on where the Fox names came from

If I remember the question correctly, it asked how I came up with the Foxes’ names, and their last names in particular.

Dan & Neil have always been Dan & Neil, for as long as I can remember. I wanted a boyish name for Dan and I liked the Danielle-Dan match-up. Fun fact: Dan, Neil, and Riko are the only three in the entire book who have been here since day 1 and still have their original name.

((The “who have been here since day 1″ is a necessary disclaimer, because the Foxes were a six-man team in the very first draft. I started the comic over again to move its setting from Japan to America, and in that second draft I expanded the team to the 10 we started with in the books.))

Andrew & Aaron were the first twins I ever remember meeting, and the Minyards were a family who lived on military housing with us.

Seth was one of my friend’s ex-boyfriends. I thought he was pretty much a waste of oxygen, so I didn’t feel bad about stealing his name for an uncouth character. ((Hopefully RL Seth has grown up since then.))

Most of the other first names were chosen by chance–names I liked that I didn’t think were completely overused.

Last names were either borrowed from classmates or were taken from news articles. I skim through them until I find names I want, that sound different enough to interest me but not so uncommon you know there is probably only 1 of them in the entire US. I use this method a lot when I’m writing about people from overseas, and I just hope the foreign names I seize on aren’t outdated or really peculiar to native speakers.

Aug. 18 2015
#the foxhole court #foxhole court questions and spoilers
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Notes

  1. korakos posted this