This mostly relates to any writers out there, but I wanted other opinions as well. I’m a writer, and a fickle one, so I have A LOT of characters with all different names. I generally pick names I like, or the names grow on me to the point where I [name]DO[/name] love them. I’m currently 18, not pregnant or planning to become so in the near future, but my frequency on name sites has got me thinking.
Would it be weird to give my children the same names as characters in my head? O_o
So far I’ve stayed away from my top names, but there’s a few I’ve used that I’ve really come to like ([name]Helena[/name], [name]Todd[/name], [name]Oliver[/name], [name]Artemis[/name]…), and I don’t know how weird it would be if I ended up with one of their stories published and then named my child the same thing…
It depends. If your character is a bad character, be it a childhood bully, a killer, a dictator, a abusive spouse, etc. that is off limits.
If your character is a murder victim ([name]Mary[/name] [name]Shelley[/name]), then don’t use it. People find that weird. If your character is the hero’s mother, who makes a few cameos that might work. A character who is very minor (and good!) is ok. A major character who is a hero/heroine is challenging. At what point is it an expectation name? [name]Will[/name] your child feel pressure to measure up? Or live it down? People like [name]Christopher[/name] [name]Robin[/name], [name]Alice[/name] Liddell, and [name]Peter[/name] who inspired [name]Peter[/name] [name]Pan[/name] all had trouble living down those images.
Then there is the question of published vs. nonpublished. If you never publish the stories you write about [name]Rachel[/name] [name]Riley[/name], a female detective and protagonist, then it is ok to use [name]Rachel[/name]. I still would avoid using [name]Lester[/name] [name]Linden[/name], the killer in the first [name]Rachel[/name] [name]Riley[/name] mystery.
I am an aspiring author, so I think about these questions a lot. I think it is up to you. Good Luck!
haha yeah I deliberately pick names I dislike for those sorts of characters, but I have a tendency to even like those names. I don’t really consider negative actions or personality traits when I’m classifying ‘good’ characters and ‘bad’ ones. If the character has depth and dimension to me I like them, especially since I don’t believe anyone is 100% bad, so bad characters with dimension are sympathetic. I’m an overthinker…
I’m a writer, but I’ve honestly never thought about this because I can’t imagine using a character’s name on a child.
As far as “Could you?” It depends…names floating around as ideas in your head that never make it onto paper or don’t really go anywhere, those seem like fair game. You’d eliminate a lot of names for no real reason otherwise. Characters from completed works, names I’ve actually spent a lot of time with, I could never separate the name enough to use it on a child. It would just feel wrong for me personally.
Yeah, I did that with one of my recent characters unintentionally. I named her [name]Helena[/name] for it’s meaning, a name I’d never been particularly fond of, but then as she developed and I really came to love her character I also came to love her name. So if I used it, which at this point I’d [name]LOVE[/name] TO ([name]Helena[/name] is just such a nice, soft, elegant, beautiful name), I’d literally be naming my daughter after a figment of my imagination.
Which probably wouldn’t speak too well for my perception of reality…
I won’t name characters any of my favourite names because then I wouldn’t be able to use them on any kids I had. That would just be weird. Especially if my books end up published.
I have thought the same thing! I usually tend to use names that I would most likely not choose for a future child, but as I continue to write I grow to love the names not old as the characters themselves, but as potential usable names. If any of my novels were to be published and I honestly do love the names (regardless of if they have already been used to name a character) I would use it. But, aas, there is a small part of me that will always think of that name as a character (well, a real person that I’ve created) and that I would hope that everytime I look at my child or say or write their name I would not automantically think of my character, ut rather my son or daughter.
Sorry if all of this was more of my personal opinion than anything else. [name]Hope[/name] it helped out though!
I named my dog after one of my characters, but I don’t think I could name a child after one of my characters. Those names are already taken in my head; the character came first, so the name would always belong to them and not my child. I wouldn’t be able to separate the two.
I guess I’ll be the odd one out and say yes, I would. In the end it would be your child and not your character you associate the name with. Not to mention I’ve already used nearly every name I like somewhere, as I’ve written every day since I was 12.
I’ll be the other odd one and say yes depending on how deep your love for the name is. My first boy will be named [name]Damien[/name]. I used it in a book before I ever thought to use it in real life. I wrote a book, 300 hand written pages, when I was 13. I wrote 2 more that went in the same series. Recently, I’ve been rewriting them. It was the character in the book that made me love the name. I didn’t like it before I used it and for the last 10 years I’ve grown to love it. He’s a character with redemption. I’ve used [name]Griffin[/name] in the same book and it’s on my middle name list.
Now, the novel I’m currently undergoing the publication process on, I’m not going to use any name from it on a child. I love all the names in it and they’re all underused, mostly ancient names, but I don’t love any of them enough to use on a child.
Like the other yes person said, you’ll think of your child first and if you never publish, it won’t matter anyway. But if you do, who cares?
I probably wouldn’t do it. Well, I guess it depends. If the character was in an unpublished story, then I wouldn’t see an issue with it. If it’s something that I’ve published, no. I wouldn’t want my child to feel like an extension of my professional life, and I wouldn’t want to connect my child to my character or vice versa. It would just feel weird to me.
I have no children and don’t know when (or if) I will. But just in case, I’ve always kept one or two of my favorite names on the “possible children only” list. I’ve hung onto [name]Elliot[/name] since I was 12. I can hang onto it a while longer.
In my current book (which has had partials and a full MS requests by agents, so there is a good publication over the next few years), there is an antagonist named [name]Evander[/name], one of my favorite names. But for me, once the right name pops up for a character, I can’t change it. But he is one of the best characters I have ever written, and so there is a very good chance I may use [name]Evander[/name] as a middle name.
I have been known, though, to use names I don’t like for characters, so I have an excuse for future DH to not use the name. “Oh, [name]Madison[/name]? It was the last name of this guy who was a villain in one of my first novels… Definitely can’t ever use it, especially on a girl…”
Anyways, character names often stick and I cannot get them out of my head. Sometimes, it’ll take me hours of searching to find it, but when I do, it feels super weird to change it- regardless of whether it is a fav or NMS. Sadly, since I’ve been writing for over six years and started a bazillion different things, most names remain untainted. But for any projects that have managed to survive the perilous infant chapters, most names are a middle, at best.
I have used both [name]Elowen[/name] and [name]Clara[/name] for characters, and they are definitely still top contenders for my next child if it is a girl.
