Fun with Names

The novel I am working on, The Cauliflower Ear Club, is about a season in the life of a university wrestling team and all those connected to these young men. Knowing that, you can imagine the vast host of characters all vying for names that fit.

I admit that I am intrigued by our handles, and I have spent much too long choosing and discarding options. But it’s been so interesting, and what’s the point in writing if you can’t have some fun along with all the hair pulling and pacing?

Let’s start with the narrator, a sports psychologist. Her name initially came effortlessly: Evelyn Hill, shortened to Evie. I thought it was a good metaphor - a variation on the biblical Eve – new to the world. This Evie was new to wrestling so she could help explain that world as she learned about it. And Hill? Well, that reflected her uphill battle in life.  So, Evie. I loved it.

But halfway into the novel I had a problem. I kept getting the pronunciation of her name confused in my head. And she is my invention!! Was it Evie, sounding like the beginning of the name Evelyn with a soft e, or was it Evie sounding like Eve? I figure if I toggled her name in my mind, what would a reader do?  So, almost six months into writing, I realized that I had to change her name.

I kept writing while deliberating, until I woke one morning with the perfect new name: Holly. Holly, that hardy, low-maintenance plant with its spiky protection seemed fitting for this woman. As did the variation on the word, Holy, which is what she also brings to the story.  But now I needed another last name. Holly Hill was just too cute for this prickly Holly. Knowing her all-Canadian rural background, I chose the last name Gardner. This works since gardens are ever-changing and have the potential to die and wither or bloom and grow. Like our protagonist. So, meet Holly Gardner, who tells the story through her Point of View.