Nicholas and Rosa

These names, like many others in the book, are symbolic:
Among other things, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of travellers and children.


Rosa means "Rose." Roses are symbols of both Jesus and Mary.
According to newadvent.org, "...the rose is the flower spoken of by Isaias (xi, 1), 'there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root'."
The red five-petaled rose has been used as a symbol of the crucifixion. The thorns recollect the crown of thorns, the red remembers the blood, and the five petals indicate the five wounds of Christ.

Mary, mother of Jesus, has tons of titles and honorifics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titles_of_Mary). Two that are pertinent here are "The Vermillion Rose of Heaven" and "the Mystical Rose".

Also, the name Rosa, meaning "rose", may reinforce the theme of resurrection - "rose" is the past tense of "rise," and that's what Edgar does at the end of the novel. The last sentence: "I will put on my coat, pick up my Hermes Jubilee, lock the doors behind me, and emerge from the shadows of this house into the bright day, blinking and holding my hand to the sky, amazed at the light, like a man raised from the dead."