Literary Fiction · Free kit
The Names
England, 1987. After a history-making storm, Cora walks her nine-year-old daughter Maia to the registrar to name a newborn son. Her husband Gordon — a respected local doctor and a terrifying presence at home — expects the boy to take his name, as the men in his family have. Cora has three names in her head: Bear, the one Maia invented; Julian, the one she chose; and Gordon, the one she has been told to write. The novel follows all three lives, seven years at a time, and asks what a single act of naming can set in motion — and what no name can protect you from.
“Or perhaps, and this is her real concern, she'll formalize who he will become.”
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The Names Icebreakers
Answer in under 30 seconds. These connect to the book’s themes without spoiling the story.
Personality Reveal
1. When someone tells you who you are supposed to be, do you nod and file it away, or immediately start editing the job description?
Personality Reveal
2. In a tense room, are you the person who names what is happening, or the person who smooths it over so dinner can continue?
Personality Reveal
3. Do you believe a name quietly steers a person, or that people grow around whatever they were given?
Funny & Light
4. What is the most unfortunate nickname you have ever been stuck with — and did you eventually answer to it?
Funny & Light
5. What name have you silently judged someone for giving a pet, a wifi network, or a sourdough starter?
Funny & Light
6. Have you ever answered to the wrong name for an embarrassingly long stretch because correcting it felt worse?
Would You Rather
7. Would you rather share a first name with a difficult relative, or have a name nobody can pronounce on the first try?
Would You Rather
8. Would you rather see every version of the life you did not choose, or never wonder about the forks at all?
Would You Rather
9. Would you rather be the sibling who notices every shift in the room, or the one who gets to stay a little oblivious?
Hot Take
10. Hot take: being named after a parent is more burden than honor. Agree or disagree?
Hot Take
11. Hot take: people who say they "hate conflict" often just make someone else handle it. Agree or disagree?
Hot Take
12. Finish this sentence: Families care way too much about ______.
Personal Connection
13. What is a story about your name — or a name you almost had — that you actually like telling?
Personal Connection
14. Who in your life can read the mood of a room before anyone has spoken?
Personal Connection
15. What is one expectation someone had for your life that you quietly decided would not define you?