And here are the hidden meanings behind the names in The Sun-Nymph Bride…

The heroine is Philippa Grace Hawke, although she goes by Pippa. Philippa, a feminine form of Philip, means lover of horses, although Pippa became used as an independent name thanks to Robert Browning’s Pippa Passes, where Pippa is an inncocent Italian girl (even though the name isn’t actually common in Italy.) Grace is a virtue name meaning divine grace. So Pippa’s first and middle name represent her youth and joie de vivre, as well as that her father would have preferred another son (her mother died before naming her.) As for Pippa’s surname, she’s a distant cousin of Aragon, Mel, and Hawke, so its the same as their’s—a form of “hawk” because their ancestors were warriors who helped found Calatini. The members in Pippa’s family either have English names (Pippa, Julian, Dane) or Spanish names (Xavier, their mother Lucila.) This dichotomy represents how ill-suited her parents were.

The hero is Edouard Pierre Gernand, the Count of Blaine. Edouard means wealthy guardian, while Pierre means rock or stone. His first and middle names are French forms of English names, and they represent his comfortable fortune as well as his steady, caring nature. His surname Gernand is a French surname of Germanic origin embodying loyalty, protection, and devotion—all very Edouard. His title Blaine is an English form of Blain, an area in France, but can also mean yellow, representing his family’s coloring. All of Edouard’s family has French names (Edouard, Elise, Thierry, Genevieve), also Edouard’s and Elise’s names both start with the same letter since they’re twins.

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