What I'd been up to all this time.

[JohnSm123]

I started writing a medieval-fantasy smut story. It would be a novel-length one. I didn't know what I'd do with it when I finished it (post it here or self-publish it), but I had panned a wonderful story, and I was progressing with no major problems.

Until someone pointed out that the names I used were not medieval enough and sounded anachronistic. So I searched among medieval names, but they all sounded bland and forgettable (Henry, Edward, Richard, Mary, Elizabeth etc.)

So, unable to find proper names for the characters of my novel, I gave up. Oh well.

 

[Jorunn]

What country is your story set in? I assume England based on your names. Look for Olde English names rather than Old English names. Check the root names for the more modern names. In the medieval times, there were still remnants of Viking cities, those darn Frenchmen, and even Scots and Irish. Give your character a bit of a foreign ancestry.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Did you really abandon your story and writing altogether because you couldn't come up with satisfying names for your characters? That sounds... silly, no offense. It's like starting to build a house and then abandoning it because you can't make up your mind about the color of the fence...

 

[Voboy]

Your names are mostly Norman, OP. If you set your story before 1066, you can use all the cool Godwins and Alfreds and shit.

 

[JohnSm123]

Did you really abandon your story and writing altogether because you couldn't come up with satisfying names for your characters? That sounds... silly, no offense. It's like starting to build a house and then abandoning it because you can't make up your mind about the color of the fence...

My choices are either to...
1. Use accurate medieval names that will bore the readers.
2. Use names that have a nice ring but are anachronistic and will make readers laugh and disregard me.

Either way my attempt was doomed to begin with. Unless you can find a way around that problem, I see no reason to continue writing something that everybody will stop reading after the first few lines.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If it is written well, they won't care about the names nearly as much as the story. What names do you have in the story?

 

[RejectReality]

It's the Sci-Fi & Fantasy category. For heaven's sakes, the names are utterly whackadoodle in fantasy. The only thing you need to do is be consistent.

For example, in my world, male ( human ) names are as often as not a horrible mishmash of ancestor's names to honor them. Thus you get things like Darkniciad & Thakkorias. It's not, however, universal, and more centered in cities than in the countryside. Thus your average farmer may be named Darren. Female ( human ) names don't suffer from this custom, and are thus typically things like Christi & Alicia.

Unless you're writing something you intend to be pseudo-historical fiction set in the real world, then don't worry a bit about what names you're using. Most of the readers in Sci-Fi&Fantasy don't give a shit. Whoever told you the names weren't properly medieval can go kick rocks.

 

[Darkniciad]

And lest you wonder why this no fantasy category RR fellow is trying to talk, I have other pen names that have a tad bit of experience in the category

 

[AwkwardlySet]

My choices are either to...
1. Use accurate medieval names that will bore the readers.
2. Use names that have a nice ring but are anachronistic and will make readers laugh and disregard me.

Either way my attempt was doomed to begin with. Unless you can find a way around that problem, I see no reason to continue writing something that everybody will stop reading after the first few lines.

I think that you are creating a problem where none exists. Whichever decision you take with naming your characters, it won't make any significant impact on the readers. You are not writing a historical treatise, you are writing a medieval fantasy novel. Any sensible names will do. You can even come up with some names of your own that resemble the traditional names but sound better to you. Readers might even appreciate such a gesture. Write a good story and write compelling, relatable characters and it won't matter one bit if the name is Richard or Ragnar, as long as you don't name your character "Knight of the small dick" or something like that
Don't overthink it. Make a decision and start writing. Good luck!

 

[madelinemasoch]

It's a fantasy story, isn't it? Make up your own names.

 

[JohnSm123]

I think that you are creating a problem where none exists. Whichever decision you take with naming your characters, it won't make any significant impact on the readers. You are not writing a historical treatise, you are writing a medieval fantasy novel. Any sensible names will do. You can even come up with some names of your own that resemble the traditional names but sound better to you. Readers might even appreciate such a gesture. Write a good story and write compelling, relatable characters and it won't matter one bit if the name is Richard or Ragnar, as long as you don't name your character "Knight of the small dick" or something like that
Don't overthink it. Make a decision and start writing. Good luck!

Since my beta reader brought it up, it does matter. The same beta reader convinced me to replace maid uniforms with other dresses, because there were no maid uniforms in the Middle Ages. However, regarding the names, I'm at a dead end, and so my work is dead. May it rest in peace.

 

[StillStunned]

Just remember: fancy names are for fancy people. Common people tend to shorten names. I remember a book where the main character was a farmboy called Farnor Yarrance. Having grown up in a rural area, and with a mother from the wilds of Lancashire, I found it unrealistic that he wasn't known as "our Farry".

 

[Devinter]

So, unable to find proper names for the characters of my novel, I gave up. Oh well.

I see no reason to continue writing something that everybody will stop reading after the first few lines.

I'm at a dead end, and so my work is dead. May it rest in peace.

I mean no disrespect, but is this how you approach life in general? The slightest, smallest, most insignificant of problems comes along and you instantly give up and abandon the entire project - even if it's something you're passionate about, and deeply invested in? Because if it is, that's not a healthy way to live.

If you post your current chosen names here in the thread, I'm sure that we - as a collective group - can probably make slight changes to them to make them more fitting into a medieval setting, and you can continue your work without having your spirit shattered. Are you trying to find solutions or are you trying to find excuses to throw in the towel?

 

[JohnSm123]

I mean no disrespect, but is this how you approach life in general? The slightest, smallest, most insignificant of problems comes along and you instantly give up and abandon the entire project - even if it's something you're passionate about, and deeply invested in? Because if it is, that's not a healthy way to live.

If you post your current chosen names here in the thread, I'm sure that we - as a collective group - can probably make slight changes to them to make them more fitting into a medieval setting, and you can continue your work without having your spirit shattered. Are you trying to find solutions or are you trying to find excuses to throw in the towel?

It's not a slight problem. It's an impenetrable wall. I tried for days to find proper names, and I couldn't.

I won't post the names here, because in the unlikely case it turns out they're good and you tell me to use them and go on, I won't be able to delete them from here, because there is no thread-deleting option. And then if I self-publish my novel, everybody will think I plagiarized all those names one by one from here.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Man, you are either a huge troll, or just one really strange guy. On the off chance that it's the latter, I advise you to:

a) Find a new Beta reader.

b) Start writing the damn thing. If you find the problem of the names too distracting, you could even use X, Y, and Z for the names until you come up with something, or the story itself gives birth to suitable names.

c) Stop fretting about historical accuracy. The average reader has no fucking clue if maids wore aprons, latex suits, or body armor. You aren't writing this book with the Oxford history department as the target audience. At least I hope not...

 

[StillStunned]

The names you say are medieval but boring: Henry, Edward, Richard, Mary, Elizabeth. Let's see what we can do.

Henry, Harry, Hal, Henrick, Hindrick
Edward, Ed, Ned, Edvard
Richard, Rich, Rick, Rickard, Dick
Mary, Mally, Molly, Mol
Elizabeth, Eliza, Beth, Liz

Other names:
Thomas, Tom, Tam
John, Jack, Jan, Ian

There you go. If you write your book, and it becomes a huge bestseller and Amazon picks it up as its latest money pit, I won't sue you for plagiarism.

 

[JohnSm123]

The names you say are medieval but boring: Henry, Edward, Richard, Mary, Elizabeth. Let's see what we can do.

Henry, Harry, Hal, Henrick, Hindrick
Edward, Ed, Ned, Edvard
Richard, Rich, Rick, Rickard, Dick
Mary, Mally, Molly, Mol
Elizabeth, Eliza, Beth, Liz

Other names:
Thomas, Tom, Tam
John, Jack, Jan, Ian

There you go. If you write your book, and it becomes a huge bestseller and Amazon picks it up as its latest money pit, I won't sue you for plagiarism.

What about the Germanish kingdom?

 

[StillStunned]

Look up a map of Europe from say 1200 CE. Select a country. Look up its history in Wikipedia. Jot down any names that catch your fancy. Then look up another country and do the same. Repeat until you have as many names as you need.

 

[Rob_Royale]

This just in - John finds another reason to NOT write a story - film at 11.

 

[lovecraft68]

Did you really abandon your story and writing altogether because you couldn't come up with satisfying names for your characters? That sounds... silly, no offense. It's like starting to build a house and then abandoning it because you can't make up your mind about the color of the fence...

Almost as silly as complaining your stories don't get enough views, then removing them so they get zero views.

 

[madelinemasoch]

because there is no thread-deleting option

You can delete comments on your own threads. You can always come back and delete the comment where you posted the names.

 

[Voboy]

c) Stop fretting about historical accuracy. The average reader has no fucking clue if maids wore aprons, latex suits, or body armor. You aren't writing this book with the Oxford history department as the target audience. At least I hope not...

I'll slip in and say I understand where he's coming from here, though. I do the same thing when I write historical stuff. I try to be as scrupulous as possible. So it might not be easy for him to just "stop fretting." I'm also a guy who spends a lot of time trying to figure out good names for my historical characters, probably far more time than any reader realizes. But I don't bitch about it here, because I enjoy doing it.

That's why I suggested changing the year. If, indeed, the names are quite this important to the OP? Then he should find the names first and then devise a setting in which to use them. For myself, it's never been all that hard to find intriguing names appropriate to the time period and place I'm writing about.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'll slip in and say I understand where he's coming from here, though. I do the same thing when I write historical stuff. I try to be as scrupulous as possible. So it might not be easy for him to just "stop fretting." I'm also a guy who spends a lot of time trying to figure out good names for my historical characters, probably far more time than any reader realizes. But I don't bitch about it here, because I enjoy doing it.

That's why I suggested changing the year. If, indeed, the names are quite this important to the OP? Then he should find the names first and then devise a setting in which to use them. For myself, it's never been all that hard to find intriguing names appropriate to the time period and place I'm writing about.

I can understand being obsessive with details. Those small nuances can turn a good story into a great one. But if they are actually preventing him from pursuing his desire to write, if he abandoned his novel-sized story idea because he couldn't figure out a name or two... I don't think that is even healthy for his mindset.

No story is perfect and it doesn't need to be. That is what I tried to convey, mostly. Even if this problem magically disappeared, sooner or later he would run into a different version of the same problem and likely abandon everything once again. He needs to accept that his story won't be perfect, no matter what he does.

 

[Jmanchu]

Since my beta reader brought it up, it does matter. The same beta reader convinced me to replace maid uniforms with other dresses, because there were no maid uniforms in the Middle Ages. However, regarding the names, I'm at a dead end, and so my work is dead. May it rest in peace.

Keep in mind that beta readers aren't there to TELL you what you're supposed to write for your story, they're there to give you ideas from feedback and possibly anything you might have missed like grammar, improper word usage, plotholes, etc. that might seriously impede their reading enjoyment. And their feedback is going to be from their points of view and their *personal opinions.* What could bother one person might not be a big deal or even noticeable to another. It's why multiple beta readers are more helpful. They're suggestions more than anything.

Some people might want their historical fantasy to be with a proper medieval flair and historically accurate, and others might just want fantasy medieval fun with a well thought out setting and world in general. Take your beta reader as him giving you ideas for you to play with just to make your medieval fantasy setting possibly more medieval England feeling with fantasy if you're looking for that, otherwise just take whatever feedback he's given that you feel could make the story even more enjoyable to write for you, or don't. It's not a necessity.

I don't know what direction or vibe you're going for with your medieval fantasy setting but do keep in mind that there are "medieval fantasy" that do have maids and other stuff even if it's not "historically accurate" to a proper medieval setting. And they have names that aren't exactly proper historical medieval names(Especially anime have this). Then again, maybe you want that proper medieval flair. I'm just pointing out so you don't have to feel so stuck on the feedback and details -- not specifically the maids part at all but in general -- if you can't work with it.

Otherwise study up on your anglo-saxon/celtic/norman names and histories of kings, queens, warriors, heroes, etc then come back into it after you find names from there that you like that can fit each character you'll want to give their more suitable name. Study up on the original meanings of the names too, that's how you'll avoid "bland" names.

 

[AchtungNight]

Let me echo everyone else’s advice and hope you’ll continue writing at some point if you honestly want to do so. Good luck.