Sobriquets - How much is too much?

[BobbyBrandt]

Character names have frequently been discussed in these forums, but I would like to get some opinions on the use of sobriquets (Nicknames) for multiple characters.

The main female character in this story is named Abigail. This is how she refers to herself (as told by the omniscient 3rd person narrator). Most work colleagues and associates call her Abby. Because she refers to herself by her formal name, it seems disingenuous to use the sobriquet in those instances where this occurs.

Adding to this, the main male character is named Liam Thayne, but his friends and associates frequently call him by his initials, LT. In his case, the ambiguity associated with some knowing him only by his initials plays a role in the plot where his true identity is concerned.

I don’t necessarily see a problem with readers associating the different names with the same character, but will they feel the same way?

All thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

 

[BeechLeaf]

It's quite normal for friends and colleagues to use variant forms. (Of course, if some call Abigail 'Chuckles', that's going to need a big hand pointing at it, because a lot of readers aren't very bright when it comes to nuance.)

The omniscient narrator should in general use only one form, unless there's a clear and present need to shift. I did this once: Jessica became Jess in the final scene, for reasons that would have been clear to a reader who'd earlier read the nuances of that pet name.

 

[IWroteThis]

I tend to match the name used by the narrator to what the main characters in the scene would use. In my first Master PC story, I called the one character Gertrude until the MC reached the point of calling her Geri, then referred to her as Geri after that.

Naturally, in dialogue, I use whatever name the speaking character would use, even if it's a pet name that nobody else (including the narrator) would use.

I do tend to mostly avoid mixing names and callsign-style nicknames. Abigail/Abby and Liam Thayne/LT are easily linked. Gary/Buttercup, not so much.

 

[Actingup]

It's quite normal for friends and colleagues to use variant forms. (Of course, if some call Abigail 'Chuckles', that's going to need a big hand pointing at it, because a lot of readers aren't very bright when it comes to nuance.)

The omniscient narrator should in general use only one form, unless there's a clear and present need to shift. I did this once: Jessica became Jess in the final scene, for reasons that would have been clear to a reader who'd earlier read the nuances of that pet name.

Exactly. And I would only explain if there's a reason to do so. If your main man is an Australian redhead for example and everybody calls him 'Bluey' in defiance of his actual name, it deserves a word of explanation.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I sort of did it in my first series. The main character, Alicia, goes to a masquerade party and makes up a name on the spur of the moment to maintain anonymity, which happens to be "Sarah". She has so much fun at the party that she continues to think of her wild side as Sarah through the series. I told most of the series in close third person, i.e. with Alicia's inner monologue. In each later installment of the series, whenever Sarah spoke up, I took a few words to explain the distinction.

That was it. Reviewing it now, I think I only slipped up once. In hindsight it didn't amount to much, but it didn't make things all that difficult or unclear, either.

 

[Britva415]

I don’t necessarily see a problem with readers associating the different names with the same character, but will they feel the same way?

For readers to be aware that different characters call the person different names is fine.

For the author to do that is a different matter. I think the narrative voice should use a consistent name for that character, even when other characters might be verbalizing different names.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I use the nicknames in dialog only. I did Regina/Reggie in my latest and I tried to keep to that rule but I'm sure I mucked it up somewhere.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I think the narrative voice should use a consistent name for that character, even when other characters might be verbalizing different names.

That is a given

 

[TheLobster]

I think the narrative voice should use a consistent name for that character, even when other characters might be verbalizing different names.

I wanted to say that this depends on whose PoV the (close) narration is coming from, and proffer an example from the undisputed master of giving his character a million names, which is of course Tolkien.

But there actually isn’t any place in LotR, as far as I could determine, where the narrator refers to Gandalf by anything other than Gandalf. I thought there might be some passage where it would be appropriate to call him Mithrandir, but it turns out there isn’t really any scene with a strictly elvish PoV (the closest is the orc chase party meeting the resurrected Gandalf, but that whole chapter is written in omniscient and 90% dialogue).

Indeed, any time LotR does get close, it assumes the PoV of hobbits, which neatly sidesteps the whole issue. I still think using PoV-appropriate names for characters makes more sense if you want to maintain the close limited conceit, but I admit I don’t have any good example where it’s actually done

 

[ClintonBrooks]

I like nicknames. They give me something different to call the character to reduce any possible redundancy for the reader. When choosing names, I consider their potential nicknames as well. As mentioned above, I too, try to limit the nicknames to dialog.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Nicknames are a phenomenal tool, as I mentioned somewhere else I can't be arsed to go find (Edit: I went to find it, it was a couple sentences, so, yeah, never mind, won't quote it). How you (or a character, or the narrator) refer to someone says a lot about your relationship with that person. Is it cute? Teasing? Rooted in some deep inside joke only a handful of people know? Those all do different things for cluing a reader in to the dynamic between those characters. Might be friendly, might be antagonistic, demeaning, loving. It's not uncommon for people to give each other nicknames after being friends for a while, and the disparity in whether someone uses somebody's nickname versus their actual name, especially in narratives where both are used, shows the contrast between relationships even better.

I wrote a book a while back from two POVs. One POV character, an older male doctor, referred to himself by his first name, while his closest friend had about 5 or 6 different names/nicknames she would call him based on how she was feeling toward him (another good use of nicknames). The other POV, a younger woman, referred to him as Dr. Smith because she didn't know him that well and he was slightly famous, so that's all she really knew him by, even after they meet. Likewise, the second POV character refers to herself by her online handle instead of her name, but the doctor refers to her in his POV sections by her actual name. The doctor has maybe 6 - 8 different names he gets called throughout the book, all from various people treating him all the way from incredibly formal (Dr. Josiah Smith) to incredibly informal (JoJo).

Nicknames are incredibly versatile tools, one of my favorite, actually. You can say a lot with so little.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

sobriquets

Does this have anything to do with charcoal?

 

[Britva415]

Does this have anything to do with charcoal?

There was that time a pot called a kettle "Black."

 

[CalBishForNow]

Oh yeah, nicknames, for some reason it didn't come to mind earlier but those are very handy. My hotwife character has three different ones for three different men in one scene. It seemed very useful there. No other relationships lasted long enough for that, but maybe it would have become a habit if they did.

 

[Katie_Mae]

In my* real world world, nobody ever just has one name--except perhaps those who do just have one legal name, but most of those I can recall ended up with nicknames.

There's not only nicknames, but how your legal name is interpreted. Clarissa-Claire May Jones may be called "Clarissa-Claire" by her mother, "Miss Jones" by the children she teaches at school, "Riss" by her friends as a teen but as an adult she might just go by "Clarissa" or even "Claire. Then her boyfriend calls her squidge--my understanding is this is a sobriquet but we seem to be discussing all types of nicknames/variants of legal names.

I think of my friend, whose official name had seven names in it. I called him none of these names. His ex wife called him none of them either, and we both called him by different names. I called him a nickname which had nothing to do with his actual name, she called him a shortened variant of one of his English names. His mother called him something different to what his grandmother called him. And his mother called him something different yet again when he was in trouble. In the army, he was called by his name differently yet again. This is normal to me in the real world, so I see no reason not to emulate that in fiction, unless it would not be normal in the setting I've chosen.

I name my characters according to what their parents mighy have named them in the setting in which they were born. Then I have others call them by what I think would be realistic for them to call them within the setting. What they're called in the narration depends on the POV. It can differ during the story, especially if there are multiple close POVs.

I've never once had a reader** tell me they were confused by this approach, and I don't just mean here on lit where people don't bother to comment about such things, I mean also my work prior to Lit when I took writing more seriously and workshopped and specifically asked people if the naming of my characters was confusing.

For example, I had a story in alternating close third person. In narration, the male character used [Full given name] to refer to himself in narration. Thre female narrator shifted the name she used for the male character during the book. It went from Mr [Family name] to [Full given name]. And so in the sections in her POV the name in the narration shifted. When she spoke his name in dialogue, what she used would depend on who she was speaking to, so even after she was calling him [full givem name] she might refer to him as Mr [family name] or "my husband" or "your nephew" etc. His ex wife called him a shortened version of his given name and his uncle called him a nickname. Not only was no one confused, but readers specifically said the changing of the name in the narration was the right choice.

Even here on lit, where I've had readers confused by a character referring to her underPANTS as "pants," I've not had any confused comments re names.

I had a story here where a the MC's love interest is known by different names to different people. Mr Sung by his students, and David to the MC. It took a while for the MC to discover that the two were the same person--the readers figured it out faster.


*I am speaking of my own world experience here.
** though I have had a non- reader who never read any of my stories say it would be confusing because in their culture they don't do this.

 

[Voboy]

Nicknames are a key part of making your characters relatable, I think, but as I learned tonight while watching Jeopardy? "Sobriquet" started out referring specifically to a nickname based on a physical feature or quality. It's not merely a short form of a name, or a reference to something the character does for a living.

I thought that was interesting. It made me think of Buster Scruggs using the phrase "sobriquet of choice" very properly, by referring to his singing voice.

I do think it's easy to overdo nicknames in stories of typical Literotica length, though.

 

[THBGato]

Character names have frequently been discussed in these forums, but I would like to get some opinions on the use of sobriquets (Nicknames) for multiple characters.

I think it can be useful in two ways.

1. For plot. I have story where the twist hinges on the fact that the FMCs name quite naturally generates two, quite different diminutive forms.

2. Clarity in conversation. If you have a lot of characters in a conversation, then the names they use for each for each other can help indicate to the reader who is speaking. E.g. maybe one character always refers to people by their initials ("JD! Wassup?!"), so after a while it's easy for readers to know it's that character speaking. I have a three way conversation where the (East-African Indian) father uses nicknames like "muna" or "beta" while the (white, English) mother uses terms like "sweetie" or "darling". I think it makes it nice and clear to the reader which parent is talking, without the need for speech tags.

 

[Bazzle]

I found a slight snag once...I wrote a whole lesbian story where they both called each other 'Babe'

It got repetitive after a while.

 

[bi_cathy]

I've played with names quite a bit. In one story, Karoline gets called "Karo" by the other MC during a podcast recording, resulting in confusion because she didn't realize they were close enough for a diminutive to be used. Through the rest of the story, the other MC switches between Karoline and Karo, depending on the situation. One emphasizes serious talks and seduction, the other cute growing feelings.

In my current WIP, the narrator's name is first introduced wrong because that's how the other MC pronounces it, until you discover the real name, and the story behind the wrong pronunciation.

I've done a story where the two MCs don't get names, but terms of endearment used by a third party.

A story I beta read was about a grifter who changed her name multiple times, until she became canonically known as "that bitch." I don't think anyone got confused by that.

When written properly, you don't need to worry about using multiple names for the same person. And there's a lot of fun and shenanigans to be had with them.

 

[Britva415]

I think it makes it nice and clear to the reader which parent is talking, without the need for speech tags.

I don't know if I'd find it so clear. Or, even if I did, I think I would still feel like it was an abuse of absent-tags rather than a sound way to handle a conversation that has more people and is less straightforward than a direct back-and-forth between just two. Like, is tagging really so objectionable that inventing a cutesy gimmick to avoid having to do it seems like a good idea?

 

[BeechLeaf]

No, I agree, I don't think you should rely on 'voice' or style to distinguish speakers. You as author know them a lot better than readers do, but I have always found that if I go back to my own text after a six months' absence, style or content are not enough. I lose track of what my own characters said. I have to specifically track it from named speeches then alternate them, regardless of what they're saying. The fix is to put in a speech tag roughly once every fourth speech.

 

[PennyThompson]

In It Just Ain't Going To Happen, the daughter's name was kind of a noteworthy plot point, illuminating the relationships between the three primary characters and how they thought about each other!

Anyway, when Bella had called to ask to meet me for a Friday night dinner on the outskirts of the city, I wasn't realistically going to say no to her. I hadn't seen my beautiful, occasionally charming and always devastatingly intelligent daughter in person for a year, and I would drive through a lot more than a winter storm for that.

Izzy. She prefers Izzy these days, I reminded myself, absently fighting with the steering wheel as another gust hit. Michelle still prefers to call her Isabella, but at least I can show my daughter that I'll respect her choices as an adult. And I will, right? Otherwise she'll just cut me off.

 

[PennameWombat]

In my "Mel's Universe" stories, I use nicknames regularly. To the point that some side characters don't necessarily know the real names of some of the main characters. And as mentioned, PoV has an impact.

Melanie Caldicott introduces herself as "Mel" because she doesn't like her full name. But once she gained the nickname 'Devil Girl' due to various circumstances, she leaned fully into it. To the point many other characters simply refer to her using that nickname, she introduces herself using it at times, and various other characters around their university campus know her by only that name.

Chris Bajevic is variously referred to as 'Chris,' 'Leather Boy,' and 'Black Cloud.' Mel uses the latter (it was his childhood nickname and she learned about it meeting his extended family.) But when their Halloween party went 'viral' by a short TV report getting picked up nationally, 'Leather Boy' was coined based on his costume. Different characters intermix somewhat freely between Chris and Leather Boy, although many know Black Cloud as well.

And that party and its video is where Samantha Taylor, who goes by Sam, picked up 'Angel.' (Mel was in her Devil Girl costume, Chris in tight leather, and Sam was dressed in white with angel wings.)

That series also includes humanoid aliens, all of whom have adopted 'human' names they use when talking to humans, or speaking in English. Various of them have leaned more into it, based on their age (the aliens have secretly been spying long enough that they have children, the oldest just hitting twenty years old, who were born in space. Their world was destroyed, so they're looking for sanctuary, but are scared of openly approaching humans.)

In my other stories, it depends. I tend to follow 'American English' customs for shortened names (similar to the usages for Mel, Chris, and Sam.) But nicknames depend.

 

[Britva415]

The fix is to put in a speech tag roughly once every fourth speech.

And that's with two speakers. More than two speakers? This can't work!

 

[Cagivagurl]

Personally, I use nick names to explain relationships. Friends use the nick name, but work colleagues, or associate characters all use the formal name.
A simple tool to highlight the relationship status... Friend, or acquaintance...
Pet names are different again... Only used by the closest most intimate friends or family.