Well you lot seem to know what you are talking about, so would you mind suggesting / commenting on names for a fictional girl I am trying to create?
I am writing a book for ages 9-12. Three girls aged 11 are fiends. Two girls are Polly and Annabel. Need a name for the third friend. Any suggestions?
Constraints are:
- Needs to be distinct from the other two names so that it is easy to tell the characters apart
- I want to avoid having all three girls with predictable middle class girly names, IYKWIM! i.e. reject Charlotte, Olivia, Lucy, etc
- I want a slightly "older" name, i.e. not top of today's popular list. But is anyone actually called Karen, Rachel, etc these days? Is that believable?
- The character's dad is something like a property developer, made his own money but not born to it
- She is currently Melanie which I think works for her, but I want to change it as it sounds too similar to Annabel (Mel, Bel, both 3 syllables)
- It would be ideal if it worked with Sykes as a surname.
So sorry that I am asking about a fictional person's name when there are real babies out there needing names! But if you can spare the time it would really help me out.
Any suggestions?