Rank A Classroom of Elementary-Aged Kids' Names From Favorite To Least Favorite

Writers' Corner
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All of these children are in the 5th grade and aged between 10 to 11 years of age and are taught by a young woman named Ms. [name_m]Gale[/name_m] Springborn. Also, this school is located in a fictional town in rural Arkansas in early 2020. I’ll include a brief sentence summarizing each character just to give you a vibe for each one, although some are less developed than others, so some descriptions may be more vague and some more detailed.

The students, listed alphabetically from A-Z:
-Lorelei [name_m]Atkinson[/name_m]: athletic, quiet, sociable, tomboyish and pretty. :soccer:
-Mingxia [name_m]Chen[/name_m]: shy, studious, and very sweet with only a few friends. :heart:
-Priya Chaudhary: shy, socially awkward, mannered and modest. :dove:
-Marco Gonzales Castellanos: soft-spoken, insecure, kind and approval-seeking.
-Rebecca “Becky” [name_m]Davidson[/name_m]: studious, sarcastic, impatient, bookworm, and perceptive. :books:
-Noah [name_m]Griffith[/name_m]: sweet-talking, self-absorbed, social butterfly and a ladies’ man. :1st_place_medal:
-Gus Higgins: lanky, awkward, cowardly, socially inept, one of three bullies. :nerd_face:
-Abigail “Abby” Kirkpatrick: kind, considerate, calm, collected and unreactionary. :evergreen_tree:
-Maximilian “Max” Keyserling: mathematically gifted, asocial, prudish, formal, referred to as “Keyserling” by most of his classmates. :heavy_division_sign:
-Skyla Mortenson: hyperactive, inattentive, rebellious, quick-witted, impulsive. :running_woman:
-Mandy McGuire: detail-orientated, pragmatic, reclusive, semi-stoic. :mag:
-Kahliyah Minton: very happy, socially inept, lonely, hyper fixates on insects. :bug:
-Beatrice [name_m]Miller[/name_m]: reclusive, bookworm, quiet, mild stutter, has neonatal diabetes and is a tad paranoid about her health. :honeybee:
-Sylvette [name_m]Nelson[/name_m]: elegantly dressed, annoyingly prim and proper, passive aggressively sweet. :innocent:
-Milton [name_m]Nelson[/name_m]: elegantly dressed, annoyingly prim and proper, reclusive, avid reader. :open_book:
-Jake [name_m]Patterson[/name_m]: laidback, reserved, unintentionally insensitive or rude.
-Maxwell “Max” Porterfield: unintelligent, country kid, enjoys a rough-and-tumble lifestyle, plays the guitar decently. :banjo:
-Leroy [name_m]Reynolds[/name_m]: athletic, easygoing, sociable, charismatic, physically strong. :softball:
-Dexter Redhorse: excitable, observant, passionate, opinionated, semi-self-righteous, persistent and pushy. :national_park:
-Jagger [name_m]Richardson[/name_m]: aggressive, unapproachable, conniving, violent, unpredictable, one of three bullies. :hocho:
-McKenzie [name_m]Sullivan[/name_m]: kind, mature, patient, responsible, easygoing, well-behaved and a bit of a teacher’s pet. :bar_chart:
-Willow [name_m]Templeton[/name_m]: socially awkward, very happy, excitable, impulsive, people-pleaser. :wilted_flower:
-Leilani [name_m]Wallace[/name_m]: laidback, quick-witted, creative, artistic, and thoughtful. :art:
-Butch [name_m]Westbrook[/name_m]: loud, aggressive, impulsive, strong, one of three bullies. :mechanical_arm:
-Emma [name_m]Williamson[/name_m]: docile, well-behaved, sociable, sugary sweet, conflict avoidant. :white_flower:
-Kenichi “Ken” Watanabe: apathetic, introverted, tech-savvy, lethargic, irritable. :computer:

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Like
[name_f]Sylvette[/name_f] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m]
[name_f]Willow[/name_f] [name_m]Templeton[/name_m]
[name_f]Leilani[/name_f] [name_m]Wallace[/name_m]
[name_f]Skyla[/name_f] Mortensen
McKenzie [name_m]Sullivan[/name_m]
Kahliyah Minton
[name_m]Jake[/name_m] [name_m]Patterson[/name_m]
[name_f]Leilani[/name_f] [name_m]Wallace[/name_m]
[name_m]Maxwell[/name_m] Porterfield
[name_m]Noah[/name_m] [name_m]Griffith[/name_m]
[name_m]Maximilian[/name_m] “Max” Keyserling
[name_m]Gus[/name_m] Higgins
[name_f]Lorelei[/name_f] [name_m]Atkinson[/name_m]
[name_f]Rebecca[/name_f] “Becky” [name_m]Davidson[/name_m]
[name_m]Marco[/name_m] Gonzales Castellanos
[name_f]Beatrice[/name_f] [name_m]Miller[/name_m]
[name_m]Leroy[/name_m] [name_m]Reynolds[/name_m]

Neutral
[name_m]Dexter[/name_m] Redhorse
[name_m]Milton[/name_m] [name_m]Nelson[/name_m]
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] [name_m]Williamson[/name_m]
[name_f]Abigail[/name_f] Kirkpatrick
[name_m]Jagger[/name_m] [name_m]Richardson[/name_m]
[name_m]Mandy[/name_m] [name_m]Maguire[/name_m]

Dislike
[name_m]Butch[/name_m] [name_m]Westbrook[/name_m] (I think you can get away with [name_m]Jagger[/name_m] as the name of one of the bullies, but not if you also have a [name_m]Butch[/name_m]. It’s too (punch) on the nose!)
[name_m]Kenichi[/name_m] Watanabe
Mingxia [name_m]Chen[/name_m]
[name_f]Priya[/name_f] Chaudhary
(For Kinichi, Mingxia & [name_f]Priya[/name_f], I love their names, but not the ethnicities they suggest paired with some of the stereotypical traits of people from the associated cultures.)

2 Likes
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Thanks for the feedback. :+1: I agree with some of the points made.

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I think overall it’s a realistic distribution of names - I’ve not lived in [name_f]America[/name_f] myself, but it seems like what you’d expect from the location, time period, and ages of the characters, so I think you’ve done a nice job with that! I like the inclusion of some more unexpected names too, like [name_f]Sylvette[/name_f] (probably my favourite!), [name_m]Leroy[/name_m], and [name_m]Dexter[/name_m], while also having many more “everyday” names, it feels natural.

Other than that, I agree with everything EdgeOfTheMeadow said! [name_m]Gus[/name_m] is fine, but [name_m]Jagger[/name_m] & [name_m]Butch[/name_m] feel a little overly stereotypical as bully names, especially [name_m]Butch[/name_m]. And it rubs me the wrong way that the only 3 kids with non-European surnames all embody the stereotypes associated with their surname’s nationality. It’s something that would make me not want to engage with a story, if I knew about it.

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Understood! Thanks for the feedback. I’ve been trying to work on the individual personalities of each character in congruency to how well they bounce off each other and also take into account their cultural background, how much they’ve absorbed North American culture due to long-term exposure, and just their own natural personalities. It’s kind of a lot to think about sometimes. For instance, I intend Dexter and Ken to become close friends because I enjoy the thought of the dynamic of a lively, emotion-based spirit matched with a closed-off, logic-based and introverted personality and how they can work off and learn from each other. Unfortunately, it seems I’ve given off a vibe that wasn’t intentional, so I’ll really need to work on that in the story.