Ever Google your characters' names to find out how many people in the real world have them?

[Leyelle]

I do try to make sure that they don't have the same name of a celebrity alive or dead, though.

this is my thing. because these are normal people in my story, their names don't have to be completely unique, just not the names of celebs or other famous characters

[Leyelle]

For "A Dozen Morning Glories"

There are a TON of women named Essence Walker. There are a few folks named Dominic Giang out there as well.

There are some real "Hannah Giang"s, and one kinda looks like the character, which is pretty weird. There are several 'Nicole Giang's but no "Nichole Giang"s

Several Elizabeth Walkers, but they are all middle aged white ladies, so not a lot like the character. Dorine Walker is also already out there on the world wide web, along with Angie and Erika Meng.

So yeah.

No Tiffany Chatterjee or Scarlet Caralee out there though.