Name Confusion

[Zeb_Carter]

Yep, several times. It must be old age kicking in. I usually catch them but sometime not.

 

[Lovecraft_Lore]

Yeah. Change the name from the one used in the story to the person's name in real life.

 

[Comshaw]

Yep, did that. I started a story calling one of my female characters by one name and halfway through discovered I liked a different name for her better. I used the search and replace function to change all the prior instances. The problem was when I wrote more I used the new name several times, then unconsciously reverted to the old name. I was in a rush to publish and didn't edit very carefully or run the replace function again as I should have. That wasn't the worst example of me stepping on it, but it was embarrassing.

Comshaw

 

[lovecraft68]

Main characters no, but a reader pointed out that the deceased husband of a character's name went from James to John twice.

My name issue is repeating them. I've written a lot over the years and there's only so many names especially for guys

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

My mother confused names so often that I became a bit obsessed with getting names right. For instance, my best friend for 13+ years was named Ember. My mom called her Amber for years. Finally, when she got Ember down, she started calling every Amber in her classes Ember. It was funny until it wasn't. Apparently there were a couple really sensitive Ambers among her students. So, anyway, name mix-ups don't happen to me much. If I can't decide on a definite name for a character, then I know the story isn't ready to be written yet.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I had written 21 chapters of my series, Mary and Alvin when I wrote a stand alone story titled One Night In Detroit. I must have proofread it a half dozen times, but even so, after I published it, commenters pointed out that I had referred to the main character, Elizabeth, as Mary at least a half dozen times.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My name issue is repeating them. I've written a lot over the years and there's only so many names especially for guys

I suppose that's true, only so many names that guys from a certain region, age and background would have - any men over 50, in particular.

Younger characters aren't so restricted, where any pronounceable combo of letters can be a name, but you run into other problems. I started reading a story where there was a Clay and I think a Chase, and it was honestly unclear for half a page whether they were people, places, or things, let alone what sex they were, which let's face it is an important detail to most Lit readers.

I think Clay was a girl and Chase a boy, though it might have been Chase was the town and Rockall or something was the boy...

Confusing readers unnecessarily is a bad idea. I've known a number of people with common forenames as their surnames, but would never do that in a story. Unless it was part of a plot. "Luther Sara is used to his name being reversed. But having his hotel room booking mixed up with someone else was a first. Sara Luther wasn't happy either: she's exhausted and there's Only One Bed"...

 

[oggbashan]

My mother confused names so often that I became a bit obsessed with getting names right. For instance, my best friend for 13+ years was named Ember. My mom called her Amber for years. Finally, when she got Ember down, she started calling every Amber in her classes Ember. It was funny until it wasn't. Apparently there were a couple really sensitive Ambers among her students. So, anyway, name mix-ups don't happen to me much. If I can't decide on a definite name for a character, then I know the story isn't ready to be written yet.

One of my cousins was named Hilary Susan.

But her mother, who had chosen the names, decided she didn't like Hilary so started calling her daughter Susan, which she soon abbreviated to Susie. Hilary Susan also didn't like Hilary at first so at school called herself Susan - never Susie.

When she went to University she wanted to distance herself from her mother's constant use of Susie. She felt that Hilary sounded more adult and sophisticated than Susan or Susie.

The wider family were confused. When speaking to her directly we called her Hilary.

If speaking to her mother? Susie.

If speaking to her father? Susan.

But if talking to another family member about her? 'Hilary Susan Susie' so we knew exactly whom we were referring to.

Her gravestone says 'Hilary S'. and her married surname.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I've done it a couple of times when I've used last names. Once the stories were published, I kicked myself when I saw that I'd changed their name further along in the story. Luckily, no one picked up on it. I try to be more careful now. though. I keep a sheet with their details beside me, showing their name, eye and hair color, and all the rest. Then I'm not as likely to change details when I can look and see how I should be describing them and what I've named them.

 

[Duleigh]

I had one story where the lead character Charlie became Steve for an entire paragraph. I published it years ago then forgot about it for over a decade. Recently I looked at the comments and ooops! The original file was long gone so I had to copy the Lit published story, paste into Word, reformat, correct, and submit. I double check for name confusion especially now that I'm working on several different stories right now.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I did one story with the MMC named Janos, which I thought had a nice ring to it. Up it went and was doing quite well when a rather notorious individual popped up and excoriated me for having called him Janos half the time and Jonas the other half. Fair cop, now fixed.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Find and replace is a godsend.

This. I’ve changed a character’s name in the middle of a story as well and it saved me from disaster.

 

[tenyari]

Been lucky enough to catch these while writing thus far.

In one of my current stories I changed the names of the main character and 2 major characters - and managed to get it all with a search and replace despite one of the characters having a few nicknames. I "believe" I managed to not make any mistakes - but time will tell.

It can get tricky, as I prefer to use names that I pull from name databases to ensure a wide variety and an ethnically diverse selection. Which means some of the names can be hard to remember until I get used to them.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I did it at least once. I gave a character one name when he was being discussed by two of the main characters early in the story. A coupled days later when I wrote the part where he actually entered the story, I gave him a different name. Didn't catch it in proofreading. No reader has pointed it out, but I know it's there and it drives me crazy.

 

[Publius68]

I did it at least once. I gave a character one name when he was being discussed by two of the main characters early in the story. A coupled days later when I wrote the part where he actually entered the story, I gave him a different name. Didn't catch it in proofreading. No reader has pointed it out, but I know it's there and it drives me crazy.

Oh believe me. The readers let me know about my error... in spades.

 

[KeithD]

A quirk also in writing is that it's best to avoid using similar names in fiction unless doing so is a plot point. Readers have trouble keeping names separate.