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Writer's pictureDiana Belhassen

Names have power


Names are our description, sometimes they are the first thing someone knows about us before even seeing our face. Also, let's be real, we all have our prejudices toward specific name, like we can't stand any Mary because of a childhood bully, or are fond of Amelia's because every which one you meet are always kind and sweet.


Our names are badges—sometimes thousands of years old, that millions of people held before us. Often time they fit us like gloves, or they don't...


Written page

I have always taken names awfully seriously. Be it for a story I write or for my own name.


You see, my name wasn't a thought-out, greatly debated, infinitly discussed name... No, I was thought to be a boy. 

So I would've been Ismail but fate has a funny way to contradict certainties, so I came to this world a girl. As pink as a rose, as fresh as a daisy and without a name prepared for me. My maternal grandmother quickly came to the rescue and named me Djana (the Dj is pronounced like the j in James), so I grew up with an afterthought name and I wasn't so mad about it... then the teen years arrived, and I couldn't bear it. I tried to change it (Hata ? Narcissa ? Vesna ?) I was desperately searching for meaning, a story more passionate than the one I was given. It wasn't until recently that I decided, quite simply, that the simplest change would be the most impactful. I changed the J for an I, I was Paradise in Arabic and became Divine for the Romans, Daylight for anyone that could speak latin (which is very few).

It was like a perfect piece of puzzle finally took its rightful place in my soul, it felt right and I suddenly didn't have to fight my identity anymore.


Unlike me, villain often times grow into their names,

People are not born heroes or villains; they’re created by the people around them.” - Chris Colfer

Sometimes they were given names, that alone could predict their future but no one is birthed in villainy. So the name builds you, it shapes you—because why not call an orange an orange ? What describes you uniquely as a human becomes what you were always supposed to be.


That's why the history of names, their meanings and the many pronunciations are essential to anyone (real or fictional). Not a single child has been named Adolf since the Second World War—but before the monster that destroyed a large part of humanity, Adolf was a good, traditional name. It was well respected In Europe and by no means was linked to world destroying acts.


Now, would someone named Adolf now be fated for evil ? Is one monstrous man enough to create evil out of it's own name ? or is it not the person but the acts related to It that shapes it ?


Let's put it into perspective ?


I have a hero, a character for a story.


The first thing I must do before all else is name him, because his name will shape his story. It will shape where he comes from, when he was born, who are his parents and his socio economical statues in the world.


I had 3 names I liked :


  • Arkadios (from Arcadia, an Ancient Greek region)

  • Bion (Ancient Greek name derived from βίος (bios) meaning "life".)

  • Hesperos (Ἕσπερος m Ancient Greek means "evening" in Greek. This was the name of the personification of the Evening Star (the planet Venus) in Greek mythology)


Arcadios or Arkadios as I preferred it, could be an easy fit to know where he was from but I thought it a bit too on the nose for a complex character—after all, heros aren't named after the place they came from.


Bion was short and sweet. Life was something my character lacked of... as the story would happen after he died (tricky, I know), but still felt somewhat too obvious, it didn't have enough history to be held on a mythological regard.


Hesperos wasn't the perfect name, but the evening star ? I could work with that. I wasn't too fond on the connection with Espérer (verb for Hope in french) because it was contradictory for my character. So, letters must be changed without changing the structure of the name too much, and in doing so changing it's meaning. I ended up with Hesteros, the P changed for a T as to erase the french trajectory and keep it's cosmic meaning with the name Hester (Star in middle german, nowhere near Greece but better than french). Now, what I disliked was the end, Os, because now my name sounded like the fictional world Westeros. It took me some character building to finally get the finished name of Hesteryos.


Hesteryos : The evening star, son of Hestia

Hester was to be translated as Hestia, and Yos meant "son of" in Greek. His name had multiple meanings and hints on his entire life, all without being too complicated or cheesy. He was born in the town of Ermioni, where the only Altar/Temple could be found for Hestia, in a time where the gods were at their most powerful, with a social statues above the mortal man.


With a simple name I can tell you everything about a man. Everything.


I can't imagine naming a child but naming characters as to reflect them ? Easy.


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