What's in a name?

Ah, the name, the name the name the NAME! What's in a name!

Saul Goode. That's my online handle, has been for a while, don't google it, you might not like what you find.

But do you get the name? "It's all good."

Get it? See, I picked a name that meant something, something that inspired me, something that when I used it, I could become someone else, and become something that I could not otherwise have become.

Percy. Percival. King Arthur's most righteous knight, and the only one who saw the Holy Grail. What a great name, eh!

Mira. I used that on in Evander's Forge. Mira, in Spanish, means Look! Mira was Evander's foil, and she helped him see. Get it?

And Evander, what about that name? Look it up. It means Good Man. His last name was Gennesee, after the beer. His middle name was James, which is a biblical name, a name of God (at least to a Christian). Evander James Gennesee. A Good Man of God and Beer! How perfect is that!

Maybe I'll change my name, eh, Evander James Gennesee fits me perfectly.

I had one guy who's nickname was Spats. I didn't get it, but turns out, my subconscious was playing tricks on me. Everyone around Spats was spitting on him, metaphorically, and he was emotionally covered in sticky phlegm you could bottle and sell as wood glue.

Anyway, point is that you should pick good names. Give a dog a good name, that's something you always hear down south, and speaking of, we used to have dogs named Bandit, Lucky, Todd (which somehow meant he had a white spot on his chest, don't ask...), and this Beagle named Scotch.

Why Scotch?

Because that was my dad's favorite drink. ;)

Good names. Give em all a good name, and not only will your character spring to life, but they'll live forever in the reader's memory.

- Eric