This is the perfect spot to share some of my all-time favorite characters with you.

1. Sabrina from Letting Go (Awakenings 1). This is the second heroine I created–the first is in an unpublished book that will never see the light of day–and I named her a name I wanted for myself. I also liked it as a baby name, buy my significant other hated it, and she can’t control what I name a character. Sabrina is smart, driven, and emotionally strong. She’s searching for something more in her life, and she embraces the journey of life. I love that about her.
2. Samantha Carter from Stargate: SG-1. She inspired Samantha Spencer who appeared as a supporting character in Letting Go, and she’s the heroine of Owning Up (Awakenings 3) which won’t be out until June 2019. Dr. Samantha Carter is a scientist who is great at computers, engineering, and all sorts of physics. She can math like nobody’s business. (Yeah, I used “math” as a verb. I’m creative with words, not numbers.) My character is an artist, not a scientist, but she’s sensitive and caring like Major Carter.
3. Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. She’s a beloved character for a reason. I’d name a dog Atticus. I read this book as a teen, and I liked it. I read it again as an adult, and I loved it.
4. Darcy from Re/Bound (Doms of the FBI 1). Darcy is also another name I wanted that my SO rejected. She’s also strong (I prefer strong and intelligent heroines, so that’s what I write.) Life has dealt her a fistful of tragedy, but she won’t let it break her. I’d like to think I’d react with the same resiliency, though I wouldn’t wish her life on any baby.
5. Jolinar, also from SG-1. This is the name of the Tok’ra symbiote who was briefly melded with Samantha Carter. Jolinar is a derivation of the name of Thor’s hammer from Norse mythology. We threw this name around when I was pregnant with twins, but ultimately we gave that name to our cat. Jolo was feral when we got her, but toward the end, she turned into a sweet kitty who liked to roll around the floor while we sang to her.
6. Patrick from Auntie Mame. This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I hate musicals, so that’s saying something. Watching him grow as a person throughout the movie always tugs at my heartstrings. If one of my kids had turned out to be a boy (I had twin girls,) I would have considered Patrick. Knowing me, I would have called him Trick for short.
7. Westley from The Princess Bride. It shortens to Wes, which I like, or West, which I’d do because it’s unique. Westley was always calm in the face of anything. In the book, which I also loved, he spent years studying to master his crafts. The book also goes into great detail about the backstory of Inigo and Fezzik, so I highly recommend reading it, especially if you love the movie.

Here is the part where I burst bubbles. I don’t believe in naming kids after anybody. I caved when my wife wanted to give her grandmother’s name as one of the girls’ middle name, but that’s it. The girls each have names we liked and considered strong (and also weren’t names my students had) but that weren’t ones other people we knew had. Names are powerful, and I think everybody deserves a blank slate to fill in for themselves. I know lots of people disagree and like to name kids, particularly sons, after other people. To each their own.