I don't know if anyone mentioned it but Melisandre's name is proabaly a reference to Melisende of Jerusalem, a twelfth century Frankish Queen of Jerusalem or possibly to the painting Melisande by Marianne Stokes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisande_%28Stokes%29 which features a woman who is dressed in red. I only found it about twenty minutes ago just random articling on wikipedia and found it interesting. I couldn't find a reference in the thread but only had a quick look through.