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Dow - /doe/. The child and adult name of the main character of the story, the fourth son of Draga and Edain. He is often called 'stag' because of how his name is pronounced.
Draga - /drah-gah/. The adult name of the main character's father, husband of Edain. He once had a relationship with a man named Sion.
Edain - /ee-dawn/. The adult name of the man character's mother, wife of Draga.
Seamus - /shay-mus/. The adult name of Dow's eldest brother, son of Draga and Edain.
Gwyn - /g-win/. The adult name of Draga and Edain's second son.
Drostan - /dras-tin/. The adult name of Draga and Edain's third son.
Vyvyan - /vi-ve-in/. The adult name of Draga and Edain's eldest daughter.
Gwendol - /g-wen-doll/. The child name of Draga and Edain's second daughter. She retained it to her marriage (not witnessed in the story).
Meghan - /may-gen/. The child and adult name of Draga and Edain's youngest daughter and child.
Llewellyn - /lay-well-in/. The adult name of the only son of Fionn; lover of Dow, husband of Rhia, and father of four sons.
Uryen - /you-ray-in/. The adult name of the Hedge of Dow's village.
Irving - /er-ving/. The adult name of Uryen's lover.
Fionn - /fin/. The adult name of Llewellyn's father.
Bridget - /brih-jet/. The adult name of Seamus' wife, mother of Cael
Cael - /kay-ell/. The child name of Seamus and Bridget's second son (the only living).
Sion - /see-on/. The adult name of a man Draga had a relationship with as a young man. Dow bases much of his relationship with Llewellyn on his perceptions of Draga and Sion's relationship.
Melusine - /mel-oo-sin-eh/. The adult name of a woman Dow slept with and begot a single son; only he knows the child was his.
Rhia - /ree-ah/. The adult name of Llewellyn's wife and mother of their four sons.
Naoise - /nay-see/. The child name of Melusine and Dow's child, raised by Melusine and her husband Arca.
Alden - /all-den/. The adult name of Vyvyan's husband.
Roland - /row-lend/. The adult name of Alden's younger brother, a member of the village.
Kai - /kay/. The adult name of a member of the village who has affection for Gwendol.
Garient - /gary-aunt/. The child name of Llewellyn and Rhia's eldest son.
Mordred - /more-dread/. The child name of Llewellyn and Rhia's second son.
Carey - /care-ee/. The child name of Llewellyn and Rhia's third son.
Blae - /blay/. The child name of Llewellyn and Rhia's youngest son.
Kynan - /key-nen/. The adult name of Garient.
Sherod - /shay-rood/. The adult name of Mordred.
Arca - /are-ka/. The adult name of Carey.
Dierdrea - /deer-dra/. The adult name of the wife of Gwyn.

Bealtaine - /bell-tah-neh/. May Day. The middling year, or break between Summer and Winter. Dow's birthday.
Samhain - /sow-ain/. The Celtic New Year.

Ysuelt/Isolde - /es-awl-d/. A woman of legends who was won in a battle and married to Mark though she loved Tristan. She and Tristan ran away together.
Tristan - /tris-ten/. The warrior who found Isolde and brought her to Mark. On the way to her delivery, they fell in love.
Mark. The (unknown) uncle who adopted Tristan, and asks him to collect Isolde for him. When he discovers Isolde and Tristan together, he orders Tristan to be killed.
Arthur. The king of the Woads, half-brother of Morgan the Fay who guarded the Lake of Avalon, and unbeknown father of Mordred.
Guinevere - /gwen-ee-ver/. The wife of Arthur, cursed by Morgan the Fay to be unable to bear children by Arthur.
Lancelot - /lan-sa-lot/. One of Arthur's knight, and one of his dearest friends. He and Guinevere had an affair, by which she became pregnant (the babe was killed by Mordred).
Garient. A member of Arthur's court who met his lover, Enid, during a battle to defend Guinevere's honor. Garient and Enid and classically unopposed in their relationships (hence Dow's reluctance to be called as either of them).
Enid - /eh-nid/. The lover of Garient.
Rhiannon. A warrior Goddess.
Sin. A fairy of war.
Naoise. The man who came to Dierdrea after a premonition involving a crow. They fell in love, were exiled to Scotland, and Naoise agreed to go back to save her. He dies protecting her. He is a representation of the Goddess in male form.
Dierdrea. A woman doomed to love, in peace, anyone but the one she wants. She and Naoise are classical 'gender-benders', as he represents the Goddess and she the God.
Arca Dubh - /are-ka doo/. A warrior God.
Epona - /aye-pawn-uh/. A fate and divinations Goddess.

Tir na-nOg - /tear nah nawg/. The land of the ever-young. An afterlife.

Dow and the other characters of this story exist in a time when there is no "pagan" or "wicca" or anything like that. They exist when there were essentially seven branches of what is now "Wicca", or the Gaelic regional beliefs: the Pict and the Woad, of Scotland and northern England; The Brezonek, of Brittany, and the Brythonic, of Breton; the Cymri and Y Tylwyth Teg, of Wales; and the Druids, which were everywhere. There are the implications that Dow's village is either Cymri or Brezonek, but it is never stated definitely (only that they were fighting the Woad).

The renaming of children is an actual tradition: when a child comes of age (age 13 for boys and girls; some girls do not take names until they are married), they are sent on a task of some sort which will test their abilities as a warrior and worker of the Arts, before they come before their family with proof of their accomplishment and a new name. Dow, unusually, retains his child name (most, like Llewellyn's sons, change their names so entirely that they become other people). Also an actual tradition: the 'dressing up' (thought to comfort the dead, to not see the faces of the living), and the lighting of candles for the dead on Samhain; the feasting after hunts and battles; and the sexual conduct on Bealtaine (which is a Fertility holiday).

Now, please enjoy The Book of Rain.