Thank you everybody who entered the Name a Character contest! What a bunch of great names! I’ll be picking out a winner soon and posting it here. I think I’ve actually got enough names now for the next few books! 
I just have to think about the character I need to name and see which one fits him best. That’s harder than it sounds, believe it or not.
Here’s a tidbit for you (if you’re interested) — I always try to name a character or two in my books for people I know in real life. In book two, there’s a character named after my nephew. And a teacher named after one of my teachers in high school and a principal too. In the first book, there’s a character (Johann Gutter) named after a guy I worked with (he was a nice guy (though his first name is different) and the character is a good guy too, though a minor one – I don’t think I’d ever name a “bad” character after someone I knew; they might get mad at me!). Otherwise, I try to name them something that has to do with their character (haha, the character of the character…).
I know some names I’ll never be able to use because they hold some kind of association for me (though they wouldn’t necessarily have the same meaning for everyone else). Shoot, I don’t think I could ever use my own name, for instance.
How about you guys — what name could you never use?
I would never use Gabe or Jane or Eugene. Im not very fond of those names and my parents and my bro all have those names in some context.
My dad’s middle name was Eugene! I don’t think I could use it either. And Jane to me will always be Jane Eyre, so I doubt if I could use it either.
I could never use my own name as well as Tessa, Patricia, or Don because those are the names of my sister and parents. I could probably use Ashley and Matthew, my two other siblings, because they are so common though. And I wouldn’t be able to use Austin, Cal, Zack, or some others because annoying boys I know have ruined perfectly good names. Not Violet because I always think of either the girl from Willie Wonka/Charlie & The Chocolate Factory or the girl Violet from the book Paperquake by Kathryn Reiss (great book!). And I probably couldn’t use Mina or George or Nathan or Serena any more because I’ve got such a vivid picture of them from STBM. Not Ever or Haven or Miles because of the Immortals series (Evermore, Blue Moon, etc. by Alyson Noel). Even though I love those names I can only picture them one way because of the books (which are good, might I add).
Or the Violet model books (Violet on the Runway, etc.). But I do get the Wonka girl in my mind too!
I would never use the name Samantha because I know so many people with that name, if I had to remember another Samantha I would scream (haha). I also wouldn’t use my own name, it’s just weird to use your own name unless your talking about yourself (in my opinion).
One name I definately could not use is my own name. Reading about a character with my own name would just distract me. I mean whenever I hear my name I’m like HUH? What?
Another name I don’t think I’d ever use is Edward
That just hit the hearts of too many girls, and I think other characters use that name wouldn’t have the same affect they could/had the potential to be.
I agree with you on that one. When I first read the maximum ride series I was like *imagine a girl with a confused face and people laughing at her around her about the character in the book* thats what I looked like. :C. And I agree on the Edward thing. Well unless he was a minor character. Like serving your coffee or something.
Definitely not my own name or like my brother’s or mom’s or dad’s that’d be to distracting (or weird) to me. I also wouldn’t choose any name of another really popular character from something unless the name fit. I guess that’s what it comes down to: whether the name fits the character.
Just a little side-note: When I was reading STBM and saw that Mina’s mom was named Marianne, I actually stopped reading for a second and did a double-take. Haha. It was spelled the same way to (not like Mary-Ann). It isn’t a very common name so I was kinda surprised.
~ Marianne
do you know when the winners will be posted? The anticipation is killing me
I SECOND THAT! *drops dead from anticipation. But sadly since I am not a vampire like your lovely characters im dead until the anticipation is over*
*still dead waiting, waiting, waiting. apparently the dead arent as patient as people make them to be. waiting not so patiently now*
lol… im so excited to see the winners. i want to know the names that were chosen!
I promise I’ll post soon! I’m deep into the revisions on Still Sucks to Be Me and it’s really hard to think about the next book while I’m working on this one! But I’m almost done!