But I’m going to answer over the course of a few hours, when I need a breather from a manuscript I’m frantically trying to finish up. Have a deadline to beat and beat it we will, even if bumps keep coming up in the road with this particular project. That’s another part of the life of an editor, though–sometimes manuscripts are tough not because they’re badly written (this one is wonderful!) or because the author is hard to work with (this one is wonderful!) but because things happen in the transit of files that you didn’t realize, or deadlines get moved, or other things come up that you have to be flexible for. Sometimes an editor can get horribly behind because of a snowball effect, and she has to spend a week working late to catch back up to nearly-breathing-free. (You never quite make it to breathing free, because there’s always something that needs doing next!)

So here’s my name-meme post, which I’ve seen making the rounds via 

  (creator of Meme Girls), which I got tagged to do by

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? If you’re as name obsessed as we are, fill out this Meme Girls original meme and share your name- and your favorites- with the blogging world. Then tag five friends to do the same.

1. First Name: Stacy (the 24th most popular name to name a baby girl in the 1970s)

2. Middle Name: Lynn (though Jennifer may have been the #1 first name for baby girls in the 1970s, I submit that the #1 middle name for baby girls in the 70
s was Lynn–and usually attached to Jennifer! See also the three different Jens/ifers I’ve seen do this meme. Well, you could if I linked, but since I’m doing this in spurts, I might not go back and link…)

3. Name you go by: Stacy

4. Name(s) your parents call(ed) you: Stacy (I know! I was so nickname-deficient)

5. Other nicknames (past and present): Stace, Stacer (bestowed upon me in high school when I admitted I had no nicknames to speak of, when the dance team wanted to put nicknames on our dance camp t-shirts)

6. What did you call yourself when you were little?
Stacy (though I wished my name was Anastasia so I could have multiple nicknames, including Stacy–can you sense a theme here?)

7. Were your parents considering any other names (that you know of) before they settled on yours?
Not that I know of. All I know is that my mom picked it out of a baby book because she thought it was a pretty name.

8. What does your name mean?
As far as I know, there are multiple meanings that I’ve never really pinned down a real one. I’ve seen “stable”–which as a horse-girl I loved the double meaning of. Think Baby Names says that the boy version is an English shortening of Eustace
and the girl version is generally considered to be a shortened version of Anastasia–aha! vindication!

9. Do any famous people share your name?

• Stacy on What Not to Wear (she’s really annoying and I much prefer Trinny and Susannah in the British version, who aren’t nearly so condescending and even help women with not-perfect bodies on a regular basis)
• Stacy Keach (actor)
• Stacy’s Pita Chips

10. Can you pronounce your name backwards?
Ysats. I always thought it was a great name for a villain when I was a kid.

11. Favorite girls’ names: I loved the name Victoria so much growing up that the only extant story I wrote as a kid that has survived in my records involved a girl named Victoria. Now I’m not so sure what fascinated me about it. 

I still like Anastasia and may end up using it as a pen name someday.

Other names… I don’t think about it as much anymore. I like a lot of my ancestors’ names. Bessie Beatrice was a lovely combination for a teen girl in the 1910s.

12. Favorite boys’ names: Blair. It’s a family name–my dad’s first name, my grandfather’s middle name, and my great-grandmother’s maiden name. I’m afraid of ever naming a child Blair, though, boy or girl, because my generation has been tainted by The Facts of Life.

13. Favorite name you’ve ever read in a book: Tally Youngblood from Uglies. Scott Westerfeld has done a series on why he chose his character names that I think authors would find useful. He talks about all the different considerations that go into choosing a name for a character 300 years in the future that I think can be directly applied to questions authors can ask about any setting they’re thinking about.

14. Favorite name from a TV show: Veronica Mars. Though it’s not been the best of seasons and I’m kind of on the outs with the show at the moment, I think the combination of first name/last name was just inspired.

Second choice: I second Alana in Hiro Nakamura, which really is a nice play on words, if a bit obvious.

15. Favorite name for a dog/cat: Mogget. I can say it again and again and again. It’s just so fun to say. MoggetMoggetMoggetMogget
Mogget. It’s almost sounds like I’m a frog when I do that.

WRITERLY BONUS QUESTION:
16. Favorite character name from one of your own books: I’m making this an editorly question just because I can. Favorite name out of all the books I’ve edited: I’m torn between Koi (a perfect and deliciously fishy name for a kender in the Elements trilogy by Ree Soesbee (

)) and Ilona, the Hungarian girl in

‘s In the Serpent’s Coils. 

From my own books: I’ve only written
one novella/novellette (I’m never sure of the difference) and have been meaning to expand it to a novel, but you know how that goes when you don’t actually devote time to writing. However, I love the characters’ names, Dach (short for something that slips my mind at the moment) and Maggie (short for Maghdain).