represented that struggle. I thought of the biblical Ben-oni, “my struggle”, which Rachel names her child before tragically dying from childbirth. Not only was that a bit too Hebrew for my medieval European story, but it’s too sad. It was for Rachel’s husband, too, who renamed his son Benjamin. Now I like the name Benjamin perfectly well, but I have a cousin by the name who is totally different from the little knight-to-be in my story, so it just didn’t work. I set that idea aside and played with derivatives of Alec’s name, since Alec’s claiming of the boy is a huge plot point. And then it came to me…mesh Ben with Alec and you get Benec.

The child was named.

Benec! I thought I created this name myself, but then a Critique Partner told me it is a German surname that means “blessed” or “strong man”. How perfect is that?

Naming the book itself was just as difficult, if not moreso. Cover reveal of Book 3 coming August 17!