annnnnd here is (part 2/2) where i talk about my MC's name. much love, best wishes!!
i saw your name-meaning post for the Blackwood siblings, and im so impressed with how you found names that not only look similar but have similar meanings/impressions!! as a fellow name-nerd, i thought id return the favor and explain my MC's name since you were so kindly thoughtful about your characters' names!
she is named Hestia Neven
1️⃣: "Hestia" is after the Ancient Greek goddess who personifys the hearth and home (her Roman equivalent is Vesta). well, technically, of "oikos", which is this kind of hearth, home, domestic life, family, society, household, kind of umbrella-term for "family and family's house" both on an individual and governal level
anyway, i liked the idea of her name kind of suggesting a "fated to be a housekeeper" vibe, but i also wanted something that paralleled her warmth and caring nature. and i think the image of my MC tending to the fires in the manor to keep the home warm for the Blackwoods in the winter does exactly that, while also feeling a bit like a "my light" term of endearment, where there is an implication that the manor would literally be colder/emptier without her. plus, my MC sacrifices her own comfort for "peace" in the house (mainly in regards to H, as discussed in part 1) (i use quotations because i really like how one of my friends said there is two kinds of peace, based on this book she read i forgot the name of: peace that isnt really peace, which is the absence of tension (it can lead to a lot of "shut up, thats just the way things are" mentalities). and true peace, which is the presence of justice. my MC is doing the former, for better or worse. ....mostly, worse lol), and Hestia's probably most famous story is how she gave up her seat as an Olympian god to Dionysus so no one else would have to, framed as heroic of her, as she insisted on sitting by Olympus' hearth instead
as for the etymology of the name itself, it means, rather predictably, "fireplace, hearth, alter". this is formed from the name basically meaning "burn" + "to dwell, to stay, to last through the night". which i also like for the Blackwood siblings, as my-MC-Hestia is someone who will be choosing to stay with them despite everything, who will sit through "the darkest night, to the dawn of new hope" or however the cliché goes, with "hope burns eternal"
but like. also? burning a witch at the stake imagry, angry mob with torches, Castlevania-Dracula's human-wife burning inside their home, or even accidental burns (Aang accidentally burning Katara's hands in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" comes to mind) of the Blackwoods either having someone who will be targetted by association or who they may hurt accidentally/intentionally
however, it should be noted that Hestia's hearth of folklore was predominantly fed with the fat of the animal-sacrifices humanity made to the gods, so, uhhhhhh, imsorryifBerthaandothersqualifyassuch, who said that
(there is also the irony of Hestia being one of the many goddesses of virginity, along with Athena and Artemis and so on, who never wedded and whatnot. its ironic because this game has a lot of romance of which i plan to wholly and happily engage in; yet Aphrodite and Cupid hold no power over Hestia-the-goddess, meanwhile Aphrodite and Cupid so-to-say have a lot of influence over my-MC-Hestia-Neven lmao rip)
2️⃣: then "Neven" has two possible name-meanings
k the first is South Serbian, and it means "marigold" which, in South Slavic, the said flower's name means "never fading" as a kind of pun based on marigolds for them being a symbol of hope, so it has a "may hope never fade" impression. It's usually a forename (Neven being masculine, Nevena being feminine, but also gender is a societal construct so anyone can be named either), but it has been a surname
the other meaning is related to some mix of Irish-Scottish as Neven (a masculine name, idk if it has a feminine form) is then considered an anglicized form of the name Naoimhín, which means "little saint" or "holy". though, under that same Irish-Scottish umbrella, may also be related to the surname Mac Cnáimhín, which means "little bone" or "little saint". the idea of "little bone/saint" is important because churches would collect relics of saints as a form of perserving/sharing said saint's holiness and veneration. this could be anything from clothes to, more likely, body parts. often bone. and, also, churches sometimes lied or were lied to, and have relics CLAIMING to belong to saints but actually are just regular people (This is not to say all relics are fake, some do actually belong to the saints they are supposed to be from), which reminds me of the Blackwood siblings a little. (though my MC is also an athiest, so it is a bit funny to be compared to those of sainthood then)
also! marigolds are often used in Mexico's Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), as an affectionate way of celebrating/missing those who have passed on. so. ontop of "maybe the one good, innocent person in this manor?"-energy (that may or may not be true, or may or may not conrinue to be true, either or), there is also a lot of "this bitch is in dANGER" energy mixed with "If the Blackwoods ever lose her, they'll miss her" vibes in surname alone lmao
3️⃣: in terms of meta, i like to think this means either her parents/dad or paternal grandparents or paternal great-grandparents were Slavic or Irish immigrants (maybe she's mixed, idk) (as i assume this game takes place in England?); and that she was named by a farming family, yes, but by someone in the family who was either very studious for the brief period they went to classes, is a bookworm, or was always fascinated by local scholars' stories. so there is a kind of inherent "climbing above one's station" in order for her to be named something so, at the time, academic since she herself isn't Greek. but it also implies she was very well-loved by that person, who saw her as such a warm person even as an infant, to have named her Hestia
but yeah!! id love to hear more people's MCs' names and why they picked them. here's mine in the meantime lol
and here is part 2 :D truly love how thoughtful this was. I've always loved the power and meaning that names can have, this was a joy to read. I did chuckle a bit at poor Bertha catching strays.
I would also love to see more MC names, so if anyone else wants to talk about them, feel free :)
