The Name Tyrian

It is not lost on me that my main character shares a name with one of the main characters in The Game of Thrones.

From a marketing standpoint I probably should have changed his name. There is the danger of readers quickly dismissing my character or thinking I am attempting to cash in on the GOT hype.

The reality is, when I sixteen and I first came up with the general idea of my characters and story, that is the first name I thought of – Tyrian Fellhawk. I had never heard the name Tyrian before, but it came to me as majestic and heroic. It stayed with me. And over the years, as I tried to push away this story, the name Tyrian stayed tethered to my creative consciousness.

It was obvious that as I first began outlining the story, Tyrian was the hero. He was the thrust of the action. Long before I even knew about George R. R. Martin’s masterpiece series, I was committed to Tyrian as much as he was committed to his mentor, Gabriel Theobald. I could not imagine the story of The Road of Fathers without him.

And after some research, I realized the colorful attachments to the name:

• An adjective for Tyre, a city in the South Governate of Lebanon

• A shade of purple – Tyrian Purple

• A person who worships the Old Norse God, Tyr

I will take any criticisms that come with my choice of hero’s name. Tyrian always has been, and always will be, the hero of my story.