Naming in Sarah Domet’s “The Guineveres”: Novel said to have nothing to do with multiple personality has four main characters named like alternate personalities.

Sarah Domet’s new first novel was just brought to my attention by its review in The New York Times. I was struck by the naming of its four main characters, each of whom is referred to by a variation of the same legal name:

“Four girls, each named Guinevere, are abandoned by their parents at a convent to be raised by nuns. Vere, Gwen, Ginny, and Win come to the Sisters of the Supreme Adoration convent by different paths. Each has her own complicated, heartbreaking story that she safeguards. And while they may share the same name, they couldn’t be more different. Gwen is all Hollywood glamour and swagger; Ginny is a budding artiste with a sentiment to match; Win’s tough bravado isn’t even skin deep; and Vere is the only one who seems to be a believer, grasping at the saint stories the nuns tell and trying to hold on to her faith that her mother will one day return for her. However, the girls are more than the sum of their parts and together they form their own family, the all-powerful and confident The Guineveres.” —from the author’s web site

Judging by the Times’ and other reviews, the novel has nothing to do with multiple personality. And according to what I see online of Sarah Domet’s 90 Days to Your Novel: A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book (Writer's Digest Books, 2010), multiple personality is not part of the writing process that she uses or recommends. Nevertheless, the naming of her four Guineveres is similar to a common kind of naming in multiple personality:

In multiple personality, “Most personalities will have a name…in many cases, the names are some derivative of the legal name. So…Elizabeth Jane Doe might well have alter personalities…Lizzy, Lizzie, Liz, Betsie, Beth, Bets, Jane, Janie, Lizzy-Jane, and so on” (1, p. 116).

1. Frank W. Putnam MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.