I’m writing a script involving 8 extremely pretentious young people who kind of think of themselves as being a bit like characters in a Waugh or Wodehouse novel when in fact they’re just a bunch of 20-somethings in a modern setting who can’t get jobs with their art history degrees.
The ones I have named are: [name_m]Richard[/name_m], [name_u]Ellis[/name_u] (a girl), [name_f]Wendy[/name_f], [name_m]Stuart[/name_m], [name_f]Barbara[/name_f], and [name_m]Nollaig[/name_m].
One other one is called [name_u]Connie[/name_u] as a nickname for his surname [name_m]Cornelius[/name_m]. I want him to have an embarrassing first name that he keeps on the down-low, but not a “girly” name (since he already goes by [name_u]Connie[/name_u]) and not an “old man” name as that would fit right in with his desired image. Any ideas?
The other one - a frustrated Latino artist who’s stuck doing speed sketches of his friends at dinner parties - I have narrowed down his name to these possibilities: [name_m]Luis[/name_m], [name_u]Mart[/name_u]ín, or [name_m]Oscar[/name_m]. Which do you think works best?
Regarding [name_u]Connie[/name_u], how about a kind of out-there first name that hints at a background in contrast to the one that he wishes to portray for himself? The name that keeps coming into my mind is [name_m]Captain[/name_m], a playful name but not particularly high class. The sort of name I can imagine someone like that being embarrassed of, given by parents that are likely very different from the young man you are writing about. Other than that, perhaps you could give him a rather common, modern millennial name, as that would certainly contrast with his self-image. It could almost be a joke that he is embarrassed of his name, and nobody knows it, with it finally being revealed that it is not really all that embarrassing at all, though it mortifies him. Something like [name_m]Justin[/name_m] or [name_m]Stephen[/name_m].
As for your Latino artist, I would go with [name_m]Oscar[/name_m]. It seems to be the most lively and spirited of the names you have.
My friend and I have a similar set up with one of our characters–has a terrible first time used only for blackmail. His middle, first, and last names are all presidential. Maybe that would work for you, a surname or typical first name of an unliked president. Or one of the old fashioned ones that no longer works, like [name_m]Dick[/name_m]. Or, like Buffalo [name_m]Bill[/name_m], there could have been a typo in his first name (BB is [name_m]Jame[/name_m]. Not [name_u]James[/name_u].) I dunno, that’s a bit of a tough one. Maybe it’s just something with terrible nicknaming possibilities.