I liked Alison's analysis of the name Servalan because that is one area I really struggle with when writing - thinking up plausible new names. I end up either with very contrived names beginning with X or boring existing names of the John and Paul variety (no offence to Johns and Pauls cos I also include Steve in that list). So I'm impressed by people who can come up with good new names. One method I've heard is to combine two common names into a new one so it has a familiar feel but is still novel.
The difficulty is clearly widespread given that very few brand new names become popular. Names such as Lorna and Wendy are therefore exceptional is this, but how many other recently invented names have become so widespread?
-- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson
Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent Celebrating 25 years of Blake's 7 and 10 years of Babylon 5 http://www.smof.com/redemption