What's In A Name?
That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet
Juliet’s famous line about roses and names goes on to proclaim that, “So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title.”
I take thee at thy word, indeed, maiden!
What’s in a name? In choosing a character’s name for a play, a novel, or even a TV cartoon, the name comes to mean everything. Would you have devoured a series of books about Muggle-raised Randy Pincher? Would you so avidly follow the exploits of a band of intrepid sleuths and their mutt Puppy Doo-doo? I dare say you would not.
Which leads us to our current conundrum: We don’t know what to name the lead characters in our romance novel. Set in 1899, our destined (or star-crossed?) lovers come from families with names that are perfectly fit to their respective roles and times. The Harringtons of New York, connected to old New York money as they are, command respect before they enter the room. The Dunbars, formerly of Pittsburgh and now more recently of Cape Ann north of Boston, bear a heritage of hard-working Scots ingenuity. In fact, every member of these two soon-to-be-entwined families has a name pregnant with profound meaning that reverberates within their fictional world as well as our real one.
Except for the first names of our two leads. Currently, because we don’t know what else to call them, we have named them after us: James Harrington, meet Megan Dunbar (pronounced “Mee-gun”). Notice anything unusual about these name choices? Of course you do — these are our names, James and Megan, your authors and guides to the world of 1899 on the edge of the new century.
One of us really likes the idea of using our own first names for our lead characters while the other, well, not so much. That’s why we need your help. Will you hear our case below and let us know what you would prefer: To read a book where the lead romantic interests are clearly named after the couple who wrote it, or to charter unknown territory with names unencumbered by any association to the real world?
Watch the video below, hear out our cases, then vote. Add your comments below, too, so we know how you really feel!
Thank you in advance for taking the time and helping us out. We’ve got the same vote going on on Instagram; between that input and this, we will collect your feedback and announce what we’re doing early in March. Until then!
