The same character names

[TheOtherTeacher]

Just started work on a new story. Automatically named the main character "Dave".

Then I realised I've got several stories already with the main character Dave.

Do you do this? Accidentally use the same name again and again?

Do you read stories and find the same first names everywhere, regardless of the author?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just started work on a new story. Automatically named the main character "Dave".

Then I realised I've got several stories already with the main character Dave.

Do you do this? Accidentally use the same name again and again?

Deliberately, not accidentally. How can you not know your characters' names?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I reuse a fair few names. And then have to decide whether they are the same person or not.

My default female name was Karen but then 2020 happened so I changed the protagonist in a series to Laura instead.

I have a lot of 80s-normal names. Rather annoyingly, I have two characters called Emily and Emma, so I'm working on not mentioning them in the same story if I can avoid it. I often call characters A and B or similar, if I'm not immediately inspired with a name. Which is how Ali and Becca got their names.

Becca was meant to be an older version of Bex in a different story, but the timelines mean they have to be separate people.

I definitely prefer short names or nicknames for the ease of typing!

 

[SofiaLaFrench]

Coming up with new names for characters can be difficult. I’ve developed a list of names that I want to use in the future. I did not have a list when I started writing my “Encounters” series wherein little of what is revealed about the MFC is true in the first episode. In each episode she uses a different name, and it’s only later when her true name is revealed.

 

[lovecraft68]

Never had this issue when I started, but over 200 stories/e-books later it is a problem

"Samantha, shit wasn't that the name I used in..."

And I don't like to use names that are so odd or rare that they seem awkward, so I came to the conclusion that its okay to have some repetition as long as it's spread out. Odds are you know people in real life who have the same name. There's three people in work with my name, so its not that unusual if this happens with your characters over time.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I have occasionally re-used a name accidentally as I don't keep careful track of which names I use in each story. But nobody has ever complained.

However, I can speak from personal experience when cautioning against using similar names: twice I've accidentally used the wrong name in a story and not caught it during editing. Readers do notice that!

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I have the same issue with “Ben.” Our tendency to cling to catchy, one-syllable names is understandable. Why we fixate on certain ones, though, remains a mystery. Just run a Ctrl+F and replace it with Joe, Jon, or John.

I haven't written enough stories to say I do it "all the time", but I just realized I had two women named "Kelly" in the same two-part story, one in part one, the other in part two. The second is now "Irene".

I really need to start tracking this stuff, don't I?

-Annie

 

[EdgySubMic]

I have based several characters on a real-life person called Eddy. They're invariably named Eddy (although rarely), Ed, Fred, Freddy... No Edward or Frederick yet, though. Maybe someday, if or when I'll need more formal sounding names for some reason. These characters always are "good guys" (for an extended definition of good, that is), but that doesn't mean they're one and the same. Sometimes they're the underdog, sometimes much more dominant, sometimes true gentlemen, and in one case even several of those as the story line evolves.

Also very frequent are variations on Michael, Mike, Michel. No Michelle, yet, as I've not yet needed a female character that resembles the real-life person this naming habit is based on.

If I need names for guys who behave like bullies, or bad guys in general, they'll often be called Mark, or Rob(by). Childhood memories are at play here...

 

[TheLobster]

I try to make a cast of characters and assign them first names (and sometimes last names) based on the popular choices in the particular decade that they were born in based on age. This US government website is very handy for this purpose if your story is or can be set in the US.

 

[Voboy]

Once I got over about 30 stories, I stopped caring all that much.

I do reuse characters all the time, and so when names repeat they're very likely to be the same person. But not always, and I don't bother keeping them straight. Meaning, I doubt my readers care a whole lot more than I do.

In real life, lots of different people have the same names. So when you write in a "universe," as I do, the same should apply. I don't find myself "defaulting" to certain names, though; that's a new one on me.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Anybody reading my stories will always find a Stephanie in them. Just a tribute to someone I knew ...

 

[Nynah]

I mentioned this in a different thread but...

I do have a weird related hang-up when it comes to creating characters. I can't use names that I have a strong IRL association with because my neurodivergent brain won't let me divorce them from the real life person. For example, the name "Veronica" is off-limits for me because I had an ex-coworker by that name and she had a very forward personality so if I were to use it in a story, I would just substitute the Veronica I know for the character I created and it would simply be too weird for me. Many very cool names are unavailable to me for this reason and it's one of my biggest pet peeves with myself as a writer.

To this end I spend a lot of my brainstorming time coming up with names my brain will like using in my stories. I probably take more time than most on this and I realize I'm likely very strange for this. So I definitely do not use the same names over and over again.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I've got a spreadsheet

 

[Voboy]

I've got a spreadsheet

I tried this, early on. It soon became unwieldy enough that it lost its utility.

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

I like my characters to be distinct and as developed as possible, within the reasonable confines of maintaining interest in the erotic theme of the story, so I spend a little time choosing names I feel are appropriate for each character. That said, I've not written many stories, so I still have extensive scope for not repeating myself.

In fact, I can't remember the last time I felt compelled to even comment here. Life changes pushed my erotica into a dusty corner some time ago...

 

[UKSilverFox]

You are not on your own, Shakespeare had the same problem Henry IV part 1 & 2, Henry V, Henry VI parts 1,2&3 and Henry VIII. He did well enough.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

I also write within a universe so I consciously do not re-use names to avoid potential confusion. Repetition hasn't been an issue so far.

BUT, I will say there's some regret in that I've already used a name for a throwaway character that I would've liked to use for a more prominent one.

 

[VallesMarineris]

Just started work on a new story. Automatically named the main character "Dave".

Then I realised I've got several stories already with the main character Dave.

Do you do this? Accidentally use the same name again and again?

Do you read stories and find the same first names everywhere, regardless of the author?

I had a weird habit when I started writing here of giving all my female characters names that start with 'A'. I don't know why. I never had an ex or unrequited love whose name started with that letter.. Just something I noticed I was doing. So I've made a rule not to have any female character names start with 'A'.

But as I'm writing this post I just realized I just finished a WIP, meant for Geek Pride, in which my FMC is named Ariadne. So I've unconsciously broken my own rule. But there's a good reason for the name. I'm not going to change it.

 

[NotWise]

I try to avoid reusing names for main characters, and I haven't had much problem. There must be thousands of names to choose from. I'm baffled when a writer has trouble unintentionally using the same name. They couldn't have spent much time thinking about it.

That said, something in me wants to use "Robin" every time I start a new story. I'm not sure I've ever used the name, but it's come up so often that now I act like I have used it. Finding an alternative has never been a problem. I outlined my WIP with "Robin" for one of the main characters. I replaced it with "Grace" but "Robin" is still on my fingertips when I type.

If you struggle for inspiration, then baby name lists are a good source. History is a good source. Athlete's names get thrown around all the time, and that's a good source. Depending on the ethnicity, you can make up a name and it might be authentic. The worst problem I've had with names was with the names of noble men and women in 10th century Christian Iberia. The records don't seem to have a lot of variety. I exaggerate, but it seemed like all the men were named "Rodrigo," so I used "Rodrigo" for no reason other than authenticity.

 

[THBGato]

No.

Though I accidentally called two rather objectionable but different characters "Tristan".

Weird, because I've actually quite liked all the Tristan's I've met.

 

[Voboy]

BUT, I will say there's some regret in that I've already used a name for a throwaway character that I would've liked to use for a more prominent one.

That happened to me once. I made it a feature, not a bug. There are a couple of ways to do that. I think I put in a line where I mentioned the previous throwaway during a convo between two other characters, then had them say unkind things about her and make it clear they were talking about someone else with the same name.

Things like that happen all the time in real life. It can add to the verisimilitude.

"No, no; not Jane DOE. Jane SMITH."
"Oh. Good. I always thought Jane Doe was kinda a bitch."
"She is. Jane Smith's a sweetheart."

 

[WordsIntheWyld]

I use Elizabeth and the variation Beth in a few of my stories. I'm not sure why, and I don't care all that much to find out.

 

[Voboy]

This has happened at least once in the world of real-world commercial publishing. There's a clever sci-fi novel, Armor, written in the '80s by a writer named John Steakley, who later wrote a novel called Vampire$. John Carpenter turned the latter into a dark little movie starring James Woods.

Vampire$ unapologetically re-used the names of two of Armor's major characters, and Steakley made no bones about it. They weren't the same characters, the plotting and settings were entirely different, and in short the re-used names had nothing to do with each other. I seem to recall Steakley putting in a short disclaimer at the beginning of Vampire$, the kind of disclaimer a lot of readers would skip straight past, emphasizing that they were different characters with the same names.

Nobody seemed to care.

 

[Wifetheif]

Walter B. Gibson, the pulp author who churned out a "Shadow" novel TWICE a month for over a decade, at the rate of over a million words a year, had to come up with a unique naming system. First he wanted something punchy and memorable, he also wanted something that would not leave his publishers open to lawsuits by accidentially giving his villain the name of a noted jurist in Iowa. First names weren't much of a problem. "Buch" "Clyde" "Shorty" were all great names for hoods that didn't step on anyones toes. For last names he took the first part of a likely sounding last name and gave it an unrelated ending from let's say a street name so "Harrison" become "Harricliff" not entirely implausible to the reader's eye but unlikely to be a real person who could sue Street ans Smith.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

That said, something in me wants to use "Robin" every time I start a new story. I'm not sure I've ever used the name, but it's come up so often that now I act like I have used it. Finding an alternative has never been a problem. I outlined my WIP with "Robin" for one of the main characters. I replaced it with "Grace" but "Robin" is still on my fingertips when I type.

Not saying that you do this, but it always amazes me when an author doesn't do a robust word replacement of the working title name for their main character. Sometimes it's not enough to do a simple Ctrl+F. The editing process should be more thorough. Another shout out for Text-To-Speech when editing!