I like my characters to have fairly uncommon names, and I’ll often make them up or use names from another language. Is this a bad idea? Currently I’m very attached to Katalia (Kuh-TALL-y-uh), but I’m worried my readers won’t know how to pronounce it.
Well, they will either pronounce it Kuh-TALL-y-uh or [name_f]Kat[/name_f]-ah-lee-a, which are both beautiful!
Welcome, @erasableink!
I think made-up names are often fine but it depends on the genre. If you’re writing about five average teenagers in a suburban high school and they all have extremely uncommon/made-up names, I’d personally find it a little odd or be expecting an explanation. If you’re writing about a fantasy world, I think made-up names are awesome, and help immerse readers into the world a bit more even!
I would pronounce Katalia like [name_f]Natalia[/name_f] with a K: kuh-TALL-ee-uh. I’m not sure if that’s how you wanted it. If you’re worried about pronunciation, you can always include a glossary at the end of the story, or you have a character clarify the pronunciation somewhere within the plot using dialogue (like [name_f]Hermione[/name_f]).
Hello JJ!! I think Katalia is quite straightforward in the pronunciation. Most people would pronounce it like Kuh-TALL-y-uh. Like at least 90% in my opinion.
I LOVE made-up names personally, it gives me a personal attachment to the story.
The book is realistic fiction, and she’s a teenager. I did intend it to sound like [name_f]Natalia[/name_f], but clarifying the pronunciation in the book is a good idea, I think I’ll do that. Thank you all for your help!
I agree that it depends on the genre. I think for realistic fiction, giving one or two of the characters extremely unusual or invented names is fine, but using too many would distract from the realism.
I think Katalia is nice and I don’t have any issues pronouncing it. If you feel that a unique name needs an explanation, then perhaps you could include that the character’s parents made it up by combining the names of their mothers, [name_f]Kathleen[/name_f] and [name_f]Natalia[/name_f], or something like that.
So in my book (an abandoned project) I had a character named [name_f]Avalyn[/name_f]. Most people would pronounce it like [name_f]Ava[/name_f] (Ay-vuh) lynn. But I wanted to pronounce it like Av-uh-lin. So I clarified it by showing hoe the teacher pronounced her name wrong and she introduced herself to her deskmate, clarfying the pronunciation. Could that help you?
I was just about to say, I think @EJpuddlejumper’s suggestion of showing the pronunciation to a character who couldn’t pronounce it would work pretty well.