By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (gray wolf Uploaded by Dolovis) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
But I’ve always liked it. In sharp contrast to my first name, it’s easy. Usually. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called a customer service line and they can’t find my record because for some reason they think it’s “Wols.” Even when I say “Wolf. Just like the animal.”
Any takers on what a “wols” is? What it eats? Where it lives?
I like to think I carry the spirit of the wolf with me (or maybe the wols, too, depending). It’s interesting how a name can shape us, especially since they’re usually given to us.
It’s why naming a character can be so difficult at times. I admit I’ve changed names in the middle of a manuscript or even further when it just didn’t feel right, after I’d gotten to know the character.
But hey, we can’t all be Wols.
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A Bit to Read 
Wolf is a lovely last name. I can see why you’d like it now, even if at times you didn’t like it so much then.
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Thanks! Yes, I also always ended up at the end when we went alphabetical…once in a while a kind teacher would reverse the alphabet 😉
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I like wolves and wouldn’t mind sharing a last name with these critters. They are so beautiful. It would be a bummer to be Ima Dung-Beetle though. My daughter goes to school with someone whose last name is Moose and whose first name sounds like Lily-on-a. How about Lyca Fox? Or Justin Tyme? I might have to consider these possibilities for a character name someday.
W is for the Watergate Scandal
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ABSOLUTELY! Especially if you write cozies, those names will be perfect. Lyca Fox especially, that one would make me chuckle.
Yes, Dung-Beetle would be a major bummer… 😉
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I can never resist a good wolf story, or picture. This animal is gorgeous.
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Isn’t it? This incredible photo is thanks to our Fish & Wildlife Service!
Not sure I’d want to be this close to a wolf. Hope it was a long lens 😉
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Sounds like a perfectly good name to me. In life, the trick is making your name mean what you want it to.😉
Perspectives at Life & Faith in Caneyhead
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That is an excellent point of view, thank you 🙂
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i always wanted my own wolf 😛 I reckon w/ your name it all depends on how you pronounce it and with what pride/infliction you use?
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being an “Austin” I was always at the top of the roll call and liked the Z-A reversal in school, too.
– Joy @ The Joyous Living
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So it worked at both ends! 🙂
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I’ve done plenty of character name changing mid-novel too. Sometimes it takes a few changes for it to get just right.
You wouldn’t think Davis was a hard name either, but people manage to mess that up too.
Discarded Darlings – Jean Davis, Speculative Fiction Writer, A to Z: Editing Fiction
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It just makes you wonder how. It’s a mystery!
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At least your last name is easy to pronounce (though, with my European background, I’d be likely to pronounce it “Volf”). Mine means “amber”.
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My first name is the challenge. I’ve gotten some really interesting pronunciations!
Volf is likely the correct way to say it, though there’s no evidence of German in the family.
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