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Plenty.  During the Getting Loopy podcast of 5 April, Mary Beth Temple voiced the question that will be on readers’ minds as they peruse the list of design titles in my new book, Crochet Lace Innovations.  So, what the heck are all those unpronounceable names about?

My editors at Potter Craft suggested that all my book designs have interesting names.  So I found some REALLY brilliant ones this time that seemed to complement the crochet.  Other than a few personal choices that don’t have backstories, but just sounded evocative or nice to me, the group includes feminine names that read like a game of Trivial Pursuit.  Some are merely obscure, a few are esoteric, one or two are downright unfathomable.  Likely, if you are a fan of sci-fi or fantasy film, television series, or literature, you’ll get at least a few.  If not, then just view them as little Doris idiosyncrasies and don’t worry about it.

Among the femme names are:

• flaming-haired “perfect being” from the film “The Fifth Element”
• sultry Companion in residence on board Serenity in the series “Firefly”
• blue Delvian priestess in the series “Farscape”
• science officer and host to the Trill symbiont Dax in the series “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”
• mythical heroine imagined by Starbuck in a production number from the Jones/Schmidt musical play, “110 in the Shade”
• introverted, geeky (and doomed) computer specialist of “Torchwood”
• simple-minded scullery slave who is literally swept away by a winged vamipiric prince in the Tanith Lee short story “Bite-Me-Not Or, Fleur de Feu” (I did say esoteric, didn’t I?)
• one of the pet names given to the main character by her father in the Newberry Medal winning book by Madeleine L’Engle, “A Wrinkle in Time”
• stunningly beautiful woman who is separated from her lover by the curse of an evil bishop in the film “Ladyhawke”
• archeologist whose relationship to a future Doctor is left to much speculation (“spoilers”) in the episodes “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead”, Doctor Who Series Four
• heroine and embodiment of the “Golden Path” in “God Emperor of Dune”, the fourth novel of Frank Herbert’s Dune series
• gun-slinger and mercenary who joins the morally ambiguous crew in the fourth and final season of the Terry Nation (creator of Daleks!) series “Blakes 7”
• headstrong and sensual Weyrwoman whose mind is broken after her dragon, gold Prideth, dies during a mating flight in the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

One name is a not-girl.

• if you were born before 1955, then it’s the duck from a charming children’s book;  if you were born after 1980 then it’s Mulan’s boy-alter-ego

And two from pop music:

• crazy Latin dancing solo down in Herald Square
• she whirled as the music played in Rosa’s cantina out in the West Texas town of El Paso

So, for a truly warped game of Jeopardy, before actually seeing the table of contents, can you surmise these design names?  No fair googling.