BoM/TWS Message Forum

Martin gets used a lot.

I also recall that, on one of the branches where Frank and Joe have Will pass off as their brother, he uses "Martin" as a first name.

As for naming conventions? I don't go so randomly, but I do like to meet the expectations of the place where I'm writing. It's a fortune that there's already a lot of names and places already worked in Saratoga Falls, but on my own stuff, it pays to know the expected heritage of the place. You could have wildly different tendencies for surnames in just one state alone, based on the county - for example, you could have one county with a strong French heritage, and another with a strong German heritage. Then there's also specific locations within a city that could work the same way - specifically, New York city and how the massive flux of migrants from all places led to the establishment of key cultural spots - "ghettos", despite the connotation of the word.

But sometimes, inventing names can be fun, and giving them some foresight or underlying meaning can be fun.