…her given name isn’t Thera.  It’s Amber.  And her first brother’s name is Corwin.

That’s all the clues an F/SF geek needs to identify a favorite author of their parents.  This uberdude.  (He is, of course, in my personal pantheon as well.)

I love Zelazny, but I’m happy that Thera chose another name for herself than his archetypical realm.  I never asked why she changed it, nor how she came to pick her self-moniker.   I just felt that her parents didn’t think things through.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Amber, it’s a lovely girl’s name…if you aren’t a huge Zelazny fan.  But if you love The Chronicles of Amber, you know the title of its first book:

Nine Princes in Amber.

Um…hello, potentially awkward?  Like I said, I don’t know what her parents were thinking.  And considering that “Corwin” was one of those princes…I dunno.  I just don’t know what they were thinking.  But all three of their kids turned out fine.  Their last was named Forrest, I assume after they’d considered Benedict, Adolph, and Oedipus.