Patrick Rothfuss: Hi. My name is Patrick Rothfuss.

Rothfuss is actually an old German name. It would've been pronounced "root-foos." For a long time, we thought that it translated at "rote foos," "red foot," which I always assumed that we came from winemaking people. You know, you stomp on the grapes, and your feet get red. Or maybe it might've even been an older name that means "red spear," so I thought maybe this is an old barbarian name, where I would trample on my fallen enemies, and my feet would be red with blood.

But then it turns out that neither of those are true. We found out that I don't really have barbarian ancestors, and the only grapes that grow in that part of Germany where my name comes from are white grapes, so I wouldn't be a red foot.

And so I did a little more research, and I found out that, just like all language, the name changed over the years. It used to be "rote fuchs," which means "red fox." So probably one of my ancestors had red hair, or he was kind of a clever person. That's where my name comes from.