Choosing a name for the heroine of a novel is, for me, one of the most fun parts of the writing – but also one of the most important. The name must encapsulate the very essence of the story, its atmosphere, its meaning.

In my debut novel, Burning Embers, I called the heroine Coral, because I loved the connotations of simultaneous strength and fragility, and the beautiful colour. In my next novel, The Echoes of Love, I ground the heroine in the Italian setting by naming her for the city of love: Venetia.

The heroine of Indiscretion, Book 1 of the Andalucían Nights trilogy, is named Alexandra, because it is a name I love and because it is a nod to the city of my birth, Alexandria. In Masquerade, Book 2 of the trilogy, the heroine’s name also relates to the city of her birth. As her parents recall in the book:

Their daughter had been conceived in Cádiz, the ‘city of light’, on the last euphoric night of their honeymoon and when she came screaming lustily into the world, nine months later, both Salvador and Alexandra instantly agreed that Luz, meaning ‘light’ in Spanish, was the only fitting name for their adored little girl, who had now grown into a charismatically beautiful and spirited young woman.

For Book 3, Legacy, I wanted a richly symbolic name for the heroine, one that would have meaning for both herself and the man who will fall for her. Here is the moment she first introduces herself to Ruy:

‘Luna,’ he murmured, as if tasting the sound on his tongue. From his sinfully perfect lips, her name sounded positively decadent. ‘A Spanish name. The moon, Queen of the Night … Yes, of course.’ He studied her silently for a few moments. ‘Where are you from?’ he ventured.

‘The USA,’ she said.

Her answer to his question is far too simplistic: she may live in the US and have an American father, but the Spanish blood of her fiery mother runs in her veins; she has a Spanish name.

Luna was so named because after she was born her father looked out of the window and saw a full moon. This is the ‘star’ under which she was born, and it shapes her destiny.

Recently I shared with you the legend at the heart of Andalucían Nights, that of Prince Kamar Al-Zaman and Princess Budur, both of whose names mean ‘moon’ in Arabic. Ruy has been enchanted by their love story, from the Arabian Nights, since he was a boy; he has what Luna calls ‘an almost childlike innocence that made him believe in the magic of the moon and the stars and the One Thousand and One Nights fairy tales, in legends and in fate; and that, of course, included happy endings’. In fact, an old gypsy woman cemented this belief, when he was but ten years of age. She told him: ‘The moon will sail up into your sky one day, my boy, and will take hold of your soul. Fate has a strange way of playing tricks on its chosen ones. Go with the tide. If you fight your fate, you will be punished. She is a capricious mistress.’

So when Luna unwittingly chooses the costume of the Moon Queen to wear to a masked ball, Ruy knows he has met his one and only: ‘Luna,’ he says, ‘you look as beguiling as your name … the Queen of the Night … An enchanting beauty, so ethereal that tonight you actually appear to be made of moonlight.’

Luna, then, is a name that has great significance for the story. But what of the rest of this heroine’s name? Her surname is Ward, from her American father, but she is also irrevocably linked to the name Herrera, that of her mother’s family – and that is a name that will not bring warmth and joy to Ruy’s heart, for his family and the Herrera family have been feuding for generations.

‘’Tis but thy name that is my enemy,’ said Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. ‘What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet’. In fact, as she and Romeo discover to their cost, there is a lot in a name, and renouncing a legacy is not easy. Can Luna be Ruy’s Moon Queen and yet not carry forth the legacy of the Herrera name? ‘Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized,’ said Romeo – can love conquer all in Legacy?