2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

In addition to book nerd, I'm a bit of a name nerd. I love names - particularly character names. Since so many of you are writers and all of you are readers, I'm curious, what are some of your favorite character names and why?

I love the name Katarina Bishop from the book Heist Society by Ally Carter, because just the sound of it makes someone sound like a royalty. No other names had that effect on me before. The name Katarina is related to Katherine and Katrina. But Katarina has that crisp and edgy but also smooth and gentle feel to it. Heist Society

Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. I just like the sound of it. It's a good cat name, I think.

Shail from Memorias de Idhún by Laura Gallego García.

Also Halona, which means "of happy fortune".

I don't know why, but I love those names :D

I'm partial to Bilbo Baggins. There's something about all of Tolkien's characters' names, I think it's knowing all the effort that went into selecting the right names and the meanings that are contained within them.

But Bilbo Baggins is also just good fun to say.

Also Slartibartfast from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, for the same reason.

I like Galbatorix from Eragon. He's the villain and it's such a villainous name for me, more so that Voldemort. I like that there's an "x" in it.

Alia Atreides from Dune
Yennefer from "The Witcher" series

I love the names from the Hunger Games series. The fact that Suzanne Collins pulled from many philosophers and really thought about matching names with personalities was a wonderful touch.

I also think George RR Martin is awesome at naming his characters. We named our dog we got last year Arya. I'm sure if we had gotten a male dog he would have been called Tyrion.

I like Sara Shepard names... Aria and Spencer from Pretty Little Liars and Sutton from Lying Game. Also, i like Lyra from The Golden Compass.

Ana wrote: "I like Galbatorix from Eragon. He's the villain and it's such a villainous name for me, more so that Voldemort. I like that there's an "x" in it."

I love that name too. Yes it does sound like a villainous name, lol.

I really like some of the more special names in Harry Potter, like Sirius, Remus or Hermione. And of course the names from A Song of Ice and Fire, especially Sansa, Cersei and Joffrey, even though the latter two are awful characters, the names are beautiful.

Good names. Very good names. I am partial to the Hunger Games and Harry Potter names also. Some of my favorites are Cinna, Rue, and Seneca. Harry Potter is a fountain of naming goodness. There is a very sinister, yet alluring, quality to the name Bellatrix. You're right, Ana, I think it is the X's that really do it. Lucius, Sirius, Remus, and Luna are a few of my other favorites.

And even though it is not my favorite series, something should be said about the Twilight crew. Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Alec, Senna, Eleazar. Some good stuff.

I always thought that Bastian Balthasar Bux from The Neverending Story sounded fascinating and funny at the same time

Hum. I like a lot Dorilys (from the Darkover series), Alice (from Wonderland :p) and lately I'm happy shen I meet a Hayley in a story. My tastes in names are really about sounds and all the firstnames I like have one L :D

So I read a book called Silence (Natasha Preston), and even though I did NOT enjoy the book, I loved the name of the main character: Oakley.

It was cute. It seemed to fit the young girl's personality a lot.

Some character names I love right off the bat but some are fairly ordinary names but my love for the character/book make me love the name a lot!

Carrie is one of my all time favourite books and because I love the story and her and I feel very protective over her so I absolutely love the name!

Teddy and Chris are both names I love (from The Body) but again Chris is a very normal name it's just that his character is one of my all time favourites so I associate the name with him! Teddy I just think is a really nice name but I also find his character very endearing!

I love a lot of the names from Game of Thrones but it's generally more love for the characters that I actually love! Cersei, Tyrion, Jaime (I like the way it's spelt) are all names I love but then I love those three characters a lot so that could have some influence!

I'm sure there are a lot more but I can't think of them at the moment! I'm sure I'll add more when I do!

From my latest reads, I loved the name Remedios from Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. In fact, he had three characters named Remedios! And I loved two of them :)

I'm reading The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel and I can't help but be reminded of how much I love the name Ayla.

Cait years ago I had given my husband a Christmas list. On it I had listed all of Jean M. Auels books in the series and told him to chose a couple. He went to a little bookstore near where he worked and asked for them. He knew I love to read and entire series when I begin a new book from the series so he ordered them all. OOh that gift was a great one. I did enjoy all of them.

I don't have a particularly favorite name. That is because I will find a name in almost every book I like and I think that may be because I am enjoying the book. So I guess I am fickle.

Lou wrote: "Cait years ago I had given my husband a Christmas list. On it I had listed all of Jean M. Auels books in the series and told him to chose a couple. He went to a little bookstore near where he worke..."

That's a lovely gift. My Grampy recommended the first one to me when I was a teenager and I enjoyed it but couldn't get into the second one. When he died I got his collection of the Earth's Children books and made a point of reading all of them. The only one I've not read yet is the last one.

I think Ayla's name stands out in this one because it's such an un-Clannish name. Compared to Durc and Goov and Creb it's quite pretty. ;-)