Naming Siblings

So I’ve just had a birthday, and one of the books I got – out of nine, if anyone was wondering – was House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig. I just finished that book today, making it the second one I’ve finished since Saturday, and I loved it.

What does this have to do with anything?

Well, House of Salt and Sorrows is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses in the end, even if only eight girls are in any condition to dance by the start of the book. And while there’s not twelve siblings in this latest little project, there’s definitely eight. I don’t really think I could handle more than that, I’m only one of four myself.

Emery is the seventh child in the Starling family, a middle triplet, and #6 and #8 are a boy and girl semi-respectively – I’ve not quite decided which is which, but they are most certainly a boy and a girl, and that’s what matters. While these three are the main focus, their older siblings do exist. So…

The Starling Family:

#1 – Eighteen years old, almost nineteen. (B)

#2 – Seventeen years old, and the older twin. (G)

#3 – Seventeen years old, and the younger twin. (G)

#4 – Fifteen years old, though nearly sixteen. (B)

#5 – Fourteen years old, quite recently. (G)

#6 – Thirteen years old (as of ‘last week’), and the oldest triplet. (likely B)

#7 – Emery, thirteen years old and the middle triplet.

#8 – Thirteen years old, and the youngest triplet, as well as youngest overall. (likely G)

(#2 and #3 are identical twin sisters, whichever triplet ends up being the boy is effectively Emery’s ‘identical twin’ – if that makes any sense?)

It’s a rather well-known family of witches within the world of the story, if anyone was wondering, and while every Starling child is magical not every child wants that to be their whole future. The triplets are not among that group, though Emery is the closest to being part of it.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to fill in anything about appearances or personalities, so I’ll have to do that tomorrow… but there’s something, I guess?

Right, here goes. I’m going to do the older four first, now, and the younger three that need names when I get a chance… likely next week, possibly tomorrow morning. Not sure yet.

#1 – Eighteen years old, almost nineteen. (B)

#1 has short light brown hair and blue eyes, looks ‘far too grown up’ and is rarely seen smiling – at least in the company of most Starlings. He’s a fairly quiet individual even away from his family, but tends to be a little more comfortable with his friends since they have no real expectations of him, short of ‘don’t be a serial killer’. And I’d say he’d never end up becoming one because he’s proficient in healing magic and wants to work in healthcare… but I also frequently listen to episodes of Medical Murders (a podcast on Spotify if anyone’s wondering) for fun, so it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Having said that, #1 would never become a serial killer. [name_u]Or[/name_u] even a murderer, I think. He’d never kill a patient, at any rate.

#2 – Seventeen years old, and the older twin. (G)

#2 has longish blonde hair and brown eyes, wears a necklace with a green charm on to differentiate herself from #3, and is one of the most superstitious members of the family – which also makes it simple enough to identify her. She’s someone who seems like they don’t understand the concept of a grudge and is likely incapable of hurting a fly, but can absolutely hold one for years, and isn’t exactly above the use of magic to get her own back when the suitable time comes. And she knows when that time is, too, because her proficiency is in Seeing Things that have happened or will happen (her general way of putting it).

#3 – Seventeen years old, and the younger twin. (G)

#3 is identical to #2 in every way physically, though her necklace charm is purple, and enjoys using #2’s superstitious nature against her. While there are a few notable exceptions, #3 generally considers superstitions quite ridiculous, so getting #2 to panic about something without any real risk to herself seems like a fun thing to do. #3 doesn’t limit her tricks to #2 either – she doesn’t mess with [name_u]Emery[/name_u] because it would probably break her closeness with #2 forever, and she’s a little more careful with what she’ll do with #6 and #8 as a result, but pretty much anyone else is fair game – and thus has a reputation for causing quite a bit of trouble, magical or otherwise.

#4 – Fifteen years old, though nearly sixteen. (B)

#4 has recently ‘gone mad’ – as [name_u]Emery[/name_u] puts it – and tried changing his hair blue with a spell that backfired quite considerably. What was just slightly messy blond hair is now quite a bit longer, about long enough to be put into something that could be called a ponytail, a colour somewhere between blue and purple… and absolutely impossible to cut, or really do very much else with. While he’s lucky enough to not have dyed his skin at the same time, his green eyes are ‘almost certainly’ a little different.

#4 is a somewhat reckless magic user, if you couldn’t tell, and while this one’s a fairly extreme example of a spell going wrong… well, it’s not the least common occurrence with #4. He’s similarly incapable of decent foresight in the non-magical aspects of his life too, which leads to a similar reputation as #3’s – even when he’s not trying to cause the trouble. ‘Somewhat worryingly’, he’s particularly proficient with fire.

I think I want to go for a vague sort of dark academia… thing?.. for the names here, but that’s not exactly set in stone. Not every name should be firmly gendered either way, but I definitely can’t give all eight distinctly gender-neutral names without driving myself mad eventually.

The most important ones to properly fit with [name_u]Emery[/name_u] are definitely #6 and #8, who I’ve obviously yet to get around to, but he is there. And as for middle names… well, I’ll work it out.

I’d rather avoid E and S names, given that what I’ve established is [name_u]Emery[/name_u] and the surname [name_u]Starling[/name_u].