I believe it was the day before yesterday, Tuesday, 28 February, that I actually started writing the story. I started with an unexplained explosion just off the shore of the island named “New Juan Atoll” (No One At All). The young woman on the island swims out and rescues a man about to drown because of the explosion. She then goes back to where she is staying, changes into something more appropriate, and has breakfast as the guy she rescued recovers on the beach from his ordeal.
In the process of writing that much, it really amount to about half a page of text when I fill in all the details, I chose a name “Alexie” for the young woman. It is a derivation of Alexandra which means “helper and defender of man”. I figured it was appropriate because she does save the guy from drowning. She saves him, as well, from a life as a scoundrel.
This morning, Thursday, I asked the manager of the coffee shop I frequent if she would object to my using her name in my short story. Her name is Alexie. She said it was fine as long as the character didn’t behave badly. I shared that there was a part in the story where the woman goes for a swim wearing a nightgown that becomes virtually see-through when it gets wet, but she quickly changes out of it into something more appropriate. She laughed. I have promised a copy of the story to her when it’s done.
In contemplating the name situation more thoroughly, I came to the decision to use the name of Jake for the guy. Jake can be taken as a short form for both Jacob and John. Jacob means basically “swindler”. After his stay on the island with Alexie, he changes his name from Jake to Jack. Jack is a short form for John. John means “GOD’S Gracious Gift”. The name change is an interesting way of showing the change in the guy’s life as a result of his time with Alexie on “No One At All”.
So now I have gotten off to a start. I still have details to work out, but things are progressing.
By BeaJay 
Thank you, Maysa’a.
Your continuing support means a great deal to me. 🙂
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I liked the details of how you write and the environment where you start “weaving” the “thread” of your plot and characters !
May I know the name of the dictionary where you get the meaning of the names?
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Maysa’a,
The book I use for the definition of names is “35,000+ Baby Names” by Bruce Lansky. I use, as well, the Hebrew Lexicon and the Greek Lexicon in the back of “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of The Bible”. The concordance lexicons are only good for names that are Bible based. The other book is good for names in general, but it does not have many international names. I meet many people at the coffee shop I frequent whose names are not in either book. Of the two books, I trust the lexicons in the concordance more than I do the baby book, but out of all the baby books I’ve looked at, this baby book seems the best.
There are probably a number of web sites that would provide the meanings of names, but I have not searched any of them out because I already had these 2 books before I got familiar with the Internet at all. One could, however, probably find a web site with the meanings of names rather easily, but I’ve never tried. I’ve got my 2 books. They have served me fine so far.
Part of the problem for you is that the baby book is American based and, as wide in scope as it is, still has a limited scope internationally. The other part of the problem is that the concordance is for the King James Bible. In your country, getting a copy of such a book might be difficult at best, and would certainly draw attention to you. That is attention that might not be desirable. Even if you did get a copy of the concordance, because it is based on the King James Bible, it might be difficult to use. The English in the King James Bible is difficult to understand, and the concordance is in all English, as well.
I wish I could be of more help, but this is all I know. I hope it helps.
BeaJay
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