The story is set in a fictional European country, and I try to include characters of different nationalities/races/etc. The genre is Urban Fantasy. This Wynda Blair person is a supernatural being, a siren. She's a redhead with a seductive personality, and possesses powerful supernatural abilities. I was just wondering if that is a suitable name for a person who is originally from Scotland, or is of Scottish origin (haven't decided on that yet). I apologize for possible grammar mistakes. English is my second language.
Well a scottish person could have any Western name really, so I suppose that would be fine. If you're interested, many Scottish people descend from clans which have a surname. Take a look at this map
Not sure about the nationality stuff but the name makes me think of Linda Blair. I use this site for names http://surnames.behindthename.com/names/list http://www.behindthename.com/names/list
I've never encountered the name "Wynda", which makes it stand out for me, but like doggiedude, it reminds me of Linda Blair, the actress who played the little girl in "The Exorcist". Might be better to change either the surname or the given name to avoid that association.
It's fantasy so I think Wynda is fine. I would change the surname because my first thought was Linda Blair too.
Thank you for the replies, everyone! I do have a list of more possible surnames. I'll try to find a more suitable one.
Blair Witch was actually supposed to be the reference. As a horror fan, sometimes I like to reference certain things from horror movies. Thought not a fan of that particular movie, the idea was to reference it. I didn't even think of Linda Blair, but I can see why people think it's similar.
Wynda sounds like an American name, like a Postal Holder or an Aardbuck Simple, or a Shiteahd Breeth - the infamous example cited in 'Freakonomics.'
Speaking as somebody who lives in Scotland, I'd say no, that's not a name that is used here, although it does exist. Blair is a perfectly good surname, but Wynda sounds like a cartoon, and I have never encountered it in real life. (I've lived here for 30 years.) If you wanted to come up with an unusual-sounding Scottish name that won't sound cartoonish, you might want to go for the more common Gaelic-derived names. Wikipedia gives a VERY good list. These names are actually 'around.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_Gaelic_given_names
Thank you for the reply and for the link! Yeah, I like to give my characters unusual names. I will look through the list.
Here's another massive list, and Wynda is on it. But about half of these names are really never used. For example, the first one on the list (Africa) is not one I've ever encountered attached to a person. http://www.amethyst-night.com/names/scotfem.html In Scotland, the previous generation from me (I'm 66 years old) commonly named women with men's names with the suffix -ina tacked on to the end of them. Some of these look really weird to the outsider's eye, but they were very common. Any stroll through a graveyard will yield hundreds of them. Andrewina, Alexandrina, Williamina, etc. Often these women were just called "Ina," so you can be pretty sure any Ina you encounter will have one of these men's names. It was considered an honour to have one, and there was some formula they used to come up with them, although I can't quote it. But they weren't given at random; they came down through the family. One thing I noticed when I moved here 30 years ago (from the USA) was how samey the Scottish names are. Very few people have what Scots themselves would consider 'unusual' names, although some common ones will sound exotic to non-Scots, like Morag, Ailidh, etc. In fact, I think unusual names are - or were - rather frowned upon. Scots aren't big on attention-seeking. It was more common to name children after parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. Which is why looking through a phone book here is such a dull exercise, although it was fun to do that back in Michigan because the names were so diverse. Not here, though.
