No Better Than The Beasts

Name Significance

(This is technically a Bonus Chapter but I didn't want to make the Chapter title too long)

SO, earlier on in the book, I talked about the character "Lobo Loup," whose name means "Wolf Wolf" in different languages, and how (almost) every name in the book has some sort of significance or origin story.

But I never really elaborated on that.

SO! I have come to ELABORATE!

Here is each name and its significance (if I can find the significance of it again lol)! Some are really interesting in how they came to be.

Jake Pierce- For most of these names I typed in "names that mean *blank*" in the google search engine, and I don't know what I searched. So, you are getting the basic meaning of it.

According to normal baby-name dictionaries, Jake means "take by the heal." Whatever that means. It also means "supplanter" which implies that he will supersede or replace someone or something. I think this was supposed to imply that he will replace his father as Alpha (Most of the name meanings do have spoilers in them. I have done this many times in short stories before).

HA! And according to the Urban dictionary, Jake is an outgoing and very fun guy, who has a lot of female friends, but his "girl" always comes first.

As for his last name, I'm not sure how that came to be. I'm pretty sure I just picked the first thing that came out of my head.

Derrick Rastus- Derrick means "Gifted Ruler" or "People Ruler." It's pretty self-explanatory.

As for the last names in general, I just make them up. But I looked up the meaning of Rastus, and apparently it means "happy black man." Weird, but okay.

Nathan Vale Drake- There is a WHOLE story behind Nathan's name. Nathan's first name means "Given, rewarded." Probably hinting toward the chapter where he gets his soulmate ;)

HIS LAST NAME THO. I basically went online and picked the best-sounding last names for him. Then I went to my family, and they voted on their favorite last name. My step-dad was like "you should make his last name Drake because then he would have the same name as the guy from Uncharted (a videogame)"

So I was like SURE! WHY NOT? And I made the name "Vale" as his middle name because it is sort-of a play-on word with "Veil" which means "a thing that conceals, disguises, or obscures something." Like how Nathan conceals his sadness of being alone with jokes.

David- So, I don't know if I searched up a meaning for David's name or if I just really liked the name. I did mention that it was my first (and only) Boyfriend's (?) name but that's not really where I got it from. I didn't even notice that they had the same name until like 3 chapters after David was already introduced.

David's name really came from the story of "David and Goliath." A Bible story in which this small boy beat a giant with a slingshot and five stones. This is mentioned in "No Better Than The King."

But according to dictionaries, David's name means, "Beloved." Which means "dearly loved." Which he is. By Nathan.

Jeanie Katz- Literally got her name from a random name generator, if I remember correctly. 

I tried to figure out the real meaning behind her name but my computer wouldn't load the website :/

Just Rastus (Derrick's Dad)- I think picked the name because "Just" means "behaving according to what is right and fair." But then I realized my mistake when I tried writing a sentence with his name in it. 

Dawn (Derrick's mom)- I don't think I meant for her to have a specific meaning. But her name means, "the first appearance of light." I imagine that's how it felt when she walked into a room.

Janus Pierce(Jake's Dad)- Janus's name has a BIG meaning. He's named after the Greek/Roman god of beginnings, endings, and transitions. Like, how when he died, it basically meant the beginning of Jake's journey into transitioning through life by being a human's soulmate.

I purposefully picked this name while re-reading the "Battle of the Labyrinth" from PJO.

Malia Pierce (Jake's Mom)- Her name means "calm, peaceful." Which is how she appears in the beginning of the book.

Iris Grace (Jeanie's wife)- I wanted Iris to be the opposite of Jeanie: calm, collected, and really sweet. So that's how Grace became her last name. Iris is the Greek goddess of rainbows.

PICKLE- I like pickles. Plus, I also like Magnus Chase (a character from a book series by Rick Riordan, who wrote PJO). In the books of Magnus Chase, there's a talking sword (Yes, a talking sword). His name is Jack. 

The sword picked this name after hearing Magnus say, "I don't know JACK about *blah blah blah*"

So I used the same situation, but with pickles because I really like pickles.

Edgar- Not gonna lie, I just really like the name. Also, I wanted a name that started with a vowel. Because, as you can tell, I really like names that start with "D" and "J."  This is a common occurrence in all my books. You will always find a "D" and/or "J" name in there.

The Kingdom of MacTíre- means Wolf in Irish. The kingdom makes a profit off of wolves

The Kingdom of Mare- Mare is "sea" in Italian (NOT FRENCH. I MIXED IT UP). Not only because Nathan's kingdom makes a profit from having access to the sea, but also I compare him to Percy Jackson a lot in my mind. Percy Jackson, the son of the god of the sea and horses (mare is also a female horse), hence "Mare."

Filip (Evil lady's snake)- It's just "Phillip" but spelled differently. It means "friend of horses." Which is ironic since his owner killed a horse.

Sarah (Jeanie's crazy ex)- Maybe or maybe not the name of an ex-friend who moved away. Who made me cry because she got a new number all of a sudden and never told me and I just kept texting her over and over until I gave up. And then I saw her again because her grandparents live on my street and, all of a sudden, she's too cool to hang out with me. And it's awkward because she comes over every Halloween. *COUGH* Nothing personal or anything.

LET ME KNOW IF I FORGOT ANYBODY! I have searched through my brain, and I can't think of anybody left, but I'm sure I forgot SOMEONE.

ANYWAYS, what did you think of the story behind these names?

Thanks for Readin' xoxo