What's in a Name? - Tam and Brogan

One aspect of the writing process is deciding on the names of all the characters. Some of them just appear almost magically, while others take considerable thought. Perhaps readers may ask, “Where did you get the name?” For this blog entry, I would like to focus on the names Tam and Brogan. I’d like to preface that in the original story, they were named Geoff (Tam) and Stephen (Brogan)! Thankfully, I changed their names after doing some research for the novel that grew out of the short story.

​Tam is one of the two main characters. I wanted exotic-sounding names that weren’t used a lot in today’s society. So, with some thought, I decided to look at other languages. The name Tam came from a Scottish short form of Thomas. It can also mean "simple,” “innocent,” or “wholehearted” in Hebrew. In Vietnamese, Tâm means heart, mind, or soul. The root of Thomas is Aramaic Ta’oma, which means “twin.” That was the deciding factor for me when considering that he would be connected to Brogan in a Life-Line, somewhat like a twin. A fun fact is that Tam O’Shanter was a hero in a Robert Burns poem. Many people have heard of a Tam O’Shanter woolen cap. There is so much information that I could write one blog on his first name alone.

His last name, Amergan, comes from Gaelic and can mean “song-born”, “born of the sea,” or “the one who is a poet.” The name Amergan is more commonly spelled Amergin or Amhairghin. What really stood out to me was that Amergan was a former Druid (a kind of wizard) and served as a teacher to Colin MacLeod, who was an immortal. The idea of song-born tied nicely into the fact that Sirens would be singing to Tam. 

When you add Tam and Amergan together, you get something like “A fruitful, eloquent song or the sweet fruit of a beautiful song or a creation born out of harmony and abundance.” A nice image of my main character, who is artistic and sensitive and finds his twin in Brogan Faoilin.

So, when deciding on Brogan, I continued to search in Gaelic, where it can be used as a first name or a surname, and it comes from the Old Irish name Brôgán. When you translate that, it becomes “little shoe”! That wasn’t the reason I chose Brogan, because in early Irish, it was associated with descriptive traits like sturdy, strong, or sharp-faced. Brogan is the anglicized version of Ó Brógáin, Irish for “shoe,” derived from the Old Norse brók, meaning “breeches.” So, all in all, this describes Brogan as someone strong, sturdy, and sometimes too big for his britches (breeches).

​His last name Faoilin comes from Old Irish Fáel/Faol and means “little wolf.” I liked the name because it described his personality as loyal.

So when you put the two names together as Brogan Faolin, you get a sturdy and strong little wolf. Brogan is loyal to Tam, is a bit of a tease, and more happy-go-lucky than Tam, who is more practical.

When Tam and Brogan become a Life-Line, their names become intertwined: Thamara Amergan-Afil-Faolin. The “Afil” comes from the word “affiliated,” which, in my book, can mean a business affiliation or, secretly, an affiliation between two men. Lastly, Faolin comes from Brogan’s name. The same applies to Brogan-Faolin-Afil-Amergan.

​Totally better than Geoff and Stephen, isn’t it?!