Wdyt?

If you were to pick up a newly published book in a bookstore and discovered that the MC’s first name was Dagny, what would you think? I’m 90% certain I want to use this name for my MC, but what do you guys think of it? Set in modern times, the genre is fantasy. Thoughts?

  1. I’d be surprised that [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] wasn’t a boy, especially next to fluffy, feminine [name_f]Layla[/name_f] (I get the day and night thing, but I think there’re better ways of doing it)

  2. I’d roll my eyes at the fact that she was a twin and would put the book down.

I agree with renrose–[name_f]Layla[/name_f] and [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] don’t go well together. Plus, there’s the children’s book series with villains named [name_f]Hedy[/name_f] and [name_f]Dagmar[/name_f], so…

The day and night thing actually just kind of happened, I wasn’t planning on their definitions to do that, and why would you roll your eyes at the fact that she has a twin? I don’t understand.

Since the 2 names don’t really fit together I’d wonder if the author was trying to make one seem boyish than the other right off the bat. Since her twin would have a feminine name, I’d find it kind of odd if that wern’t the case because, while I prefer [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] on a girl, it feels very boyish, and I have a hard time picturing it on a girly girl.

As for her having a twin, it wouldn’t make me ‘roll my eyes’ or ‘put the book back down’.

On a side note, I don’t think [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] [name_m]Warren[/name_m] sounds the best though.

As soon as I saw the MC’s name was [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] I instantly thought the book was either sci-fi or fantasy. [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] does seem believable in a modern fantasy book, but [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] [name_m]Warren[/name_m] doesn’t sound right to me. And to make it worse her sister, twin sister nonetheless, is named [name_f]Layla[/name_f]. What made you choose those names as a twin set? They don’t go together in the least bit.

@lilauburn13, you’re right about the last name not being right. There are several surnames I’ve been tossing around but none of them seem to be right. I’ll just keep looking

@theb4ndit, the story is fantasy. (Actually I’m not sure if it brushes sci-fi also…).

I’m with everyone else. I actually really like [name_u]Dagny[/name_u], but I don’t think [name_f]Layla[/name_f] makes a very good name for her twin. They aren’t even slightly cohesive. [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] [name_m]Warren[/name_m] sounds ok to me. Not everyone has a first name that flows perfectly with their last name so it’s fine.

I’d also be really curious to know why you picked them.

In the event you maybe want something else:
Other Norse names:

[name_f]Elin[/name_f] – torch
[name_f]Ester[/name_f] – star
[name_f]Helene[/name_f] – torch
Vendla – wanderer
[name_f]Sonja[/name_f] – wisdom
[name_f]Sigrid[/name_f] – beautiful victory
[name_f]Astrid[/name_f] – divine beauty

Other night names:

[name_f]Amaya[/name_f] – night rain
Hoato – moon on the third night of the month
Ilta – born at night
[name_u]Samar[/name_u] – night talk
Vasvi – divine night
Yalda – longest night of the year

After thinking it over for a few minutes [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] [name_m]Warren[/name_m] does sound okay. But I think you should change [name_f]Layla[/name_f]'s name to match [name_u]Dagny[/name_u]'s in some way. I like dantea’s suggestion of [name_f]Sigrid[/name_f] since it’s kind of like [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] but still different.

Because twins are extremely cliche. I mean, even if you look on these threads on the Writers Forum it seems like half the characters have a twin.

@renrose, in the story, you don’t find out that she even has a sister until the veeery end.

When I see the name [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] my first thought it [name_m]Atlas[/name_m] Shrugged, and I’d spend the entire time reading the book looking for objectivist/political themes. So… yeah. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though you’ve edited your original post from what I’ve gathered reading the comments, [name_f]Layla[/name_f] and [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] don’t really work together as a twinset. [name_f]Layla[/name_f] makes me thing frilly girly girly girly, and [name_u]Dagny[/name_u] is cold and tough (because [name_m]Atlas[/name_m] Shrugged, in my case). It works if they’re different people entirely, but then who would use both those names?

For the side issue of cliche twins, I agree, but then so are sisters. And brothers. And parents, and children, and aunts and uncles and grandparents… I’ve never found a family situation that wasn’t nearly identical to another book’s. When it comes to general situations, everything is cliche. It’s the way you go about it and how well it ties in with your plot. A twin for the sake of twin is kind of like ‘Uh, K’ but if you have a solid reason and purpose for twin then do it. I know nothing about your plot so I’m going to assume that you’ve thought it through enough for it to be lightly irrelevant to this discussion.