Valerie as Valeria

I was formatting a draft story with the working title “Model Ex-Wife.” It turned out to be a Valerie story in which she was the heroine and got the guy in the end.

Valerie rarely gets the guy as she is often framed as the “work-wife.” Valerie is an archetype character of an intelligent hypercompetent executive assistant to a company owner. I first used her to create an interruption by calling her boss away from a scene. She grew from a minor one-time NPC to an archetype that I love to write.

When I first used her, I pulled the name from my subconscious without much thought. Today I asked Copilot what the name Valerie means; it replied “strength” or “health.” This is apt because my Valerie NPC is always mentally strong and healthy so she has not needed a story arc to grow and develop.

Further, Copilot informed me that the Latin origin of the name is Valeria. Then I’m like…you mean like Conan’s Valeria? Then Copilot was all: tru dat. So, it is possible that my subconscious made that connection without me recognizing it when I needed to name of a strong female character.