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Post by zemira on Jun 14, 2007 9:19:10 GMT -5
I think the names alone in Alaizabel Cray deserve their own topic. ^_^ I really luve the names he used. They seem to add this sense of familiarity, yet distance. The names, to me, are similar enough for believe maybe the events could happen, but at the same time, the names tell me it’s fiction. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the names mimic more popular names. Thaniel could be Samuel, or something else. Ezrael, maybe Ezekiel? Cathaline, possibly Catherine. Priscena, Pricilla. So they’re different enough to tell me that the story isn’t from our world, but a very closely similar world. The exception, to me, is Alaizabel herself.
Of course, for all I know, Chris chose the names because he just liked them. ^_^
Here's just a short list of some of them. Ezrael Thaniel Cathaline Alaizebel Priscena Mammon Johnaten Regillen Jedriah Curien
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Post by shyviolet on Jun 14, 2007 11:13:42 GMT -5
Aside from Alaizabel they're all real names. Archaic some of them, yes, but all in use during the Victorian era (although they possibly weren't very popular). Most of them are an abbreviation, alteration or altered spelling of a biblical name.
Not to say that I don't love them as well of course, because I do think they were great choices! ;D To me they flag up that the story takes place in a setting that's meant to be quasi-Victorian. There's nothing worse than an author who writes a really good story but slips up by using modern names or real swear-words or something.
I like the ones with odd spellings, like Johnaten and Marey.
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Post by zemira on Jun 14, 2007 11:39:00 GMT -5
I was fairly sure they were real names, especially Thaniel and Mammon...I've heard those before. Cathaline, I'd never heard. All the names sound very Victorian, which is great because Victorian names are all so elegant-sounding. ^_^
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Post by Chris Wooding on Jun 14, 2007 13:41:29 GMT -5
Heeeeere's Mammon! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MammonJust in case anyone needed a hint that ole Pykey was a badass. Some of them are archaic names (Thaniel, Jedriah), others are normal names with odd spellings (Marey, Johnaten) and some are fusions of two existing names (Alaizabel = Alice & Isabel, Cathaline = Catherine & Caroline). See, it's easy!
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Post by kaiku on Jun 14, 2007 13:53:19 GMT -5
Muahahahaha, that's cool! And that's really clever, they way you made up Alaizabel and Cathaline. I love all of the names in The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, they're all either really pretty or just really cool. My favourite name is definitely Alaizabel . I also quite like Chiana, Chastity and Leanna too.
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Post by Maliris on Jun 14, 2007 15:00:30 GMT -5
Sheesh, I always thought Alaizabel was something very loosely hinting at Elisabeth. But this name-mix is even better! XD Alice and Isabel... I like the idea. Ezrael Carver. Ezrael always reminded me of Azrael. Although Carver is just too nice most of the time, thus not properly fitting the name´s description. Anyway: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AzraelAnd heh, Mammon. I must say I am not surprised that his namesake himself is such a greedy fellow. But it´s true, the names in Haunting are cute, stylish and weird. I remember my teacher´s and schoolfellows´ faces when I talked to them about The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray. They seemed... slightly bewildered. X3
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Post by shyviolet on Jun 14, 2007 16:29:06 GMT -5
The pedant in me rears its ugly head for the first time on this forum! Cathaline is already a real name, It's just usually spelt 'Cathleen', but I have met someone who spells it the way it is in the book, and it's listed as an alternative spelling in the name dictionary we have. The name is a corruption of 'Catharine'. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that in the book it was made by combining two other names, but it's funny how sometimes you can make something up only to find it already exists isn't it? It used to really bug me when I did that, like sometimes I'd draw a picture only to find something freakishly similar on the front page of an art site the next day and then nobody would believe me that i'd thought of it before that and it was just a coincidence. I wonder how often this sort of thing causes accusations of plagarism... Anyway! names! I wondered if Alaizabel was Alice + Isabel when I first read it. My well of useless knowledge pays off at last! My second thought was Eliza and Isabel though which I thought was more likely... Mr Wooding, did you find Thaniel just as Thaniel, or did you start with Nathaniel (my favourite boys name, incidentally) and go from there?
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Post by Chris Wooding on Jun 14, 2007 16:59:55 GMT -5
Ezrael = Ezra (as in Ezra Pound) & Ishmael, but yes, it was also supposed to be a corruption of Azrael... the original idea being that with a name like the Angel of Death and a surname like Carver everyone would think he might be Stitch-face, then it would turn out that he wasn't. The idea got cut when I butchered the original manuscript, but the name stayed. Thaniel was Thaddeus & Daniel but then it just ended up as Thaniel. Eliza & Isabel works too, don't it? The exception is Curien, whom I nabbed from House Of The Dead because I liked the name ;D
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anna
New Member
Posts: 34
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Post by anna on Jun 14, 2007 17:11:17 GMT -5
Alaizabel had always reminded me of my sister's name. She's Elise Belle, which, if you are mad at her...all runs together to sound rather like Alaizabel.
I would have to agree that the name choices in the book were just perfect.
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marleen
Full Member
Wazowski!
Posts: 122
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Post by marleen on Jun 15, 2007 6:21:03 GMT -5
Cathaline = Catherine & Caroline So do you pronounce it Cathaline with -line as in "line" or with -line as in "lin"? Because I say "Cath(a)lin(e)" as in Catherine.
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Post by zemira on Jun 15, 2007 8:14:23 GMT -5
Ya know, I never even realized Cathaline had different pronunciations...I always call her "Cath-ah-leen"
But, wow, he was getting creative with names!
And now I wonder how much you really had to cut, if Carver was supposed to be a Stitch-face suspect....Could you imagine how much that would change, if he was? Pyke would have died a lot sooner, probably. Maycraft and him would have been getting into a hissy-fit over killing Lucinda Watt ;-) I wonder who all died in the original version now. If anyone else stayed alive or anything like that...I wouldn't have minded Crott staying alive; I liked him.
Hmmmm....things to comtemplate while I work...
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Post by Chris Wooding on Jun 15, 2007 12:03:27 GMT -5
For me it was always Cath-a-lyne not Cath-a-leen.
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Post by zemira on Jun 15, 2007 12:23:05 GMT -5
Ya know, we had the same discussion over names in Storm Thief. It'll take a while getting used to calling Cathaline "Cathalyne"
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Post by kaiku on Jun 15, 2007 13:57:17 GMT -5
Tried it, just there, and I can't do it. Once I decide how to pronounce a name it sort of sticks. Cathaline will always be "Cath-a-leen" for me now. I blame my accent, haha.
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Post by zemira on Jun 15, 2007 19:57:36 GMT -5
Yes, but I say it the same way, and I have an American accent. So your accent theory doesn't work.
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