Changing Names

To continue on with Everything Ends, I finally found a new last name for the character of Oliver. Up until this morning, Oliver had always been Oliver Davis.

Now I've been working on this story since about 2005/2006. It was around that time. Anyway, in 2010 I started dating a boy with the last name of, surprise, surprise, Davis. In the back of my mind, I told myself, “Maybe I should change it?” It would be weird to have a character with the same last name as my boyfriend. Right? It wasn't like that character was based off of him because the character definitely came first. Well, three years later I’m still dating the boy with the last name Davis and in fact come September; MY last name will be Davis.

I've been more inclined to find Oliver a new last name. If I felt weird about having a character and my partner with the same last name, I definitely feels weird with a character and myself sharing a last name.

So this morning, I got on my phone and Google researched last names. I spent the better part of a half hour reading through a very large list of the most common names in the US. Davis was in the top ten. Baker (my last name now) is in the top twenty. If you’re like me, name a character isn't something very simple. It’s not like I can just throw a first and a last name together and call it a day. When it comes to naming a character, I try to take the same care I would when I will name my children.

I spent that half hour saying “Oliver” in front of hundreds of last names. Oliver slowly became a jumbled lolling mess in my mouth. That’s what she said?

Long story short, Oliver Davis is now Oliver Owens.

I like it. It flows easily.