Is she a Gloria?

Writers' Corner
1

I’m creating an eighteen year old character. The story takes place in the last few months of her senior year. For almost all of highschool (grade 10- a few weeks before christmas of senior year) she dated the same boy. He was older than her and they had a horrible relationship and fought all the time. Now she is with a “mr perfect” type. She is very stubborn and head strong. She likes things done her way and she enjoys conflict. She’s always late for everything. She has a low attention span and gets bored with school easily. She has sandy brown hair. Average height, brown eyes.

Could you see her being a [name]Gloria[/name]? Or maybe a [name]Dorothy[/name] or [name]Paige[/name]? Or [name]Lenora[/name]?

And her current boyfriend I’m thinking [name]Drew[/name], [name]Conner[/name], [name]Seth[/name] or [name]Max[/name]. Opinions?

2

I would choose a more up to date name for the girl. [name]Gloria[/name]/[name]Dorothy[/name] sound a bit dated.
[name]Drew[/name] for the Mr Perfect boyfriend.

3

I went to school with a [name]Gloria[/name] who would be 21 now, so I don’t think that it sounds too dated for an 18-year-old character. I have a harder time picturing a [name]Dorothy[/name] that age, just because I haven’t personally encountered one. I think that either [name]Gloria[/name] or [name]Paige[/name] would fit the character described.

I like [name]Drew[/name] or [name]Seth[/name] for the Mr. Perfect.

4

When I hear the name [name]Gloria[/name], I mainly have two associations:

  1. [name]Gloria[/name] [name]Estefan[/name] - maybe your protagonist has some Hispanic heritage?
  2. A [name]Gloria[/name] I worked with a couple of years ago, who was my age (early 20s back then, but you have to consider that I’m not from an English-speaking country, which rules out direct comparisons; still, the name is rather uncommon here and would generally be considered dated, so I think it’s equally unlikely to run into a 20-year-old Gloria here).

So after all, I could definitely see her being a Gloria. Of the other names mentioned, I can only imagine [name]Paige[/name] to work. As for the Mr. Perfect boyfriend, I’d go with [name]Drew[/name].