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The Names by Florence Knapp

Contemporary fiction

The Names

Debut

by Florence Knapp

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Quick take

A devastating and spellbinding story about all the paths we don’t go down—and the alternate futures they present.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Nonlinear_Timeline

    Nonlinear timeline

  • Illustrated icon, Sad

    Sad

  • Illustrated icon, Marriage_Issues

    Marriage issues

Synopsis

Can a name change the course of a life?

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she’d like to call the child, Cora hesitates...

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora’s and her young son’s lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

Content warning

This book contains scenes depicting domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Names.

The Names

Prologue

October 1987

Cora’s mother always used to say children were whipped up by the wind, that even the quiet ones would come in after playtime made wild by it. Cora feels it in herself now, that restlessness. Outside, gusts lever at the fir trees behind the house and burst down the side passage to hurl themselves at the gate. Inside, too, worries skitter and eddy. Because tomorrow—if morning comes, if the storm stops ­raging—Cora will register the name of her son. Or perhaps, and this is her real concern, she’ll formalize who he will become.

Cora has never liked the name Gordon. The way it starts with a splintering sound that makes her think of cracked boiled sweets, and then ends with a thud like someone slamming down a sports bag. Gordon. But what disturbs her more is that she must now pour the goodness of her son into its mold, hoping he’ll be strong enough to find his own shape within it. Because Gordon is a name passed down through the men in her husband’s family, and it seems impossible it could be any other way. But this doesn’t stop her arguing back and forth with herself, considering all the times she’s felt a person’s name might have influenced the course of their life. Amelia Earhart. The Lumière brothers. Only last week, she’d noticed a book on her husband’s bedside table, Clinical Neurology by Lord Walter Russell Brain.

“Doesn’t that strike you as odd?” she’d asked.

“Coincidence,” Gordon had replied. “Although you wouldn’t believe the number of urologists called Burns, Cox, and Ball. And, actually, Mr. Legg is pretty common in orthopedics.”

Do you not see the risk? she’d wanted to say. Do you not see that calling our son Gordon might mean he ends up like you? But she couldn’t. Because surely that was the point.

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Why I love it

Have you ever wondered what would have been different if your parents had called you something easier to spell, or less common, or more likely to appear on a souvenir keychain? In The Names, Florence Knapp artfully explores the idea of nominative determinism, giving readers a sliding-doors-style view of how naming a child may determine the course of their future.

Cora, a young wife and mother, gives birth to her second child during a storm and chooses between three names for him—but each name holds a very different path. Trapped in a violent marriage and striving for a better future, Cora vacillates. Will this baby be Gordon after his proud and rageful father, continuing a legacy she fears? Will he be Bear, brave, strong and solid, a protector she might one day rely on? Or will he be Julian, pure and free-spirited, offering the escape she longs for?

In alternating timelines across three decades, the family’s rocky past and the diverging roads of three possible futures crystallize. With meticulously interwoven threads and generous prose, The Names is an intricate and affecting debut about the hope, love, and expectations that can both bless and burden a child.

Member ratings (20)

May 2025
The Man Made of Smoke
Home of the American Circus
The Names
The Bombshell
Silver Elite
Alive Day
May 2025
View all
The Man Made of Smoke
Home of the American Circus
The Names
The Bombshell
Silver Elite
Alive Day