I love naming things.

I spend a ridiculous time on names for my characters. I always have. Making characters was my greatest love in D&D — I used to have a whole box of characters I’d rolled up but never played. And when I started a new game, I’d make a new character anyway.

So names are important. Sometimes the perfect name comes to me, sometimes it’s a struggle requiring hours of web searches and long forays into my baby-name books.

With my mermaid book, I’d been calling the heroine Pentari. Her culture (the Coral Kampii) uses a hodge-podge of Latin roots for their words. I thought this might mean “Fifth born,” though it doesn’t. And some folks don’t seem to like that name much at all.

After hours of research on her name and a few others, I also have:
Merris/Maris (of the sea)
Kaia (of the earth)

Both of the meanings fit just fine. Are they actually better than Pentari?

God, I hate naming things.