What’s in a name? The untold story behind the naming of my opposing MCs.

In launching the inaugural post of the Haidrenverse blogosphere, I thought it poignant to pluck a topic from the very beginnings of my own writing journey. As an author, I often hear curiosities about how the names “Luscia” and “Zaethan” came to be, but rarely receive the opportunity to adequately explain their origin. At least, not with full, rambling abandon.

(which is an undisputed pastime of mine…)

For those who hope to draft their own tales and don’t know where to start, a name is certainly a good place. For millennia, across continents and cultures and creeds, names have held their weight in gold. They’ve been prophetic, poetic, emboldening, and strange. Because names have power. Like Bill Spencer, co-founder of the Narrow Gate Foundation (a leadership program for young men) often professes, “identity informs behavior”. Who we believe ourselves to be will always inform what we intend to do about it. And within the tricky mindscapes of the most mischievous characters, that proves no less true.

Thus without further ado, let me introduce some of my favorite imaginary friends in a way like never before.

LUSCIA | Female Main Character, The Haidren Legacy Series

Ah, Luscia… my beautiful stonewaller, you.

It will probably come as a surprise to most readers that Luscia’s naming was initially inspired by a character from the movie franchise, Underworld. Now, that’s not to diminish the importance behind my reasoning—for all things do work together for good—but it is an admission that for a long while, I’ve been obsessed with the name “Lucien”. Not the character himself, but the sound and syllabic feel of his name. Interestingly, Lucien did serve as the leader of the Lycans (werewolves) throughout the films, and may therefore have more in common with my FMC than intended.

I’ve always thought Lucien sounded lovely. And for good reason too. Employed mostly in French, it means “Light” or “Light Bringer”; a gorgeous and melodious etymology that is mirrored from the original Latin throughout virtually every language of its application. Thus modifying the name with a more feminine lilt, I ended up creating a composited version for our main girl from the highland House of Boreal: Luscia.

Luscia becomes known as a leader for her people, one who burnishes an ethereal light-magic, and does so with a roving lycran (fox-wolf hybrid) at her side. Coincidence? Probably not.

Now it was pure coincidence, on my part at least, to later learn that a historic person in antiquity, Lucius of Cyrene, was said to have founded the Church in Antioch—the third largest city in the Roman Empire and a flourishing mercantile hotbed for gathering nations, arts, and commerce. That’s a bit ironic, as throughout the series, Luscia battles most with theological and ecclesiastical politics, opposed to some of her more bombastic Quadrennal peers. This poses an internal chaos for her person; one she must conquer first before she can conquer anything—or anyone—else.

ZAETHAN | Male Main Character, The Haidren Legacy Series

Onto Zaeth, my very problematic knuckle-head.

His origins are far more comedic and much less philosophical than his Northern competitor, detailed above. Truthfully, Zaethan is named after a dog. A well loved one, too.

Akin to my husband and I, some dear friends of ours have a pack of fur-babies rather than human children (trust me, it’s better for everyone that way LOL). Typically hosting a trio of huskies at any given time, their first adoption was a gorgeous and quite broody red-coated pupper named, you guessed it, Zaethan. And his top mate? His best beta? Kuma.

Understandably, our friends were heartbroken when he passed. What left the biggest impression though, was the behavior of the other dogs in his absence. There was a void. A clear vacuum. He’d been their alpha. Strong, secure, and fiercely loyal. So yeah, my MMC was named after a dog… but possibly the most memorable one I’ve ever encountered.

Similarly, it was no surprise to discover that his name too has substantial roots. Roots I didn’t even realize existed until after my first book was published.

A variation of the Hebrew name Zarethan צרתן, it means “Fortress”; a derivative of the verb צרר, to vex or be an adversary.

Furthermore, in ancient times, Zarethan is the place that we believe God had parted the Red Sea at the raising of Moses’s staff. Imagine it—an unmovable hurdle of overwhelming odds stacked against you, an enemy army closing in at your back, and whoosh, the walls of water surge up on either side, revealing a path that was there all along but which no one could have foreseen. That is the kind of path our Zaethan now treads. He’s hit a natural blockade, one he cannot move on his own. Yet somewhere, amid his disbelief, he will find something telling, something crucial, in that sacred, lonely space between his own limitations and a force willing to part his reddest seas.

THE FIGURE | Male Main Character, The Haidren Legacy Series

As if I’d give that away here. Suffice it to say that the figure does in fact have a name and you’ll be learning it very soon. Just like his cross-generational equals, Luscia and Zaethan, his naming corresponds with his purpose, temperament, and inherent worth. Hopefully, as he slowly and begrudgingly creeps back into the land of the living, he will meet much needed reminders of who he was always meant to be.

Identity informs behavior.

-The Narrow Gate Foundation

So, Sir Shakespeare, what’s in a name?

Why everything, it would seem.