'Moon Goddess' - Character Names and Meanings

One of the things I’m not very good at when it comes to writing is choosing names. I can spend hours, days, longer even, playing about with all kinds of names, trying to find the right one for each character. Then there’s the headache of making sure all the names are appropriate for the ‘world’ of the story.

Once I decided that the world of ‘Moon Goddess’ was going to be similar to medieval England, I realised I had to be extra careful when it came to choosing names. It wouldn’t do any good having characters running around calling for ‘Jax’ or ‘Lexie’.

I ended up getting the names from a book of baby names I had before Gordon was born. What I liked about it was it gave the meanings and origins of each name. Good excuse to make a list! I then chose ones that were mainly Old or Middle English.

Here are the characters’ names and their meaning. (I’ve shortened Old English to OE and Middle English to ME):

Steora (moon goddess) – OE – ‘star’
Lamorna (main character) – ME – ‘morn; morning’
Logan (her father) – ME – ‘logge’ (journal; record)
Reena (her mother) – variant of Sirena
Daroth (her betrothed) – OE – ‘spear’
Vanora (wise woman) – Celtic – ‘white wave’
Janina (Lamorna’s friend) – variant of Jane
Lulie (Reena’s friend) – OE – ‘to soothe; cause to sleep; dispel fears’
Aherin (Lulie’s husband) – variant of Ahearn – Irish Gaelic – ‘owner of horses’
Maldon (Lulie’s son) – OE – ‘sheltered meeting place’
Marden (Maldon’s twin brother) – OE – ‘dell near the sea’
Morien (village elder) – Welsh – ‘seaborn’
Hilmer (priest) – OE – ‘hill’
Liddon (soldier) – OE – ‘to shelter; hide’
Grania (wise woman) – variant Garnet
Bryna (wise woman) – Irish Gaelic – ‘strength; honour’
Genna (wise woman) – variant of Genevia
Sewell (ex-soldier) – OE – from ‘sigu’ meaning ‘victory’ + ‘weald’ meaning ‘strength’
Danica (wise woman) – Old Slavic – ‘morning star’
Merrick (priest) – OE – ‘ruler of the sea’
Wystan (priest) – OE – from ‘Wigstan’ (‘wig’ = ‘battle’ + ‘stan’ = stone)

Whether you’ve already read the book or not, I hope this adds to the experience.

‘Moon Goddess’ is available digitally, available on Nook, Kobo and iTunes.