lille aleyne - rae and i decided on aleyne together (i can't remember how, but it was after we'd picked their first names). i hadn't picked lille's name first but i knew her nickname was going to be lily, after lily of the valley—the whole floral motif is all over the place with her, including in her journal layout. "lily" didn't look final fantasy-y enough, though, so i just played around with the spelling until i got it the way i wanted it.
domina van eldt - made up names. "domina" was actually a placeholder at first, but i tend to like the first gut-instinct name i ascribe to a character, so it ended up sticking. her whole personality actually developed from her name once i'd picked it out—domina, indomitable, domination, etc. idek where i heard van eldt, but i just liked the way it sounded! rich, vaguely historical, and totally pompous. all the van eldts (father - carrus, mother - marena) have simple two or three syllable names that sound more powerful than pretty.
bartholomew kurtz - bartholomew is...just bartholomew, lmao, but i did pull it from the ff name generator! i wanted something that was a mouthful and frankly kind of embarrassing, so that kurtz would be encouraged to go by his more manageable surname once he had a choice in the matter. kurtz is from heart of darkness! even though he isn't really anything like that kurtz, i liked the sound of it, and also the vague parallels of someone idealistic and charismatic getting twisted and fucked. granted, hod!kurtz turns into a monster and emi!kurtz just gets some prosthetics, but whatever, IT'S MY NARRATIVE DON'T JUDGE ME