note about the name

I FINALLY NAMED MY MC!!!! I was wondering when that was going to happen. But when she walked into the psychics, I realized, holy crap she'll have to give her name. She doesn't have a name!!! ahhhhhh!1!!

So I brought up the list of five or six names that I was considering. Kimber really was the one I liked best all along (yes because of Jem), and it didn't seem to jar with the character in my head. But then I realized I needed a last name. DOOOOOM! I was going to snag something out of my own family history, but the few I could think of offhand didn't suit, and the one I like, I think I used in something else recently.

The site I got the rankings of first names by birth year doesn't do last names. But it gave me the idea of pulling up some kind of census. A google for "North Carolina census" eventually led me to a site with all sorts of things I didn't need. I started going off some random military listing from the 1800s, but then I found an actual listing of all the surnames in the state in... 1880 or so. Only, you know, a century earlier than my story... but her family lives in the state, so it's reasonable that some ancestor was there in 1880.

One of the first names that caught my eye was "Benton"... which is Kimber from Jem's last name. Couldn't do it, though it sounds so nice. I eventually came back to Bennette though, because, well, it really did sound good, as well as plausible, I think there was someone in my school with Bennet for a last name. Decided to change the spelling a bit though, that "e" on the end was too much.


BUT, the real reason I wanted to make a post about her name. I am NOT having the psychic constantly calling her by name in order to remind myself what her name is. (I've been test-running the name in my head for a few days, though the final decision wasn't made until yesterday.) Nor is it in celebration of her finally having a name, or to hit you over the head with it, now that it's finally in here. I promise, it's only because that's the way this woman talks - I'm sure you've run into that sort of person too, intent on making a good business-like impression, calling you by name to make you more comfortable or make your experience more personal or whatever their reason is.

(Personally, it always makes me feel really, really awkward. But I have a reclusive streak, so maybe it's just me.)