I have a story I’m working on (called Ducklings Gone Rogue), and I’m having trouble with a name for one of my main characters. She was originally called Altheia “Theia”, but as I realized more of who she was, that didn’t fit her as much anymore. Currently I’m calling her [name_f]Anya[/name_f], and her full name is [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] Anne-Marie [name_m]Caddell[/name_m]. I want her to have a long, frilly full name, with a short, spunky nickname. I’m kind of attached to [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f], because I associate her a lot with the [name_u]Taylor[/name_u] [name_m]Swift[/name_m] song 'tis the damn season, as well as the one called dorothea, plus it seems like a nice way to honor her original name of [name_f]Theia[/name_f], which I do still really like. Anne-Marie I’m very much less attached to, it just seemed like a frilly way to get to [name_f]Anya[/name_f] or [name_f]Anja[/name_f]. I’m also contemplating [name_f]Freyja[/name_f] for her, which I like better, especially since she then won’t share an initial with the other perspective characters (although she will with an important side character). The question is, will I still be able to find a frilly full name that works with [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f]? The surname I don’t really care about, as I picked it off a list. The other perspective characters are [name_f]Eva[/name_f], Azmor, and Cirra, the latter two being of a goblinoid race that also exists on this continent and has rather different naming conventions, and the most important side characters are human friends [name_f]Zelda[/name_f] “Zel” (Eva’s sister) and Fliss, which is technically short for [name_f]Felicity[/name_f], but very few people call her that. There’s also Cirra’s unnamed future boyfriend, who the human characters are unlikely to ever meet.
Essentially, my favorite option for this character is [name_f]Freyja[/name_f], but I need a frilly full name that works with [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f], and if I can’t find that, my next best choice is [name_f]Anya[/name_f] or [name_f]Anja[/name_f], which I need to decide how to spell. Thanks so much for the help!
I’m struggling to see how [name_f]Anya[/name_f] is a nickname for [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] …? Especially in the context of a story. [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] [name_u]Anne[/name_u] [name_u]Marie[/name_u] is a lot of name, and it’s a lot of name just written on paper, especially only to get to the nickname [name_f]Anya[/name_f]. [name_u]Anne[/name_u] nicknamed [name_f]Anya[/name_f] feels much more doable to me, and easier to explain without it being wordy or odd to read—perhaps [name_u]Anne[/name_u] [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f]? (I actually utterly adore that.) [name_f]Freyja[/name_f] [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f]? (I love that, too!)
[name_f]Anya[/name_f] is meant to be a nickname for Anne-Marie, not [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f]. The point is that this character comes from a large, stuffy, formal family, and her full name is supposed to be similarly large, stuffy, and formal. But she wants to distance herself from that family and those qualities, hence giving herself a nickname that’s short, modern, and a little edgy. What I really want is for that nickname to be [name_f]Freyja[/name_f], but I’m having a lot of trouble finding a suitable full name. In lieu of that, I like [name_f]Anya[/name_f] or [name_f]Anja[/name_f], but I need suggestions on which way to spell it. Is that more clear?
I see that. I still find a nickname for her middle name to be a reach in a story; though I’ll trust you’ve got it worked out there!
If you want [name_f]Freyja[/name_f] to be her nickname/chosen name, how about a first name and middle name combo that combines the sounds in [name_f]Freyja[/name_f]? [name_f]Fiona[/name_f] [name_u]Ray[/name_u], [name_f]Fionnuala[/name_f] [name_f]Ramona[/name_f], [name_f]Raffaella[/name_f] [name_f]Rachel[/name_f], [name_u]Felice[/name_u] [name_f]Raymonda[/name_f], [name_f]Frances[/name_f] [name_f]Raffaella[/name_f]?
The [name_u]Anne[/name_u] syllable nn [name_f]Anya[/name_f] makes sense. I think [name_f]Anya[/name_f] would read more clearly.
Hey, that makes a lot of sense! I love the syllable-combining ideas, like I wonder if [name_f]Freyja[/name_f] could be a very stretchy shortening of [name_f]Raphaela[/name_f] [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f]? I could probably make that work in-story! [name_f]Do[/name_f] you think [name_f]Freyja[/name_f] works with the names of the other characters? Does [name_f]Anya[/name_f]?
I definitely think that both [name_f]Anya[/name_f] and [name_f]Freyja[/name_f] feel at home as names in your story! I like that there’s no exact “theme” and that all the names don’t match tidily—especially since your story is a fantasy. They’re all great.
[name_f]Raffaella[/name_f] nn [name_f]Freya[/name_f] (this spelling feels more intuitive to me as a nickname for [name_f]Raffaella[/name_f], especially since the nickname is based purely on sounds) is deeefinitely a stretch… but I can see it! All the phonemes are there, even if they’re not in the same order in both names. Perhaps [name_f]Francesca[/name_f] is more of a one-to-one, sound-wise? But I do like both. 
[name_f]Francesca[/name_f] [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] [name_m]Caddell[/name_m] nn [name_f]Freyja[/name_f]
It’s perfect–I want the nickname to be very stretchy, in a way that it makes some amount of sense for her to have thought of it as a possibility, but it would be difficult to trace back to her full name.
Thanks so much for the help!