Names have power. In my epic mermaid fantasy series Rise of the Grigori, the undines whisper ancient names in their prayers—Atargatis, Inanna, Venus. To them, these are the faces of the Mother Goddess who brought their people into being. But hidden beneath the tides of memory are other names, more foreign and dangerous to their ears: Elyon. Logos. Pneuma.

To undines, the idea of a male God is a shock. To discover that He is not only male but also relational—Father, Son, and Spirit—is almost unthinkable. These names, and what they reveal, change everything.

Why These Names Matter (to Me and My Story)

When I began writing this series, I knew I didn’t want to replicate the spiritual cosmologies I so often saw in fantasy, depicting a God who is distant, cold, cruel, or simply absent. To me, those portrayals always felt more pagan than biblical—reflecting bitterness, or perhaps disillusionment, rather than the heart of the God I know and love.

For me, God has always been deeply personal—present in both joy and grief, he is righteous yet tender, strong yet merciful. I wanted my worldbuilding to echo that reality. So when I chose to weave the names of God into this story, it wasn’t just a flourish of borrowed mythos. It was my way of grounding the spiritual soul of this fantasy world in something true and meaningful.

Each of the names I gave my undines to wrestle with carries a weight that shapes not only their theology but also their destinies.

The Names and Their Connections

At the end of Book 1, The Undine’s Tear, I introduce the following lullaby, familiar to every undine child on Sirenia:

In the night, the Dragon waits to ravage in the dark
But Elyon will shield the ones who bear his watermark
In the light, the em'rald-eyed protectors of the deep
Will, ever vigilant, defend the gates of Elyon's keep.
The dragons and the cherubim and undines all as one
Will love and celebrate the race to whom he sent his son.

But, much like the origins of playground songs and nursery rhymes like “Ring Around the Rosie”, “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”, and “Rock-a-bye Baby” have been lost to time and have hotly debated meanings, the undines find this lullaby nonsensical.

That is, until Calandra, my heroine, starts investigating the mystery of her people’s true past. What was once nonsense becomes a cipher. The names embedded in its lines unlock the story her people forgot—and the destiny she must face.

Elyon: “The Most High” (God the Father)Verse:

“They remembered that God (Elyon) was their rock, the Most High (Elyon) God their redeemer.” – Psalm 78:35 (ESV)

Original Hebrew:

Elyon (עֶלְיוֹן) – “Most High,” emphasizing God’s supreme sovereignty and exalted position over all creation.

Meaning for my world:

Elyon represents the loving, omnipotent Creator who watches over and infuses all layers of the cosmos, including the undines, and whose care underlies the moral and spiritual order of the universe.

The Impact of Elyon:

The name Elyon echoes in undine lullabies, a word half-forgotten and half-feared. To the undines, who worship a female First Mother and fear men—especially men with power—the idea of a male Most High God is both alien and unsettling. Elyon suggests authority and intimacy at once—a God who rules over all creation but who also claims His people as His own.

But for Zale, raised in the human world under 1790s Methodist teaching, Elyon is both terrifying and reassuring. If God is Most High and created Zale for a specific purpose, then even his mistakes—and his blood-soaked past—are not beyond redemption.

The Logos: “The Word” (God the Son)Verse:

“In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God.” – John 1:1 (ESV)

Original Greek:

Logos (Λόγος) – “Word, reason, principle.” In Scripture, it emphasizes Jesus as the divine expression of God’s mind and will, the active agent of creation and redemption.

Meaning for my world:

The Logos is the connecting thread between divine purpose and creation, and between God and humans. He represents divine reason, communication, and manifestation. God expresses Himself and brings creation into being through the Word.

The Impact of the Logos:

The Logos is both terrifying and magnetic. The undines have always prized voice and song—tools of survival, control, and sometimes enslavement. To discover that God Himself took on flesh as the Word—the ultimate Voice—upends their entire worldview.

For Calandra, the Logos forces a confrontation: if God’s Word became flesh, then no siren song, no spell, no power of hers could ever compare. Yet it also means that this God speaks not to destroy, but to bring life, and even someone like her can be invited into His song.

For Calandra and Zale, encountering this “Son” figure in their world reflects the personal love and intervention of God in ways they can experience directly, highlighting the redemptive and relational nature of God’s interaction with His creation.

The Pneuma: “The Breath of God” (God the Holy Spirit)Verse:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit (Pneuma), whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” – John 14:26 (ESV)

Original Greek:

Pneuma (Πνεῦμα) – “Spirit, breath, wind.” Represents God’s active presence within creation and human hearts, guiding, sustaining, and empowering.

Meaning for my world:

Pneuma manifests in Rise of the Grigori as the unseen guiding and lifegiving essence of God who infuses all layers of creation. It connects characters to divine wisdom, comfort, power, and transformation—sustaining life itself and granting agency to those willing to surrender.

For the undines, it is the source of their elemental power; for Zale, it is the tangible presence of God, shaping his courage and purpose.

Impact of the Pneuma:

For a people of water and spirit, the Pneuma is perhaps the most alarming—and most intimate—revelation. The Spirit moves like wind over the waters, sustaining, infusing, and connecting all life, even while he calls for surrender to the Most High. Undines, who are accustomed to controlling elemental powers (especially the most ubiquitous element of spirit, though they are unaware of the source), feel unsettled by a force they cannot dominate, one who gives life to all things and who allows souls who reject him to withdraw into the torturous depths of Tartarus—a place without God.

For Zale and Calandra, however, the Pneuma is freedom. No longer an abstract force, it becomes the living presence of God within them, guiding them to confront their past, embrace their true identity, and pursue redemption.

It is in surrendering to the Pneuma that both undines and humans encounter their fullest potential—and glimpse the love and order that permeates creation.

Names that Shake and Shape Reality

For Calandra, these names are an earthquake. Her people’s mother goddess was distant but familiar, feminine, and—most importantly—predictable. To be confronted with Elyon, the Logos, and the Pneuma shatters her categories and forces her into a spiritual crisis.

For Zale, the names are less disruption and more expansion. He is a boy caught between two worlds—human and undine—and the revelation that his God is not limited to either gives him strength and identity. His purpose becomes clear: not to escape his heritage, but to embrace it under the covering of Elyon, who redeems what was broken.

The Power of Names

Words, and especially names, carry power in every story—and in our lives. In the Rise of the Grigori series, I explore the power of words and names and their impact in a fantasy setting, but rooted in real-world truths.

Perhaps names are so important to me because my own name, Talena, is so unique, and the origins of it have been a little tricky to nail down. But I know why I have it—she’s a character in a pulp fiction sci-fi novel series my dad liked, where Talena was the princess of a world where most women were sex slaves. (Hmm, perhaps that also influenced why I chose to tell the fantasy story I did about women doing something similar to men, and how wrong that is… but we’ll save my daddy issues for my therapist—and the healing God is working in me.)

In this “Behind the Name” series, I’ll be exploring the meaning behind the names of important characters, settings, and aspects of my Rise of the Grigori world. But names have special meaning to me for every world and character I create—if you’d like to see something similar for my other stories, please let me know.

What’s a name (a title, a nickname, or a name of God) that has shaped your story?

Drop it in the comments—I’d love to hear the names that matter most to you.

Want to dive in?

Mermaids. Magic. And a search for redemption that could tear the world apart…

Three thousand years ago, a Mad undine healer sank Atlantis. Ever since, the Heartstone that protects the undines’ island has been failing and they haven’t produced a single boy. As the most powerful healer in three millennia, Calandra is the last hope of not only her people, but the entire world. Because if she can’t figure out how to undo her ancestor’s mistake, the Father of Lies will unleash hell on Earth.

Packed with complex characters, lush world-building, gritty action, and impossible odds, this intricately woven epic fantasy series presents mermaids and dragons like you’ve never seen them before.

Join Calandra in a search for redemption that could threaten the very fabric of the universe!

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My latest track, “Help Me Find the Words”, is now available to the public. Listen and download here.

Image text: New Release: "Help Me Find the Words" by Talena Winters. “Help Me Find the Words” is a worship song that captures the longing to praise Jesus when human language falls short. With driven orchestral backing and heartfelt vocals, this mid-tempo Christian alternative rock piece becomes a prayer for the Spirit to give voice to our deepest love for God. Only on talenawinters.com.

Listen to the song Podcast Appearance

I was recently interviewed by the lovely Christina Fennell on the Pencil Shavings podcast. If you’d like to hear more about my origin story as an author and songwriter, listen here.

Listen to the podcast interview