What's in a name?

Last week I spent a fairly large chunk of my weekly salary on a visit to the dermatologist. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that she did a lot of study to get there. Also, two biopsies later she uncovered a pre-cancerous spot that now won’t get a chance to kill me. So, I believe it’s money well spent. But the other thing she advised me I had several of were senile warts. Ugh, gross, right?

I’m not sure if the senile refers to the wart itself, which grows quite flat and looks like it has forgotten how to be a wart, or (and more likely) they tend to show up in those of us over 40. Given the medical profession like to call pregnancies in those over 35 geriatric I know medicos want us to feel old every chance they get. But surely it would be much nicer to call these skin anomalies wisdom marks? Let’s leave both the senile and wart out of it. I don’t want to admit to either of those things.

It reminds me of an amusing experience I had getting covered in ringworm. I was too embarrassed to see someone, preferring instead to pretty much bathe in anti-fungal cream morning and night for a week. Only once I had too many to count did I finally book in with my doctor. They weren’t ringworm. It was a virus. Had ringworm been called angel kisses I’m sure I would have sought out help much earlier.  

It shows, beautifully, the power of a name. This goes for characters too. You can cut a lot of corners by calling your big bully ‘Brutus’ because the name almost sounds like brutal. Or call your whimsical good witch ‘Aluna’ where the word sounds magical and like floating on air. I don’t write a lot of fantasy, so its mainly place name, diseases or monsters that I get to play with, but putting a lot of thought into those names can really add to the story.

In a kindness to my characters, I think they will get wisdom marks, mature pregnancies and angel kisses if they ever have to experience these. There are enough things out there making us feel bad as it is, so I’ll save my characters from those emotional turmoils.