Time to talk about names again!

I mentioned a while back that my assistant was going through my books, creating a spreadsheet of all the names I've used so that I can exercise caution when naming new characters. She's finished, just in time for me to start naming a new crop of folks for my work-in-progress, and I'm so glad to have this list and not have to dig through my memory to avoid over-using a name.

The results? In seventeen books (my assistant hasn't yet seen the 18th, which will be out next June), I used 365 different first names, 189 different surnames and 75 fictionalized places. The most used name was "Jim," which appeared in five different books. (I count Keeper of the Light, Kiss River, and Her Mother's Shadow as one book, since they form a trilogy). I like the name Jim. My first three boyfriends were all named Jim. Nice guys, too.

Nancy, Maggie, and Brian were close behind. The bold names in the chart reflect main characters. Surnames used more than once include Terrell, Foley and Rose. I never realized that I re-used surnames. It's funny how different names get stuck in your head and just pop out feeling fresh and new, when they're actually old and stale.

Now it's on to a new group of people with a bunch of new names. I love my chart. It's going to make christening these new folks so much easier!