The Names
by Florence Knapp 2025
There are times in life that are cross-road moments, the choice you make changes things and sets the course of your life. In “The Names” that moment is when Cora registers the birth of her son, the name she chooses and the reactions to it.
Bear – her daughter’s choice of name, because she sees him as a teddy bear, soft and cuddly, but will defend anyone.
Julian – her choice of name, meaning sky father
Gordon – her husbands name, his family have a tradition of naming the first son after the father and he was keen to follow the family tradition. He also wanted the birth to be registered before his parents came to see their grandson.
She knows there will be consequences whichever name she chooses. The book looks at the three choices and what happens at the time, following every seven years with an incident in the lives of the three different names of the son and the people in his life.
It is an interesting book, showing the difference a name can make to someone and how it affects the people in their life.
With Julian, the children are living with their maternal grandmother at the first seven year update. Cora has died, but there is no indication of how or why or even how they ended up with their maternal grandmother and not their father.
With all of them, there is the question of why the father didn’t accompany his wife to register the birth, then again there would be no story if he had, but all in all, it reads well and keeps the readers interest, though I wish she hadn’t killed Bear off.
