Back back in March, I got the following E-mail:
Dear Pat
I’m having my first baby boy with my wife (due date April 13). The only boy name I have found that we both like is “Andan”, found on page 188 of The Name Of The Wind.
I just really wanted to know if you remember where or how you came up with that name, and what you had in mind using it. I mean, the story reads that his name meant anger, but if you had any more information it would without a doubt be the single kindest thing anyone has done for me for a long time (in other words much appreciation:)
Although I have searched endlessly, I just can’t seem to find any good information on the name… which I really like for my baby… but am apprehensive using it as I really don”t know where it came from.
Anyway, if you got to read this I thank you so much for your valuable time. Here’s to Kvothe and his story… let more people find his tale and experience wonder. Seriously, though — Thank You.
-Jordan & Melissa
I was flattered, of course. And I dropped them the following note in return:
Jordan,
I wish I could help you more, but it’s hard for me to remember with that particular name.
You see, sometimes I make up a name and say it means something. And other times I take an old word and twist it a little and turn it into a name. And sometimes I take an old name and use it…
Unfortunately, that part of the book was written so long ago that I can’t rightly remember which it was. But I expect that I might have made the name up entirely….
Best of luck with the new baby, and if you do decide to name him Andan, drop me a picture of him. That’ll be a first for me, someone named out of the book…
Fondly,
pat
And that was that. I knew it wasn’t really a satisfying answer, but it was the only one I had. I didn’t hear anything back from them, which isn’t particularly odd. And I assumed that using the name had pretty much been a passing fancy on their part.
Then, just a couple days ago, I got the following message:
(Slightly edited for privacy’s sake)
Pat,
I emailed you awhile back about the name Andan in your book. You were gracious enough to provide with a prompt response, and I feel horrible that it’s taken so long to get back to you…. but we did have a BOY!
His name is Andan. I’m so glad that you wrote that name in your book one time b/c we simply love it for our boy, and it is just perfect.
Anyway, I wanted to get a few pictures of our son Andan to you as I said I would… and I’m a man of my word, pretty much, mostly, yeah… we’ll go with man of my word.
-Jordan
So, with no further ado, I would like to introduce everyone to Andan.
You have to admit, this is one seriously cute baby. He looks like one of the podlings from the Dark Crystal. I mean that in the best possible way.
At this point I’m tempted to say something witty, or pithy, or glib. But honestly, I can’t think of a thing. All I can do is think about how very strange my life has become in the last couple years.
My best to you, little Andan. Your face doesn’t look like a mask with burning eyes at all. It’s my sincerest wish that you someday meet a sweet girl named Ordal and form a good relationship built on the common experience of having some seriously cool geeky parents.
Jealous of little Andan? Wish your name was in one of my books? Well wish no longer…
You! That’s right, YOU have a chance to donate to a great charity AND get your name in my next book. Wow. I know. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But remember, the raffle only lasts until November 15th.
Details, as always, are over here.
Later space cowboys,
pat
67 Comments
*Sigh*
No offense Chelsea, but I think I’m going to make a habit of snipping out all “first” comments from now on.
I think it’s best to nip this in the bud or before too long the comments section here will look like a youtube video…
That is seriously one cute baby. I’m happy for Andan. He has some awesome parents. Not to mention a totally radical name. I think that Andan has started out life in the best of ways. ^w^ Hes going to have fun with that name and i bet anything that he will be a die hard fan of yours, Pat. Feel the love, man, feel the love…
~R~
….That is simply too much cute.
What a complete mind warp it must be to have so affected the life of a person. It must have been truly validating to you as a writer – after all, names are important things.
Congrats to Jordan, Melissa and, of course, little Andan. And another big congrats to you, Pat!
Keep up the excellent work, thank you for being a part of your fans’ lives, may the fundraiser buy many cows, and the sailing go smooth on your continued writing career.
Ah, and best of luck with your own little one.
It’s a relief to know I’m not the only geek who names their kid after a book….I have a daughter named Ayla (from “Clan of the Cave Bear”) Please feel free to laugh and point as you see neccessary…
I have to say that this is probably the 365th time i have logged on to this blog in the past year in hopes of finding any information that may give me a clue as to when i may be able to pick up #2. I for one am an extremely cranky impatient person when it comes to my books. I have just realized that not once have i been pissed off or wanted to break this damn keyboard because i don’t know when i will get to read it. Then i realized that it is because you have been strait with us from the beginning. Thanks for keeping us informed, that is something you don’t have to do but do it anyway. I certainly appreciate the effort and updates. Congratulations to the parents of such a beautiful baby boy ..Andan is an awesome and original name btw. Good Luck!
Just imagine all the questions he’ll get about his name later. Free publicity! My friend recently named his daughter after Kahlan from Sword of Truth.
even though i find babies frightening on like a primordial level he’s not a bad looking gent. also i didn’t know u were a fan of cowboy bebop.
Everyone in their right mind is a fan of Cowboy Bebop.
granted. however, keanu reeves being cast as spike threatens to ruin the story for the masses. *tear*
Hm, I don’t have any kids (and Utah will have to change some laws to allow a single gay man to adopt one and I don’t see that happening) but I named one of my cats Arya after GRRM’s character. I was going to name her brother Tyrion, but the cat is such an idiot it would have been an insult to our favorite dwarf.
If I could pronounce Kvothe I’d consider naming something after him. I’d probably end up referring to a cat named Kvothe as Vothy.
… Space Cowboys ?
Do you like Jamiroquai ?
…
No ?
The baby makes your book look giant. Granted, it’s 700+ pages, but it looks abnormally large.
Cute… Can we have Oot photos to compare the level of cute? Also, that’s one giant book…
-A-
WV: aeviscr. I’m not sure, but it sounds painful
“Later, space cowboys”?
Hey! We like “Cowboy Bebop” too! :)
And cheers to Andan and his parents!
Oh… didn’t notice the earlier posts. My bad. Still, “Bebop” is always cool. Are you also a fan of “Samurai Champloo”, Pat?
I am a little disappointed Pat, I emailed you several times about wanting to use the name Kvothe for my son, and got no reply back…. hell my wife said if you can get the author to say he thinks its a cool idea we would use it. Sadly I got nothing…. so congrats to Andan and his family at the least. Meanwhile as I have stated here before we had boy too, but didn’t get to use the name Kvothe, although his name is just as good.
Cool thing having someone named after your book…
I came in here to post my “I love that you quote Cowboy Bebop.” but someone already got to it before me.
Must be faster next time…
We, like a number of other people it turns out, named our boy Aidan about 10 years back. It means “fire” or ” little fire”. Any chance that it may have derived from that?
Hey Anonymous- if I had a girl I was torn between the name Ayla and Azaileigh which is another character from a book I loved. But alas I only had boys and couldn’t come up with any cool names for them. So they have rather generic names…. I think it’s pretty cool that you named your daughter Ayla. That’s one of my favorite series too!
Pat- I love you, it’s kinda freaking awesome that someone named their kid after one of your characters huh?
Vasko:
No way! I never got those e-mails….
There was a space of time a while back then there was a glitch in the contact form, and all those pieces of fanmail were lost. Maybe you sent it in during that window of time…?
Sorry it didn’t work out,
pat
Definately one of the cutest babies I’ve seen since my son was born. ;) Grats to Andan and his parents!
Some baby naming site says that Andan means “A flourishing man”
sounds like a win to me.
In Swedish, Andan means ‘The Breath’ – very cool name!
Oh how adorable!! Yay babies. It would be cool if someday little Andan and little Oot were both present at some sort of con/fan event…. and could be instant friends based on the awesomeness of their parents.
For a very long time I’ve toyed with the idea of someday naming one of my daughters Elayne (after a Wheel of Time character) and am relieved to find I’m not the only one.
Baby = Cute
Bebop < Firefly.
=D
Wow, not only is that an awesome story, but I loved the shameless plug at the end. Nice tie in.
I have to admit, that baby reading that massive book is pure genius. And a great name choice, too.
I pet namEd my already named dog, Gratch out of sword of truth so i could go…”Does Graaatttcchhh luuugggg harrryyyyy” lol
Awesome that your book is also a baby namer as well as a truly amazing story, given time NOTW will stop wars and govern countries. :) Nice one…
oh and the baby is actually adorable holding that book, gratz to the proud parents.
Pat,
You should definitely ask those parents if you can use the “baby reading notw pic” for promotional purposes…That pic is just too cute
lol…space cowboys? cowboy bebop? cool.
The baby is cute, that’s for sure but, I honestly don’t remember reading Andan…or the other name you mentioned that starts with “O.” WHERE IS THIS?! WHAT PAGE, SECTION, CHAPTER?!
And, sure, he looks cute now…maybe he’ll grow into the name as it is used in the book when he hits the teens…or earlier!
darn it…i thought i was the first to notice Bebop….shoot.
what sort of word verification is “frationi”…
I believe the word andan origin comes from the movie Dude where’s my car? When they try to order food and the reply is andan (and then) no more andan. Just a thought.
“Everyone in their right mind is a fan of Cowboy Bebop.” And now I love you even more.
I and my guildmates have a few characters named for NOTW.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Elodin
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Kilvyn
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Arliden
Two things:
One, I think that’s awesome that they chose Andan as their kid’s name. I was thinking of naming my daughter Fela if I end up having a daughter later in life.
Two, Cowboy Bebop was the second anime I watched (the first being Haruhi Suzumiya) and that “Later space cowboys” made me want to cavort around in place for a few minutes. So, I just wanted to say you’re probably the most badass idol that I have been a fan of (that means you succeed Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others).
Keep being that badass you are, and best of luck with the second book. Don’t let those vituperative comments get you down!
omg he’s adorable! Congrats to the new parents, and I’m happy to see more kids get geeky names from their geeky parents! My kids won’t feel so left out whent the time comes! …. and yay for Cowboy Bepop!
As Anya said, “Andan” is “The breath” in Swedish.
It can also mean “the spirit” (as in “in the spirit of”. Not “the ghost”. That would be “anden”, though.)
Also, being non-English, I’m curious to know how you would pronounce “Andan” – the Swedish pronunciation would sound odd in English.
regards
Erik
Pat,
Its ok and I understand if thats the case, it sucks, but hey I plan on atleast one more and boys are in favor in my family. Funny thing is Caden (my son) was supposed to be born about the same time as little Oot. I sent it on myspace too, though I know you don’t check it as much as facebook, but I missed the facebook band wagon and only got on when Caden was in the NICU(was 6 weeks early), story for another day though… I appreciate the apology, and sorry if I was harsh, darn jealousy thing… in anycase I plan on submitting Caden’s name in for the contest, as the NICU stay has made us extremly poor I can only do the poor man’s way in, and hopefully win that or coolest name(I know I would have won with Kvothe though ;-)) Anywho.. I hope Oot is doing well, what size fruit is he now? Caden is almost 3 months and I would say he is a watermelon.
@ LaurafromNY
In the mass market paperback, it is on page 208. Hardback and trade paperback are on 188 (or that’s what it says in the first email). Anywho, it’s in Chapter 28: Tehlu’s Watchful Eye. The name appears when Skarpi is telling the story about Aleph turning people into Angels.
As a side note, my favorite NoTW Name is Encanis. The scene where the fake Encanis stops to help Kvothe completely sways me to his side. I like the varying personalities of the characters identified with this name. It leaves room for flexibility, ya know? Evil genius one day, badass philanthropist the next.
Cute kid.
Making memorable and potent character names is crazy hard to do: my hat off to you Pat.
And, since everyone becomes their name (or their name is who they are), every name is important!
Yeah, when I was reading the book, I thought ‘Andan’ was a really cool name. I kept savoring it and rolling it over my tongue like chocolate and cool, big words that float off the tongue. Like diaphanous and bellipotent (a personal favorite).
Yeah, I have favorite words. :D
I’ve never seen Cowboy Bebop, although I have watched (and loved) the entirety of Samurai Champloo. I take it that you would recommend the former? I am always interested in a good story, no matter what medium it is in.
that baby is adorable. Cheers to Jordan. And Pat – awesome name. and wow… to think that THE Pat Rothfuss is a fan of Cowboy Bepop… I don’t know what to say. Except – did you like the series better, or the movie (assuming you have seen both).
Also, I wonder what people, and you especially Pat, think of the name Ardhen. It’s a creation of mine. Curious, as always.
Now that’s a fan!
How do you top that? Maybe a NOTW tattoo?
Well done those parents.
WV: Empodste – The emperor of Ipod’s.
This is just a little mind boggling yet awesome in extremis.
Speaking of Space cowboys, and your well known love of firefly and serenity, I thought I might direct your attention HERE
In case this linking business fails, it is a game for PC named Shattered Horizon made by people who also have just a bit of love for knocking around in zero gravity.
Also, thank’s for the meal we ate together when you came to Taunton (i don’t think I sent my original email to you correctly (well, simply to you in fact) so here I attempt to thank you once more.
That is totally what this blog needs, more adorable baby pics, adorable baby pics of said adorable baby reading gigantic books more so. Maybe we could start a contest, cutest baby and book picture. I will gladly submit one of the Nerdbaby reading my copy. Bonus, I have the Naked Man Chest cover.
@Angela:
Thanks for the page numbers and chapter number! I’ll look out for Andan and the name that starts with “O” again. (And Encanis is mine too, along with Halifax. I even emailed Pat about that scene telling him I sort of cried on the train while reading that scene. It was so moving, and the expression on my face must have showed because people were staring…loved how it all tied in, stranger playing a demon, the demon his dad played, and being kind even though he was acting like a demon…yeow!)
The closest name i can think of that sounds like Andan is Adnan. Which is an arabic name. It means saint-like. Near divine. Its and Islamic rooted name, the first person i can recall bearing that name was Adnan bin Khadeeja. A warrior two generations after the Prphet Mohamed (PBUH). Great name. I don’t know if that helps, or if its even where Andan came from, but it’s a thought and definitly a possibility. Congrats on the boy, may he live a long and healthy life.
Cute!
(Also, every time somebody says “space cowboys” I get a flashback to the deep seated sorrow and joy I took from Cowboy Bebop, so thanks for that, too.)
Hi Pat,
Though this may be a bit of a long shot, I came to the realization that “Andan” is a anagram of my name, “Anand.” Anand is Sanskrit for bliss, or happiness. Since you mentioned that you sometimes derive your names from ancient languages, I thought I would mention this, as Sanskrit certainly fits that bill. It is also a common name in India–though quite rare here in America. “Ananda” was the name of one of the Buddha’s (Siddhartha Gautama) disciples, so perhaps you know if from there. I hope this comment is a little more than entirely useless!
Wow! Andan is definitely one of the best characters that only gets mentioned in the book once! I remember getting totally excited about that part of the story in the hopes that I will learn more about those characters in future books. Anyway, great name! I’m hoping to have at least one son at some point in my life and I’m thinking that that name will probably come from NOTW (I’ve already got enough daughter names planned out).
You’re my favorite Pat!
Oh wow I can’t resiste a podling reference, and he is one cute little podling. Andan is definitely a cool name.
I’m still trying to convince my brother that Cowboy Bebop is amazing. Maybe he’ll bite if I tell him you’re a fan.
Wow very cute kid. I hope to some day have a meat sack of my own. Though I probably won’t name it after NOTW. I’ll do the responsible thing and name it after a favorite cartoon character. A child named after a character in your book…I can see where this all could start getting a little overwhelming. I’m not sure how I would deal…after book 2 a 6 month vacation to a remote island would probably be at the top of my list. I highly recommend some places in Thailand…cheap and friendly and I guarantee they will not know who the hell you are…lol
Firstly: Your fans are SO cool! (the name really IS pretty-)
Secondly: I’m really amazed by you being a cowboy bebop fan! Do you watch other animes, too?
(I admit that I’m one of these crazy yaoi-fangirlies you were talking about before…)
KvothexBast ftw!
sincerly
Sarah :3
Very cute baby, and nice parents to name their child Andan. :)
If you guys would like to know; Andan in swedish means “The Spirit”.
Pat,
Be forewarned this is a completely irrelevant little thorn in my foot that I’ve had for the past few months or so. I’ve done my best to not ask you about it because I know you’re working desperately on book 2, but I’ve got to ask or I will most likely go insane. In NoTW, you have all of these little songs and long songs etc etc. Do your songs have a particular rhythm that they are supposed to be sung in? I know it may seem unimportant, but for someone like me this has been like a canker when I read your books!
Word verification: Ingeter
Andan is a great name. It’s unique but not in a “this kid is going to get made fun of way.” In fact I may someday steal it on the longshot of a chance that I find a woman willing to marry and have a child with me.
That’s one adorable baby with an equally adorable name. Speaking of naming, my pet dog just gave birth to a half a dozen pups this morning and in honor of your book Pat I’m going to name one of them Kvothe. ;)
Heya, Anden means a couple of things in Danish too. 1- Second 2- Other. 100% Unrelated of course :)
Fantastic! What an adorable little boy. With the coolest name evah.
You do come up with some awesome names and words, Pat.
My favorite is ‘eggoliant.’ What does that mean, anyhow?
I think something eggoliant would be something very large , yet graceful, like an oliphant.
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only nerd who names their kid after favorite characters…both of my children have Star Trek names! LOL. My son loves to tell people he is a ST character!
My first time on here and first things first…
Pat, I have been an avid reader for nearly 30 years and even dropped out of school, because I was so consumed by my love of reading. Over the last 20 years, nothing has really captured me the way my favorites of old did. But then I picked up a copy of your book and was completely blown away. Moved to the point of tears, with the pure joy of reading again. Every day I hope for your next book but am willing to wait till my death bead for it if that is what it takes. You are a permanent legend in my personal library. Thank you!!
Ron
Pat,
I recently read The Name of the Wind for the first time (It’s a book I’ll revisit with pleasure). It was brought to my awareness by a News post of Tycho of Penny Arcade.
With some surprise, I find it has my name in it.
I suspected, and finding this post confirmed, that it had nothing to do with me at all, personally (unlike Andan Cly in my pal Cherie Priest’s novel, Boneshaker, who is named after me). I came by this post after reading your FAQ about contacting you intending to do just that to ask about the name. I figured it was a long shot that a once-mentioned character would turn up as a blog topic and was pleased to be wrong.
I didn’t know my name meant anything in Swedish. Now I need to found out how it’s pronounced, since I have a lot of Swedish colleagues. The ones reading my name are scratching their heads, and the ones hearing it probably aren’t recognizing it. You can find it in Spanish, as well; “they run”, I believe, a conjugation of andar.
My name was made up by my father, Alfred. He says he had no source, he just liked how it sounded. That’s his story no matter how often I ask him. My siblings have similarly off-brand names with largely similar stories (excepting one, that I’m aware of):
Malyn
Thesa
Fara
Byan
Halya (a contraction of Halcyon Vidalia)
There are two other Andans that I’m aware of. One is in Malaysia and contacted me through Facebook to ask about my name (he’s the only one he knows too). The other I found in 1994 or so mentioned in the now un-findable online guestbook of South African botanical conservatory – Dr Andan Obu, I think.
Also in ’94, I was contacted by a Yugoslavian gentleman who had relocated to Canada. His surname was Andan, he said it wasn’t uncommon.
I have occasionally been accused of wearing a mask with burning eyes.
Andan,
It is obvious that we don’t know each other but still I felt this urge of communicating with you –even though may have forgotten about this comment, but hoping that you have not forsaken this quest of yours about the meaning behind your intriguing name–, just for the sake of providing you with some information about your name.
If you ever read this, I can only hope that so far your not getting hyped about this, because the truth is that is not so big of a deal. But since I was somewhat moved by your message and that I’m a native spanish speaker, here you go: andan is a conjugated form of the verb andar, as you may very well know by now. You also pointed out that they run is a close translation to it, but the truth is it’s not: it is something more poetic.
The spanish verb andar has a lot of meanings depending of the preposition and context, which makes it really hard to find an english equivalent for it. In fact, it is a very complex verb to describe in spanish.
Sadly, I’m not a translator in order to give you an outstanding amount of detail in this matter, but I’ll do my best: if we were to find the closest english equivalent for this spanish verb, it probably be something along the lines of slowly walking. It is a motion verb, but special and magnificent one in the sense that is mostly used in poetry to refer to the style of movement of something or someone. Something in english like she moved with a steady but graceful pace could possibly be translated into spanish in the form of su andar era pausado pero grácil.
It is also used as a verb of emotional state in the dialectal variation spoken in Argentina and Uruguay. For example, in english you would ask someone how he/she is, but in this variation of spanish you would ask he or she cómo anda.
I deeply wish that I have been of any help.
P.S.: Please excuse my lack of vocabulary and any mistake I could have made in the written lines above. As I also said: english is not my native language.
Also I clearly messed up the italics and the bold. Forgive me for that as well :P.
Heya! Actually, I just now read this reply.
I really appreciate the effort you went to to get across the meaning of the verb and its conjugations in usage!
Fun, fun stuff to know.
Thanks!
Belated congratulations to Jordan & Melissa & Andan.
It’s a good name, kid. You look like a happy young man who will bear it well and do it joy. Best wishes!
Andan
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[…] it is beautiful. 33) Closure: Pat keeps a promise and makes a teenage fan feel really special. 34) And Beside Her Came Andan: Not only are the books good enough to name your children after them, but Pat is cool enough to […]