Using given names of friends and relatives

[Writer61]

My current WIP includes two characters who share their given names with members of my family (both long dead). They are perfect for the story's era, but I am finding it a bit weird.

Do you use names of people you know?

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I have a couple of times, but never really think anything of it. I've known so many people in my life, it's inevitable that a name I'll use in a story will be a name someone I've known will share.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Do you use names of people you know?

Family names? Never. A few people on my stories share the first name of who they are based on (or a name vaguely adjacent to it), but I don’t even do that very often (two or three characters only). I don’t want to see my mom’s name in a porn story .

 

[StillStunned]

I think the only character in any story of mine who even has a surname is Tammy Allen. And that was inspired by Italian rugby player Tomaso Allen, who went by Tommy when he lived in Scotland.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I have several characters loosely based on real people, and in general I shift their name by one or two letters of the alphabet. Rick and Maria might become Steve and Nicole or Tom and Olivia, that sort of thing.

I'd never use a person's name directly unless I had their permission, which seems hard to imagine, and I'd never deliberately use the name a family of mine.

 

[TheLobster]

I think the only character in any story of mine who even has a surname is Tammy Allen. And that was inspired by Italian rugby player Tomaso Allen, who went by Tommy when he lived in Scotland.

I'd normally defer to your professional opinion, as an editor, when it comes to the matters of reading carefully, but this time I'm pretty sure OP was talking about given names

 

[Rob_Royale]

Nope. Even stories about people I've known have fictional names.

 

[ColtonWrites]

No. I usually select names at random though, unless theres some reason why I need to use a name with a specific sound or meaning.

 

[StillStunned]

I'd normally defer to your professional opinion, as an editor, when it comes to the matters of reading carefully, but this time I'm pretty sure OP was talking about given names

Huh, that will teach me not to post while I'm distracted by work.

 

[TheLobster]

Do you use names of people you know?

I usually coin my characters' names by consulting the list of most popular names in the decade they are supposed to be born in. So, no.

I do the opposite, though: take the physical and personality traits of the people I know, mix them together, add some seasoning, and bake under the name chosen like I said above. I suppose I'm not unique in that in the slightest.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Do you use names of people you know?

No, however some names are so common that I may know more than three people with the same name. My contact list for "Anna" and "Mary" (not the actual names) is always growing, and it doesn't help those are some of the names scammers use to scam people with random texts. There have been scammers who tried to scam each other too.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Sometimes it's an advantage to not be a native English speaker. Only one person in my immediate family has a name that would be normal in an English language story.
I don't think I would shy away from using names of friends or even family members for characters though. As long as the character is not based on or particularly similar to said person.

 

[Writer61]

Huh, that will teach me not to post while I'm distracted by work.

I have edited the thread title to make it clearer.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'd never use a person's name directly unless I had their permission

Anyone even slightly based on a real person in my stories appears with their permission. In one case this was retrospective (my bad) as we’d had a falling out before reconciling.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I usually just take a random name, but if I'm stuck, I use the most common names for the year they were born list, then scroll down til I find one that I think "fits".

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Back when we were trying to come up with names for children, the spouse would suggest a name and I'd generally say "I've got a cousin called $name", to the point he'd reply "You've got a cousin called everything!"

I mostly pick names from the 20-100th most common for when and where they were born. I've probably used up nearly half the cousins, but don't associate them with my stories. Some of my characters are loosely based on real people, in which case the names are definitely changed! And any surnames are no-one I know at all. Often picked off a placename sign I've just driven past.

I recently read a Lit story with the character having my fairly-unusual name, which was distinctly weird as that's never happened to me before. Though worse was the novel where a couple eventually got together and had lots of rampant swinging sex, with the names of my very proper uncle and aunt.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Do you use names of people you know?

I avoid them as much as possible. I don't think that I've ever given a main character the same name as someone close to me.

 

[THBGato]

Yes. Forty is, among other things, my tribute to the Bristol music scene of the 00s. So I used the real names of real musicians who were part of that. They are just background, at most getting a couple of lines of dialogue. Part of the point of that story was hopefully turn some readers on...to the amazing music being produced back then.

 

[MrPixel]

I usually coin my characters' names by consulting the list of most popular names in the decade they are supposed to be born in.

I do this. I avoid given names of family, but common ones? Unavoidable, especially in a large series with well over 50 characters over the several years. However, with most characters in my two series, surnames are necessary, as much of the continuing stories include their professional capacities. I pull these out of thin air, sometimes a business name or street name. Also, in some banter, characters will address each other with mocking use of "Mr. [X]" or "Ms. [Y]", or "Doctor [Z]".

"What if that's the same name as a real person?" Tough. Given+surnames are not unique. A job I had for 10 years was producing phone books. I know how non-unique full names are. In the US alone there are 340,000,000+ persons. Odds are 99.97% (I ran the calcs back then) there are at least two people with the same name, usually many more. Whenever I search the Internet for my somewhat rare name, there are at least 30 identifiable individuals of all generations, and, interestingly, none of 'em are me.

[laughing to myself here...]

I have, however, given my MMC the middle name of my paternal grandfather, which is sort of weird. It only comes out when one of the FMCs is angry or frustrated with him.

 

[AchtungNight]

The characters based on celebrities I write share the real people’s names, obviously. I want them to be recognized. The original characters are made up and have original names. There are a couple exceptions, but I have the inspiration’s permission in both cases.

 

[Voboy]

I tend not to use the names of people I know well, and I'm not even sure why.

But I work in a world where I deal with lots of different names and I know many of them well enough to develop strong negative or positive connotations to a lot of those names. That can make it difficult to pick winners here, lol. But usually I try to go with a name that "flows" well, and that's not too hard to type. Several times I've started a story with one name and shifted to another simply because I disliked typing the first one, normally because it was too long.

 

[iwatchus]

Anyone even slightly based on a real person in my stories appears with their permission. In one case this was retrospective (my bad) as we’d had a falling out before reconciling.

I hadn't thought about this in my original story, which turned into a series. The two original main characters have more influence of me than anyone else. But the primary supporting character (the only one of the original four friends that define the title of the series never to be POV) was originally based on someone, at least with significant superficial similarities. Enough so I think many people who knew us back in the day would recognize the characters, especially me and him. He died several years ago unexpectedly. My biggest privacy fear is actually his widow recognizing the characters. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure she does not read erotica. In retrospect, I wish I had used less of his backstory, but it's too late for that.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I hadn't thought about this in my original story, which turned into a series.

I recently had @Djmac1031 write a story featuring one of my characters who is based on a real person. Negotiating sign-off for that was . She agreed in principle upfront, but when we wanted her to review the actual text, she had a family member hospitalized.

 

[TheLobster]

Sometimes it's an advantage to not be a native English speaker. Only one person in my immediate family has a name that would be normal in an English language story.

It works to an extent. If you’re European, chances are the names which common in your language have equivalents in English. Some are less obvious than others but they may exist, and not just for the staples like Mark or Anna.

 

[Djmac1031]

I recently had @Djmac1031 write a story featuring one of my characters who is based on a real person. Negotiating sign-off for that was . She agreed in principle upfront, but when we wanted her to review the actual text, she had a family member hospitalized.

To clarify (for anyone interested), I have never met the person the character "Amy" is based on, never spoken to her online. Not even sure "Amy" is her real name. Probably not.

So my only basis for the character is what Emily has written about her over the years. And that character, as Emily fully admits, is a mix of truth and fiction.

Whats true, what's not, only Emily knows. I certainly don't. And it's not my business.

So my story that used that character was based, at least to me, on a completely fictional character. Still, I completely understood Emily's concerns in wanting to clear my writing about said character with the real world "Amy" the character is based on.

And if she'd said no? I suppose I'd have just had to create a similar character of my own. But the whole point of the piece was to be writing someone else's character and "Amy" was a perfect fit for what i had in mind.

And I was glad the real "Amy" approved of the final product.

https://www.literotica.com/s/when-cozbi-met-amy-lit-con-2025