I was just looking at my sidebar and thinking about names.

There are times when I think I've gone off on this naming kick, and all the names of all my characters sound the same.

Diana/Deanna/Damara/Delana
Amery/Aileen/Alain

Lots of Kat's in there too.

But then I just looked at the sidebar and sort of tasted the names that are there. Adrienne, Damara, Kale... Diana, Jenny, Jinx, Phoebe, Talis. They are all different, and in many ways each one rings true for the character it was. Talis could never be anyone in my head but who she was. Jinx (or Jordan as her actual name was) will always be that personality. Kale is Kale, and Adrienne (or Adri as she is sometimes called) will always be Adrienne.

It is interesting how a name becomes attached to a character, and how they come to fit the character, or perhaps, the character comes to fit them. And no matter how much I seem to go on a naming jag, when I look back at the character names who have survived, similarities aside, the names *belong* to those characters that have them.

But then, names are important to me... oftentimes both the easiest and hardest part of creating a character. Sometimes I will go for symbolism -- as in Phoebe's case. And sometimes for sound and style, as in Jenny. She is Genvieve, with the proper long name, but always was the girl-next-door Jenny to everyone. Which totally fit.