J.R.R. Tolkien found inspiration in
words and names. After inventing his own languages, he began to wonder about
the people who would have spoken them.
What was their history and culture? His musings led to the creation of
an entire mythology in The Silmarillion
and eventually to The Lord of the Rings.
To a far humbler extent, I also
find inspiration from my characters’ names. Just as my husband and I prayerfully
and carefully chose the names of our children, I give considerable thought to
the names of my characters and the back-stories their names evoke. Let’s take
for example the protagonist of my series The Oxford Chronicles: David
MacKenzie. David happens to be the first name of one of my sons as well as my
nephew, and I like the name for its kingly biblical connotation and its meaning
of “beloved.” The name David suggested
to me that my protagonist would be a man of strength, a warrior (at least in a
spiritual sense), an athlete, a leader, a beloved son, and a “man after God’s
own heart.” My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was “McKenzie,” a
Scotch-Irish derivative of the Scottish “MacKenzie” (which means “son of the
king”), but a dear friend with Scottish heritage, who had greatly encouraged me
in my early writing ventures, urged me to use the Scottish spelling.
The Scottish identify opened a
whole new story line to me. My protagonist’s father had to hail from Scotland.
How did a Scotsman end up in Oxford, England? What was his back-story? My
friend and her husband traveled with me to Scotland to help me “discover” the
history of David’s father, Eric MacKenzie.
We located the MacKenzie clan’s lands near Gairloch in the north western
highlands of Scotland, and stayed there in a lighthouse over-looking the Irish
Sea. Naturally, a good Scotsman has to be a golfer, right? And so, we drove to
the eastern shore of Fife and walked the Old Course of St. Andrew’s, where
providentially we met the head caddy who “happened” to be a MacKenzie and who
shared some wonderful stories about other MacKenzie caddies. We visited the
nearby fishing village of Anstruther with its picturesque harbor and stayed in
stately Cambo House with its lovely gardens and golf course along the coast.
The richness of the Scottish setting evoked Eric MacKenzie’s back-story and
inspired the plot of my World War II novel Evasions.
So, to quote the Bard: “What’s in a
name?” Why, possibly a great deal. A
name could just spark the plot and setting for a new novel.
