What's in a Name?

The art of naming: characters, book titles and more!

I’ve had a lot of names, and that’s not great for a writer.

I was born Lynne Meredith Cohn. My first byline—Lynne Cohn—sounded like a doorbell, so I included my middle name. But people always called me Meredith, like they didn’t even see my first name.

When I married the first time, I took my husband’s name. My former mother-in-law really lobbied for it, …