Fictional Character and Business Names?

[SimpleEnigma]

How do you experienced published authors get around realistically naming fictional characters and businesses so you don't get sued without coming off hokey? Sure, I could name a character Hogey Snotshooter, but then that name alone distracts substantially from a character you want the reader to take seriously. Same with businesses. Could use ACME, but then the realism fades and a real company named ACME could sue.

Suggestions? Will a fictional disclaimer help protect against lawsuits?

Thank you.

 

[SimonDoom]

How do you experienced published authors get around realistically naming fictional characters and businesses so you don't get sued without coming off hokey? Sure, I could name a character Hogey Snotshooter, but then that name alone distracts substantially from a character you want the reader to take seriously. Same with businesses. Could use ACME, but then the realism fades and a real company named ACME could sue.

Suggestions? Will a fictional disclaimer help protect against lawsuits?

Thank you.

Not sure I understand the question.

If you give your characters the names John Smith or Maria Garcia, they will have the same names as a gazillion people in the real world. That does not expose you to a realistic threat of defamation. There is no reason to believe that any reasonable reader will think that you are writing about a real person that they know. Therefore, there's no risk of defamation.

The only risk is if you use an unusual name of a very famous person. If you write a bestiality story about a character named Keanu Reeves, then you might want to think twice about your character naming practices.

 

[jaF0]

Could use ACME, but then the realism fades and a real company named ACME could sue.

Where else would I get my anvils, rockets, dynamite, giant springs and other gadgets?

 

[Voboy]

You won't run into problems here. You're writing erotic stories, not defamatory ones. If you do write something that defames a business, just make that business up. Otherwise, it's fine for your characters to go to McDonald's and then pick up a few items at CVS.

Now. With that out of the way, I do tend to invent businesses that are germane to my plots. I do this partly because I'm whimsical, partly because I like how they unify my stories, partly because I had concerns similar to yours when I first started posting here. So my characters buy their underwear at Secret Whispers instead of Victoria's Secret and pick up coffees from Ahab's, "optimistically named for the guy who was Starbuck's boss." You can make these things fun.

I did also invent a social media app, too, that does all the things I need my characters to do on social media. I called it Pixboox.com. It's obvious from context that I intend it to be a mix of FB, IG, Twitter, etc. Works okay.

As far as personal names? I don't like names that sound made-up, as a reader, so I use pretty mundane ones as a writer. I'd not strive to avoid duplicating a flat-out celebrity name, but it wouldn't bug me if it happened. I might even use it humorously, like Mike Bolton in Office Space.

 

[KeithD]

You have a lot of choices on personal names and corporate names are free game in fiction. I have trouble with character names primarily because I use so many of them, a lot of them are foreign country specific, and they have to sound right to me to go with the character. I don't do the cutsy "can be identified to" name use.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Google _______name generator.

Coffehouse name generator

charater name generator

there's a name generator for anything you can think of.

For characters I determine and approximate age then google popular baby names for the year they were born. Then I look at the meaning of the given name and look up surnames that mean something that works with and acts against the first name.

Have fun with names, Use different spellings or surnames as first names. Scott Michael could be a great boss and Halpert James could be a humorless corporate stooge.

I have a Western Zombie RPG I'm making. The major NPC characters are...

80's Wrestlers Capt Lou Albano W Troop 77th calvary, Sargent Slaughter 77th Calvary, Sheriff Hulk Hogan, and more
F-Troop Characters Col Parminter, Hekawi,
Bandits Jesse James-No not that one!
Punny Names Smith N. Wesson Chief Running Bare (He keeps losing his loincloth) Catt En'Casa (the local madame) Sal O'Onkeeper (The bartender)

I once spent three days of writing time looking for the name of a minor secondary character. Other times The name just pops out at me. Although I do tend to use Mike and Kelli a lot.

 

[gunhilltrain]

You have a lot of choices on personal names and corporate names are free game in fiction. I have trouble with character names primarily because I use so many of them, a lot of them are foreign country specific, and they have to sound right to me to go with the character. I don't do the cutsy "can be identified to" name use.

Most of the movie theaters I've mentioned, except for the Cinema Village in Manhattan, once existed but are now gone. Restaurants like the Minetta Tavern and Elephant and Castle still exist, but others like the Cedar Tavern, Googies, and Krums (in The Bronx) are now closed. I made up the name of a bar called the Albion. Recently, there has been a real bar called the Albion, but it's in a different part of New York.

Sometimes I just say generically, a bar, a pizza shop, or whatever.

For character names, I sometimes look at my high school yearbook (eight-hundred in my class) and pick a first name and match it to someone else's last name. I haven't yet had a story set in a foreign country. For some minor characters, I only have a first name.

I have used the names of some real Navy warships like the Wisconsin and the carrier Kearsarge, both retired now. One could have a lot of fun making up names for British warships like Intolerable, Indecisive, and Indigestible, but I haven't had any use of those yet. Old Cunard or White Star liners could be called the Stupendous or the Humongous for anybody with an early 20th Century seafaring theme. (Jack and Rose; haven't they been parodied here already?)

 

[PennameWombat]

How do you experienced published authors get around realistically naming fictional characters and businesses so you don't get sued without coming off hokey? Sure, I could name a character Hogey Snotshooter, but then that name alone distracts substantially from a character you want the reader to take seriously. Same with businesses. Could use ACME, but then the realism fades and a real company named ACME could sue.

Suggestions? Will a fictional disclaimer help protect against lawsuits?

Thank you.

I always include a fictional disclaimer, click on the link to any of my stories and you'll see it. I copied it from standard works of fiction. But no, if you go out of your way to defame someone it won't protect you. But.

I have a recurring 'character' called the 'Arista Casino and Resort' in Las Vegas, Nevada. Don't recognize it? Of course not. It exists alongside the others (Luxor, MGM Grand, etc etc) but all of my action takes place at the Arista. Its physical description borrows from every other casino that exists, I mean, a gambling floor is a gambling floor, but it has unique elements (a giant glass dome, others). My entire Nude Day 2020 story (link in sig) takes place there (a key set piece at its rooftop Starshine Lounge), and plenty of my other stories that need a Casino use the Arista. I only need to highlight what's unique or off-kilter, I trust most of my readers have some idea of Las Vegas and casinos. Remember the TV show CSI, set in Las Vegas? Murders always took place in some fictional casino, although they regularly showed the Strip skyline and Fremont Street.

Now, Arista is a company out there (they do networking equipment). But. 'Arista' the word goes back to ancient Greek and is found across multiple languages. So I'm not using it in a way related to that company.

I wouldn't use McDonalds, I'd use "they stopped into one of the ubiquitous BurgerMania restaurants to stock up on the sauces they loved to rub all over each other while fucking and a couple of burgers and fries to go." Might be worthwhile to stick 'burgermania' into Google and see what happens. BurgerGirlz, Shakes & Fries... Writing is a creative endeavor

But I also have a running theme using a dive diner Bill 'n Ada's. It existed but is long gone and it largely matched to my description (i.e., a dingy dive 24 hour diner but with, oddly, some decent food). It's intentional, if one of my readers is familiar, it's meant to evoke slight nostalgia. And like I said, it's been gone for decades. I've dropped in mention of a couple of other such long-gone places, mostly to anchor stories in a place and time for the odd reader that might remember them. But these mentions are more careful than my BurgerMania example or the Arista usage.

I on occasion use this tool Fantasy Name Generator. But mostly, Jeremy, Lucia, Mel, Chris, Samantha, Terence, Joyce all are not unusual names. My Jed, Gail, Tommy and Jake are criminals, Wade and Martha are outlaw bikers. Oswald Oliver is the now dead leader of a gang of sex/death cultists planning human sacrifice. Cherry Powell and Patrick Collins are terrorists, Sheryl Grace is their leader. Janet Washington the alien brain parasite energy vampire from Iowa. Arjun and Lei comp sci grad students.

As another poster offered, don't have a character named Keanu Reeves or Tom Cruise be a fan of necrophiliac bestiality porn.

You don't need Hogey Snotshooter (although, I like it. Hogey, meet my friend Hojo Hominygrits!) No, use Howard Smith.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

Good advice especially as to businesses and name generation. I would say that citing McDonalds as a group sex venue might be chancy.

 

[Jada59]

In my latest story, I described a bowling alley but didn't give the name. Someone left feedback and gave the name. Thanks to whoever that was! For characters, I usually use just the first name. If I do use a last name, I try to make it a common one. I might mention something like a Diet Coke, but if I were to use it for a murder weapon, I'd probably just refer to a can or bottle of diet fizzy beverage.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I think with business names, it depends on the context.

"He started writing on his new IBM XT computer..." That nails the timeframe, but shouldn't upset IBM. It wouldn't have the same impact if you called it a National Business Device model TX computer.

 

[PennameWombat]

I think with business names, it depends on the context.

"He started writing on his new IBM XT computer..." That nails the timeframe, but shouldn't upset IBM. It wouldn't have the same impact if you called it a National Business Device model TX computer.

I have "FruitTree Computers" and their popular line of "RedFruit" systems because I use it as a running part of some stories.

Other times I've indeed mentioned DEC, UNIVAC and IBM systems.

 

[KeithD]

I would say that citing McDonalds as a group sex venue might be chancy.

Nope, not in fiction.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I usually check major character and company names via Google. If there's a very famous person of that name, or a moderately famous person in the same industry/etc. as my character/company, I'd try again. I'm not particularly worried about legal repercussions but it seems impolite to pick a name that's likely to be identified with a real person/business.

 

[SimonDoom]

No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't be even remotely chancy in any way whatsoever. If you wrote such a story and published it at Literotica McDonald's would have no claim against you and you wouldn't have any cause to worry about it at all.

 

[HeyYoureThatGuy]

I usually double-check a name, not for legal reasons, but because I don't to be like, "Hmmmm. Ed Gain sounds like a good name and I see no problem with that."

Also, I pull a lot of various names from https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

 

[gunhilltrain]

I usually double-check a name, not for legal reasons, but because I don't to be like, "Hmmmm. Ed Gain sounds like a good name and I see no problem with that."

Also, I pull a lot of various names from https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

I used the name Holly Sykes in several stories, and damn but there already is a Holly Sykes in the 2014 novel The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

In the unlikely event he finds me, I'll swear I didn't know, which is true. The name Holly comes from online photos of a woman I used as a base for the appearance of the character. Sykes comes from the tiny town of Sykesville, NJ, and then I used that name for a character in a long-ago screenplay attempt.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't be even remotely chancy in any way whatsoever. If you wrote such a story and published it at Literotica McDonald's would have no claim against you and you wouldn't have any cause to worry about it at all.

For LIT, as a practical matter probably not. IP lawyer buddy of mine was telling me about the software that they use to crawl the net looking for anything that might be seen to exploit or disparage their client's IP. You write about your characters eating at Micky Ds? Free publicity. Writing about bending the cashier over the counter while the crew and customers cheer? If you published indy that could draw a C&D letter. The intended takeaway was to be mindful.

 

[SimonDoom]

I used the name Holly Sykes in several stories, and damn but there already is a Holly Sykes in the 2014 novel The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

In the unlikely event he finds me, I'll swear I didn't know, which is true. The name Holly comes from online photos of a woman I used as a base for the appearance of the character. Sykes comes from the tiny town of Sykesville, NJ, and then I used that name for a character in a long-ago screenplay attempt.

You don't have to do that, or be concerned. Nobody has a proprietary right in their name. There's no possibility in this case of a case for defamation.

If you wrote a story with a character named "Harry Potter", and that character shared traits of the famous JK Rowling Harry Potter, that might be different. But the name itself is not proprietary. You're free to use it.

 

[Jamie_and_Lisa]

Our characters live in a dangerous world, they eat at P. Tomaine's Bar and Grille, or Sal Manilla's Pizzaria, get their hair cut at Sweeny Todd's barbershop, drink RadiThor soda, drive to the airport in a big RoLoefer SUV where they fly on Icarus Airlines to vacation at the Vesuvius Valley Resort.

They work at Enron, having graduated from the J. Profumo School of Public Policy, support Rahauten Wehrmweud's candidacy for public office and trust their investments to Allen Stanford at The Madoff Bank. They watch Jayson Blair documentaries on PBS and listen to Milli Vanilli on the radio...

It's easy, they just come to us from everyday life.

 

[KeithD]

You don't have to do that, or be concerned. Nobody has a proprietary right in their name. There's no possibility in this case of a case for defamation.

This.

 

[davet_1_1]

Worth noting that if you use a celeb name in a defamatory way Laurel may well reject your story. That happened to me.

 

[KeithD]

"the mods" don't have anything to do with the stories. There's one submission editor here--Laurel. The mods only work the discussion board.

 

[Handley_Page]

How do you experienced published authors get around realistically naming fictional characters and businesses so you don't get sued without coming off hokey? Sure, I could name a character Hogey Snotshooter, but then that name alone distracts substantially from a character you want the reader to take seriously. Same with businesses. Could use ACME, but then the realism fades and a real company named ACME could sue.

Suggestions? Will a fictional disclaimer help protect against lawsuits?

Thank you.

I reckon so.
Very Very common names might also work (Smith, Jones, etc..).

 

[Handley_Page]

How do you experienced published authors get around realistically naming fictional characters and businesses so you don't get sued without coming off hokey? Sure, I could name a character Hogey Snotshooter, but then that name alone distracts substantially from a character you want the reader to take seriously. Same with businesses. Could use ACME, but then the realism fades and a real company named ACME could sue.

Suggestions? Will a fictional disclaimer help protect against lawsuits?

Thank you.

I reckon so.
Very Very common names might also work (Smith, Jones, etc..).
Not that you'd get much by way of litigation. . . .