Lord Derek Rockhard, or what's in a name?

Since my schedule is pretty bloody crowded lately, and since I know we all get a kick out of words, in general, I thought I'd repost (with a few little additions/edits) a blog I wrote in July 2006, which was a few months before I actually told anyone I had a blog. It's a fun one, though!

So I’m in the process of mapping out my next series of books, and I’ve been reflecting on how important and evocative names are. I mean, a romance hero is more likely to be named Lord Derek Rockhard than Lord Percy Throckmorton, though I suppose Lord Derek Rockhard could be masquerading as Lord Percy Throckmorton by day and robbing the rich to give to the poor by night or something (and no, that isn’t the plot of my next book). But a whole host of things, some subtle, some overt, some singular, influence the way we feel about a name—among them strong consonant sounds, ingrained assumptions, and whether or not someone named Derek dumped us for our best friend in high school. So naming characters is a funny little science.

I love metaphor and symbolism in general and I always sort of reflexively look for it, so I’ve always been fascinated how strangely prophetic or poetic names often turn out to be. There's my own last name, for instance, which is both an adjective and a verb, and because I was tall all through Junior High and high school (and remain somewhat tall), my P.E. teachers always called me "Julie Short!" And then there's, for example, Helen Gurley Brown, the founder and Editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine. “Gurley” sounds like “girly.” And how much more “girly” can you get than Cosmo? Or…Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue. When pronounced correctly, her name contains two very powerful words—“win” and “tower”— and she certainly towers in her industry. And remember that incident a few years ago, where 118 men were trapped in a Russian submarine and died? That submarine was called the Kursk, which sounds an awful lot like “cursed” to me. When I walk down the main street in my neighborhood I pass the offices of Dr. Chu the dentist and Dr. Vu the optometrist. I recently noticed that the last name of the wardrobe designer for one of my favorite television shows is “Rayment,” like “raiment.” And do I really have to mention Lorena Bobbitt, who's infamous for, er..."bobbing" it? Anyway, it’s kind of fun to think about.

And because I can never leave well enough alone and always end up digging a little deeper no matter what I’m doing, I like playing with the Anagram Genius, which can be both hilarious and downright eerie. If you haven’t heard of it, when you plug your name into the Anagram Genius it returns words and sentences created from the letters of your name. Here’s a fun example of what happens: I plugged my agent’s name into the Anagram Genius, and it returned the words “trade,” “love,” and “novel,” among other intriguing selections. And since his “trade” involves selling romance novels, I thought this was pretty bloody funny.  Maybe he was born to do it.

During the infamous dog mauling trial here in San Francisco a few years ago (two people were on trial for murder because their enormous dogs killed a San Francisco woman), I plugged the name of the defendant, Marjorie Knoller, into the Anagram Genius, and one of the words it returned was “killer.” A little shiver, there.

My own name, sadly, contains words like “alien,” “jungle” and “nun,” which might go a long way toward explaining something, but I'm not sure what. It doesn't sound particularly encouraging, actually. I should have changed my name to Julie Anne Filthyrich long ago. (or Or Julie Anne Buythisbook.)

Here’s what comes up when you plug the names of a few celebrities or historical figures into the Anagram Genius:

Albert Einstein—Ten Elite Brains

Jerry Seinfeld—Friendly Jeers

George Clooney—Energy, Cool Ego

Hugh Laurie—Hail! He Guru!

Simon Cowell—Lemon! I scowl!

Jon Stewart—Jest now, rat.

Michael Jackson—Manacle His Jock

Jennifer Aniston—Fine in torn jeans

Nelson Mandela—Lean and Solemn

Elizabeth Barrett Browning—Now brazen battier blighter.

Ashton Kutcher—Suck her hot tan

Angelina Jolie—I join anal glee

Anderson Cooper—Coarsened Porno

Gabrial Garcia Marquez—Quiz Magic, Rare Algebra

Henry David Thoreau—Another heavy druid. (love this one!)

Emily Bronte—Timely boner.

(The program came up with these, folks. I'm just reporting them.)

So I thought you might have some fun playing with the Anagram Genius…the link will take you to a page with a light sample version of the program. You can download a larger trial version if you really get into it. Tell me if you come up with some funny anagrams, and if they fit you! Try plugging in a bunch of names. And do you know of any really fun or prophetic names?

Since my schedule is pretty bloody crowded lately, and since I know we all get a kick out of words, in general, I thought I'd repost (with a few little additions/edits) a blog I wrote in July 2006, which was a few months before I actually told anyone I had a blog. It's a fun one, though!

So I’m in the process of mapping out my next series of books, and I’ve been reflecting on how important and evocative names are. I mean, a romance hero is more likely to be named Lord Derek Rockhard than Lord Percy Throckmorton, though I suppose Lord Derek Rockhard could be masquerading as Lord Percy Throckmorton by day and robbing the rich to give to the poor by night or something (and no, that isn’t the plot of my next book). But a whole host of things, some subtle, some overt, some singular, influence the way we feel about a name—among them strong consonant sounds, ingrained assumptions, and whether or not someone named Derek dumped us for our best friend in high school. So naming characters is a funny little science.

I love metaphor and symbolism in general and I always sort of reflexively look for it, so I’ve always been fascinated how strangely prophetic or poetic names often turn out to be. There's my own last name, for instance, which is both an adjective and a verb, and because I was tall all through Junior High and high school (and remain somewhat tall), my P.E. teachers always called me "Julie Short!" And then there's, for example, Helen Gurley Brown, the founder and Editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine. “Gurley” sounds like “girly.” And how much more “girly” can you get than Cosmo? Or…Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue. When pronounced correctly, her name contains two very powerful words—“win” and “tower”— and she certainly towers in her industry. And remember that incident a few years ago, where 118 men were trapped in a Russian submarine and died? That submarine was called the Kursk, which sounds an awful lot like “cursed” to me. When I walk down the main street in my neighborhood I pass the offices of Dr. Chu the dentist and Dr. Vu the optometrist. I recently noticed that the last name of the wardrobe designer for one of my favorite television shows is “Rayment,” like “raiment.” And do I really have to mention Lorena Bobbitt, who's infamous for, er..."bobbing" it? Anyway, it’s kind of fun to think about.

And because I can never leave well enough alone and always end up digging a little deeper no matter what I’m doing, I like playing with the Anagram Genius, which can be both hilarious and downright eerie. If you haven’t heard of it, when you plug your name into the Anagram Genius it returns words and sentences created from the letters of your name. Here’s a fun example of what happens: I plugged my agent’s name into the Anagram Genius, and it returned the words “trade,” “love,” and “novel,” among other intriguing selections. And since his “trade” involves selling romance novels, I thought this was pretty bloody funny.  Maybe he was born to do it.

During the infamous dog mauling trial here in San Francisco a few years ago (two people were on trial for murder because their enormous dogs killed a San Francisco woman), I plugged the name of the defendant, Marjorie Knoller, into the Anagram Genius, and one of the words it returned was “killer.” A little shiver, there.

My own name, sadly, contains words like “alien,” “jungle” and “nun,” which might go a long way toward explaining something, but I'm not sure what. It doesn't sound particularly encouraging, actually. I should have changed my name to Julie Anne Filthyrich long ago. (or Or Julie Anne Buythisbook.)

Here’s what comes up when you plug the names of a few celebrities or historical figures into the Anagram Genius:

Albert Einstein—Ten Elite Brains

Jerry Seinfeld—Friendly Jeers

George Clooney—Energy, Cool Ego

Hugh Laurie—Hail! He Guru!

Simon Cowell—Lemon! I scowl!

Jon Stewart—Jest now, rat.

Michael Jackson—Manacle His Jock

Jennifer Aniston—Fine in torn jeans

Nelson Mandela—Lean and Solemn

Elizabeth Barrett Browning—Now brazen battier blighter.

Ashton Kutcher—Suck her hot tan

Angelina Jolie—I join anal glee

Anderson Cooper—Coarsened Porno

Gabrial Garcia Marquez—Quiz Magic, Rare Algebra

Henry David Thoreau—Another heavy druid. (love this one!)

Emily Bronte—Timely boner.

(The program came up with these, folks. I'm just reporting them.)

So I thought you might have some fun playing with the Anagram Genius…the link will take you to a page with a light sample version of the program. You can download a larger trial version if you really get into it. Tell me if you come up with some funny anagrams, and if they fit you! Try plugging in a bunch of names. And do you know of any really fun or prophetic names?

Comments

[Kathy K]

Julie, those are wonderful!! And Einstein.. wow... prophetic or what?

My name: Katherine Lynn Kozakewich, came out to WHIZ KNACKER HONEYLIKE ANT. Now *what* that could be used as I haven't a clue... I hate ants!! Definitely interesting that's for sure.
And of course, with a last name like "Kozakewich", there's a WHIZ in all of us, um ... in my family... Again, not sure what that means... we're all smart?? We pee a lot? LOL

And if we use my maiden name (Jette) I get INTENTLY JERK NEAT HE ~ LOL

I can see how this could be a fun time, or a party thing.... But I guess my name's just not cut out to be prophetic, or descriptive?? I hope not anyways!

[Michelle]

Stephen King: The King Pens

My full real name including middle name equates to: 'Dear! Cruel, criminal hellhole.'

So very very true.

[Julie Anne Long]

ROFL!! Kathy, I laughed out loud at yours! That's great! Whiz Knacker! Honeylike Ant! Actually, makes you sound like a sweet, genius worker bee, or something. You're lucky to have all those interesting letters to work with. My default anagram is "Ole! Jingle a nun!" Which sounds like someone is very enthusiastic about giving a nun a phone call.

Stephen King's is great, Michelle!! Maybe I should just change my name to Stephanie King and see what happens. :) Actually, thanks to that extra 'I' I think something like The King Penis would result. ROFL.

And don't have demons and talking rats in your books??? Pretty crazy! See, this is a trip!

Gorgeous here today after a night of pouring rain. A recipe for allergies! LOL. Ah, well. LOVE sunshine.

[meardaba]

I LOVE John Stewart's! So good.

Mine came out as Braw Moaner...errr, let's not go there. Though I do think my ex would agree.

:P

[Kathy K]

LOL.. Oh meardaba, that's just a HOOT! Any Scots in your background?? *grin*

[Kathy K]

Oh, ugh.... I tried it again with my usual name: Kathy Kozakewich and got ~ OK hazy, weak thick. Why don't I get something cool like mear?? Although my maiden name is kinda funny...but I haven't been a Jette for over 23 years: Jet that key. LOL

I've sent the link to family and friends... I'll have to see what kind of comments that I get back!

Thanks for the fun Julie!

[Julie Anne Long]

Mear, yours cracked me up!! good one!! Yeah, let's see what everyone's friends and family come up with. Sometimes they're hilariously (or painfully) close to home, these results. I laughed at yours, too, Kathy -- "OK hazy, weak thick" is pretty much how I felt yesterday. LOL!

[Julie Anne Long]

Wow, check out this spooky one—on a whim I typed in Princess Diana -- and got "Ascend in Paris." This stuff can sometimes give you goosebumps!

[meardaba]

Why, yes, Kathy, I do in fact have Scots in my ancestry! (Doesn't everyone?) I just went to Scotland, too, and learned all about them. It was pretty cool.

Julie: that's really creepy. I wonder if they do that on purpose? Or is it a random generator?

[Kathy K]

Unless there were some Scots hanging around the Irish in my background, unfortunately no.. no Scots... but if wishes counted, well Yeah! I'd have a boatload full of 'em. LOL

And that Princess Di thing... I'm with mear... really kinda creepy. Whereas I'm stuck with honey ants, knacker (better than knickers and knockers though!) and whiz-zing.

[Julie Anne Long]

I know! I feel gypped! No Scots here, either! LOL. Just Irish, Norwegian, and allegedly Cherokee, somewhere in our deep past. :) And isn't that eerie re the Princess Diana one? You know, with their server, I've always half-suspected that they default to the most powerful or interesting anagrams -- like, maybe a number of famous people are already in their system. Most of us have multiple anagrams for our names -- if you download the sample program, you'll see a bunch. Mine, alas, remain kind of uninspiring. But within our names are specific words, too -- not just sentences -- that are really kind of eerie. E.g., I have a friend who's battled skin issues all her life, and she has the word "pimples" in her name!! LOL. SHe was NOT happy to discover that.

Trippy stuff, eh??

[meardaba]

I guess I was just trying to imply that the Scots "got around", if you know what I mean.

[Julie Anne Long]

ROFL. WE know what you meant, Mear. That's why I feel gypped!! What, weren't my ancestors hot enough for the Scots?? Just kidding.

[meardaba]

Or maybe they were just lucky to not have some giant hairy dude leave them with a "bundle of joy". :P

[Kathy K]

You two are pretty funny! *...giant hairy dude...*? LOL

[Julie Anne Long]

Now that you mention it, Mear, every Scotsman I've known has been large and blessed with copious amount of hair. LOL.

Oh wait! I knew one tiny, smooth Scotsman. An accountant. :)

[meardaba]

If they come from Inverness they are invariably tiny. I know, I was there a few weeks ago. They're all small and dark, which is so different from what we expect Highlanders to be!

[Lareign]

Haha. I anagrammed my anagram to try and get something different than "Well! Magical hinderer!" and got "Well-read, charming lie." It makes me sound like a very intelligent yet ultimately dishonest vixen. I like it.

Haven't seen STS since Tuesday-seen it before then, but waited. I'll keep looking. There's always Amazon, too.

My newspaper's name is "Rude twitter smooches." Which makes no sense, really.

The city and state where I live: Shark from Satanist. How would that work for a postmark?

[Julie Anne Long]

All of yours are great, Lareign!! I love "WEll-read, charming lie" -- because, in a sense, a good NOVEL is a "charming lie." LOL. And you're right, it does make you sound like a vixen. These are so poetic! And Rude Twitter Smooches is a crackup -- well, think of the contents of a daily paper. You've got your rude, difficult stuff, your twittery stuff, your gossip. LOL. OK, I know, it's a stretch. But it's fun to dig into the deeper meanings.

"Financial rancor fiascos" for San Francisco, California. "Californian if on carcass," too. We've also got the word "farcical" in there. :)

Sigh, re TSTS. I laugh, because I'm getting reader emails and messages on MySpace about this -- People are buying and finding it at Borders and B others can't find it in their local bookstores at all. One reader told me the Borders she went to wouldn't release it yet, so she drove over and bought it at B&N in the same town. The majority of my reports from people have it that the book is in stores and on shelves and has been for quite some time, though it's officially a May book. God knows what the *official* release date is considered -- May 1? the end of this week? LOL. Amazon and B&N and other online retailers have been shipping it since the very beginning of this month. I'm going to send a message around to readers, at MySpace, at least, just to let them know that if they have trouble finding it, there's always the online route. Many of my readers seem to prefer actual bookstores, though. I'm just trying to make it easy on readers when they go to find it.

Anyway.

I'm kind of sick this week!! As in, I have some sort of cold. I'm surprised. I think I'm just overtired and overcommitted. :) But MAN, it is GORGEOUS here, weather-wise. Diana, are you out there? Are you feeling better?

[Sigrun Schulz]

I did these last year. The only one that I thought really a propos was for the full name of my brother with whom I was on the outs last year. Can't remember what it was. My name was a little weird too but the others were mostly meaningless, i.e., without any special meaning.

But yes, some people do grow into the names they have. The other brother's name means "wants peace" and except for a short time in his teens, he's been the peace-maker in our family. Very little fazes him to the point of true anger while his wife is just the opposite. She'll blow up at the least little thing.

[Kathy K]

Julie, hope you're feeling better this week... sucks when you don't feel 100% and the weather is great... or maybe that makes you feel better?!

Lareign, I love your names... sounds way more apropos than anything that I came up with!

We're heading out to our nephew's wedding this weekend... 14 1/2 hours, at least!, of driving; all I can say is it's a good thing that at least one of our kids drive... this way we have three drivers instead of just two.
It's going to be a llloooonnnggg trip, but short visit. We leave Friday morning around 6 (if we can get the guys moving!) and come back late Sunday.
But this is the first of the nieces / nephews on either side getting married and we don't see these cousins very often... on my side of the family, all but one niece lives here; the DH's are mostly all in Manitoba, which is two provinces east of us... and 14+ hours of just Drive-time... that doesn't count the breaks for food and, um, other necessity stops. *grin*

So, as I was saying (well I wasn't really, but I looked out my window *gah*)... send up some of the nice weather! We're back to gray, dull and very sleepy days... I need my sunshine darn it! LOL

[Julie Anne Long]

Holy Cow, Kathy! 14 1/2 hours in a car!?!?! Is that round trip, or one way? That's ambitious. Actually, some of the best times of my life have been on road trips. There's something inherently hilarious about them. I like all the snacks you get to bring. :) I imagine you'll have some good scenery. Isnt' Canada almost entirely scenery?? Just kidding. It'll be fun to see the family -- you have to love a wedding, after all. :) Hope you guys have a safe and delightful and memorable trip.

I dunno what to make of our weather. It's supposed to rain today, but the sun is struggling through. We are WAY behind on rainfall -- it was unusually low this year -- and we've all been urged to conserve. It's a dry year. The sun does help me keep up with the work, for some reason.

And I'm guesting via an exclusive excerpt at Romantic Inks today! I'll post a quickie blog about it.

[Microsoft Office]

I’ve been opened to listen and understand what the bible says..god