May 21, 2007

Naming a Hero

Written by Margo Maguire in Jaunty Post

I turned in my finished book last week, (still unnamed) and now I’m starting work on a proposal for the third book in my “Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings” series. Actually, there’s no HP, and you won’t find a hobbit anywhere … but the main characters are ancient Celtic sorcerers who must travel in time to locate something of great importance. If they don’t find it, their world - and ours - will be in peril. These two sorcerers are brothers – Brogan and Merrick MacLochlainn. Their cousin, Ana MacLochlainn is going to be the heroine of Book #3, but I have yet to come up with a great old Celtic name for her hero. But not for lack of research.

There’s not a lot known about the Ancient Britons, other than the archaeological findings, and what was written about them by the Romans. (The Romans showed up in Britain with Julius Caesar in 55 BC). So the Celts’ names were Romanized. Like Cassivelaunus, the British chieftain who led the tribes against Caesar when he arrived. And we also know about Cunobelinus, Caratacus, Prasutagus, and Calgacus via ancient Roman writings.

None of those names appeal to me (duh!). Not only do I not want to type Cassivelaunus 800 times, I really don’t want my readers going into conniptions trying to figure out how to pronounce the name I choose, either.

So, I guess I need to decide how authentic I need to be. Is the hero of this book going to be the guy below, with a big old bushy beard and tattoos all over him?

Probably not, although he might use a bit of blue paint (a la Braveheart!) And I’m pretty sure he’ll have a spear. Or a sword. Or a really big knife.

So the question is: what will I name my ancient Celt, this powerful chieftain who will become Ana MacLochlainn’s love? I’ve tried to find academic sources for names (there are lots for Gaelic names, but practically nothing for the Celts) and I’ve checked out the “Celtic Baby Names” sites, but I got some pretty typical New Age-ish stuff … Kendall, Ronan, Teague, Kegan. None of these is right for my guy.

So, I’m taking suggestions …

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12 Responses to “Naming a Hero”

On May 21st, 2007 at 7:01 am
Shana Says:

I wonder if you couldn’t give him on eof those authentic names but have everyone call him a nickname. So maybe instead of beeing Cassivelaunus, he could be Velaun or Vel or some other variation from one of the names. Or what if he had a title that everyone called him instead of his name? Like if he was King of the Wolf, and everyone called him Wolf. I know that’s a bit cliche, but you get the drift.
On May 21st, 2007 at 9:21 am
Rainy Says:

Found a couple in:

http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/cel-anci.php

BRENNUS: Latinized form of a Celtic name (or title) that possibly meant either “king, prince” or “raven”. Brennus was a Gallic leader of the 4th-century BC who attacked and sacked Rome.

CADEYRN:
Means “battle king” from Welsh cad “battle” and teyrn “king, monarch”. Cadeyrn (also known as Catigern) was a 5th-century king of Powys in Wales, the son of Vortigern.
I like Cadeyrn and the meaning of his name couldn’t be a better hero name.
On May 21st, 2007 at 9:37 am
Lois Says:

What I thought of is sort of along the lines of Shana’s thought, but I saw instead of Cassivelaunus, Go for Cassivel. I think is there is any way to shorten it, it’ll still look like what you want.

Lois
On May 21st, 2007 at 10:01 am
ladydawgfan Says:

Margo,
I found a pretty cool site here: http://www.gallica.co.uk/celts/names.htm It has names, etc, and a bit of history of the names. I like “Donaghue” among others from this list.

BTW, I also found “Brennus” on another site and though that it sounded romance hero-ish. I also found “Leucetius,” a Gallo-Roman myth name of a god of thunder, meaning “white light.” Those two names came from here: http://www.20000-names.com/male_celtic_names.htm
On May 21st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Lacey Says:

I have a similar problem and one of the sites I really enjoy visiting suggests that you take a root word and make up the rest of the name. That way, you don’t accidentally stumble over cultural naming taboos (in my case, names were only reused after that person had died, and then only in certain situations, like adoption to replace said deceased relative) using real names. And you can legitimately say you made it up and didn’t mean any harm by it, etc.

Obviously the argument goes both ways on using actual names. I like her suggestion, though, my situation being somewhat unique as I said, and I expect I will be renaming my characters before I send it out for publication.

Ok, not sure if I was actually trying to help *you* or just talking out my own problem… Good luck! FWIW, I do like Cadeyrn. Hot.
On May 21st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Janelle Says:

Bredei and Faolan are good names.
On May 21st, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Dorothy Says:

They aren’t very original, but here are my suggestions.

Owain
Gareth
Clive
Hamish
Callum
Graeme
Aidan
Ian
Liam
Rhys

pretty ordinary names, really, but I like them!
On May 21st, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Margo maguire Says:

These are some great ideas! Thanks, Ladies!
On May 21st, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Kimberly L Says:

Conall
Conlaoch(unknown)
Daire(Ancient Irish)
Amairgen(warrior)
Partholon
On May 21st, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Ann Says:

Cadifor (battle lord)
Cynric (royal)
Daearen (earth)
Fionngall(white stranger)
Gairdh (rough one)
Heddwyn (peace)
Iarla (Earl, Count
Judikael (chief)
Lochlannach (northman)
Padraig (patrick)
Ranaild (Ronald)
Sealgair (soldier)
Tairneach (thunder)
Uasail (noble one)
On May 21st, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Lauren Says:

Arthmael–stone prince
Bedivere–name of the knight of the round table
Brayden–salmon
Malik–king
Coilin–colin
On June 18th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
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May 21, 2007

Naming a Hero

12 Responses to “Naming a Hero”

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