Google your character Names People!

[Kelliezgirl]

Put an accent over the e. It gets a lot more ambiguous that way...

Had a big whiteboard in the break room of a place I used to work. Walked in one day and written on it in big letters was "Thank You Jesus for cleaning the break room."
I probably stared at it for a solid minute trying to figure out what had happened before I remembered the new guy was a Puerto Rican named Jesus.

 

[Voboy]

We all need to make a habit of including a character named Bront Hambler.

Let's make this a Thing.

 

[Belegon]

Some parents should be disciplined for the names they give their kids.

Agree. Once had a client whose last name was Broccoli and her parents saddled here with the first name Bambi at birth. Ver sweet and highly religious attractive young lady who had to negotiate life with a stripper name on her driver's license.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

My mom went to school with Barbara Streisand.

Not a namealike, she went to school with the future actor and singer. They weren't in the same grade and she hardly knew Barbara, but ....

 

[gunhilltrain]

Agree. Once had a client whose last name was Broccoli and her parents saddled here with the first name Bambi at birth. Ver sweet and highly religious attractive young lady who had to negotiate life with a stripper name on her driver's license.

Nobody should be named Bambi unless they are a deer. I've known people with the last names of Slutksy and Stankus. I might change my name with those. Some parents named their son Spangler Arlington Brugh back in 1911. Weird choice, but Hollywood fixed it as Robert Taylor. Looked much better in the advertising.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M...zgyNjgwNzUxXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

 

[MillieDynamite]

He used the name for years before The Maltese Falcon. Miles Archer and Effie Perine appear in many short stories along with Sam Spade, in Hammett's Spade series that appeared in Pulp Fiction Magazines. But you can't really copyright names as long as they aren't the same character that's used in copyrighted material.

I'm reading a best selling novel by a popular mainstream author. For some reason, the author gave their main protgonist the name "Miles Archer." Now as names go, it's not bad, even clever if you want to make the charater's arc that he is moving towards a target. HOWEVER Dashiell Hammett already quite famously used that name in the "Maltese Falcon" for Sam Spade's partner who was killed on the job and sets the investigation into high gear. I mean the name Miles Archer has been in every movie adaptation and the novel has never been out of print and has millions of fans. So when I read the name "Miles Archer" in THIS novel I think of the Miles Archer from THAT novel. Googling your charcter names literally takes seconds and saves you from potential embarrassment. Joel, Mike and the bots on Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a rule when riffing a movie "Don't make reference to a good movie in your crappy one." Similarly, don't remind people of a much different character in a book by another author who is a far better writer that you are!

 

[big_cane_sugar]

My mom went to school with Barbara Streisand.

Not a namealike, she went to school with the future actor and singer. They weren't in the same grade and she hardly knew Barbara, but ....

I once knew a black man named Michael Jordan. Not the famous one. By the time I met him he'd learned to have fun with it.

 

[BeautyInTheStruggle]

I usually don't use last name. But in one series, by ch 3, a student would refer to his professor by her last name. Had to reread everything to make sure she didn't already have one.

This is exactly why my new working plan on books that interconnect or series is to have a full character document that I can refer to, if I don't have anything on there - cool, I'll add something. Because rereading back where I mentioned some obscure name or detail that later turned out to be rather more important than I had thought at the time was time consuming and confusing!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

middle initial F?

I thought it was H, at least that's what my Dad said.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I once knew a black man named Michael Jordan. Not the famous one. By the time I met him he'd learned to have fun with it.

Michael Bolton on the other hand...

 

[iwatchus]

I thought it was H, at least that's what my Dad said.

Yeah as an initial I hear H more. The F is usually given fully.

 

[SkyBubble]

Would any one recognize the name Gertrude Burkhalter without looking it up?

Would everyone?

I remembered it.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Not so much, but then I'm sure it's some pre-21st-century reference to a social media icon (if they had that way back when). You need to get your fucking shoes back!

Would any one recognize the name Gertrude Burkhalter without looking it up?

Would everyone?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Gertrude may have been one of the funniest characters in Hogan's Heroes.

https://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/original_untouched/312/781071.jpg


Always had the hots for poor Klink.

-----


Fucking shoes .....


Yeah, sorta.


But alas, I have been wiped.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Just re-up it. Your best shoes died, and they ain't coming back on their own.

Gertrude may have been one of the funniest characters in Hogan's Heroes.

https://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/original_untouched/312/781071.jpg


Always had the hots for poor Klink.

-----


Fucking shoes .....


Yeah, sorta.


But alas, I have been wiped.

 

[Rob_Royale]

It's a good idea. I've had a character name that I have used in rpg's and other games for twenty years only to find out Rael is the name of a rather infamous cult leader.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

I do this, but I'm never sure how much of a result is too much result. No matter what name I pick, unless it's something super obscure or incongruous, there's going to be SOMEONE named that. I try to pick generic-sounding names so that no one thinks I'm writing about anyone specific, but still, where's the line?

 

[iwatchus]

If there is someone else with that name, you can make a joke about it in the story. That should be enough if you like a name.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

If there is someone else with that name, you can make a joke about it in the story. That should be enough if you like a name.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean... but I don't really want to have to force in some story-related 'reason' for every single character I ever write...

I have one WIP where the names have very specific effects on the story, but for most, I feel like it would just be forced.

 

[iwatchus]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean... but I don't really want to have to force in some story-related 'reason' for every single character I ever write...

I have one WIP where the names have very specific effects on the story, but for most, I feel like it would just be forced.

I do check for many characters vs famous names. If I gave a character a name of someone who other characters in the story would know, someone will make a joke about it somehow to clarify it's not THE Bob Smith that readers will know. Or I change the name. I generally do the former, because there are people who do share a name with a famous person (How many Stephen Kings are there? They are both pretty common names. It has to be many of them.) If the joke doesn't feel right in your story, change the name. My stories tend to be dialog heavy with lots of joking between people, so that approach generally works for me.

 

[Writer61]

Unless the name is well-known, I don't care.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

I do check for many characters vs famous names. If I gave a character a name of someone who other characters in the story would know, someone will make a joke about it somehow to clarify it's not THE Bob Smith that readers will know. Or I change the name. I generally do the former, because there are people who do share a name with a famous person (How many Stephen Kings are there? They are both pretty common names. It has to be many of them.) If the joke doesn't feel right in your story, change the name. My stories tend to be dialog heavy with lots of joking between people, so that approach generally works for me.

How famous is famous? I end up with a lot of linked-in profiles and articles when I google character names, some of which are prominent in their fields. How far do you take that? "Oh, are you related to the Beatrice Peterson who did that groundbreaking research on tectonic plate migration?" "Nah, never heard of her." Seems ridiculous.

(P. S. I don't actually know if there's a Beatrice Peterson who's famous for geology, or anything else for that matter, nor do I care. I haven't googled her and I'm not planning to.)

 

[MillieDynamite]

"His name is John Smith. Do you understand how difficult it is to find the John Smith in question in a city as large as London?" Postmark for Danger 1955

 

[IWroteThis]

Another's last name is from a street in our neighborhood.

I was struggling with names in one story, so I pulled up Google maps and roamed around looking at street names. That's how I named all of my characters.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who worries about inadvertently using familiar names. I also try to avoid using last names as well, although sometimes that's not an option. I even have to keep a list of names I've used in my stories to keep everyone straight and avoid repeating. Who'd have thought names would be one of the hardest parts of writing? How the hell did Dickens manage it?

Without social media for them to complain about it on, how do we know that he didn't use names that were familiar to people of that time?