This topic was inspired by the name [name]Lorraine[/name] Damsel nn [name]Lori[/name].
I was browsing some fanfiction stories, and I stumbled across her. (She’s an OC as well)
Any poor name choices you’ve encountered in fictions stories?
My list so far:
[name]Lorraine[/name] Damsel
Shylan (teenage girl)
I’ll probably think of actual examples and come back, but a more vague character name pet peeve is when a set of siblings don’t sound right together. Usually the scenario is that the main character has a very overblown unique name and his/her siblings have very standard order names. I need to be able to buy that they were all named by the same parent/s!
I have a pet peeve for names that are really, really made up. I don’t mean like Anlyn I mean like—sci-fi names.
I especially hate names with duplicate letters, apostrophes, lots of y’s and h’s, and super long/hard to pronounce names (like Aarhiyah’mar).
Here’s a few real life characters that I can find at the moment, but I’ve read much worse.
Vorian
Glossu
Iakin
Pardot
Zaaf
C’tair
Shelob
Arveleg
Orodreth
I understand that people are creating an AU with it’s own language and such, so they feel the need to use completely unfamiliar names. But if your name is so weird that I can’t pronounce it, then I won’t remember it and will make your book hard to read!
Dank, the lead male. The book’s supposed to be good but I’ll never read it.
I hate when there are sisters in books and the names don’t go together at all. [name]One[/name] very fancy and one very plain.
Yeah, I’d look past a name I didn’t like as long as the sibset worked together. And it’s usually the fancy one on the main character and the plain name on the sister who doesn’t play much of a role.
Or when a name just doesn’t seem to fit for the time period, that annoys me as well.
A main character called [name]Ever[/name], a girl with a sister called [name]Riley[/name]. Makes you wonder who the favourite was. 
I actually know a little girl named [name]Ever[/name]. It’s a bit odd, but lovely on her. I honestly like it far better on a girl than [name]Riley[/name]! I know several boys with that name, so it’s all boy to me.
I couldn’t actually tell from your post which one you preferred!
[name]Arya[/name] - total misspelling of [name]Aria[/name] and there already exists the name [name]Arya[/name] pn Are-yuh. It’s annoying to see people using it and saying it like [name]Aria[/name].
I actually know a girl named [name]Arya[/name] who pronounces it Ar-yuh. I don’t think this is a misspelling. I think it is meant to be an alternate spelling of [name]Aria[/name]. But I don’t know…
[name]Arya[/name] is not a made up name, though. I know that much.
I really hate [name]Arya[/name], or even worse, [name]Aryanna[/name]…I know that it isn’t what the parents/writer intended, but all I see when look at it is [name]Aryan[/name], as in the [name]Aryan[/name] race and Hitler. It just seems like a really poor choice of spelling to me.
I was reading a halfway decent book with a perfectly fine main character, except the author decided to name her [name]Teagan[/name]. She was definitely not a [name]Teagan[/name], and it bothered me every time I saw it.
I know it’s not made up, but the author claims he did and then goes and pronounces it wrong saying it’s like [name]Aria[/name]. I hate the fake [name]Arya[/name], but don’t have a problem with the proper [name]Arya[/name], if that makes sense?
Oops, sorry lol. I meant [name]Ever[/name] just seems very unusual when compared to [name]Riley[/name] on a girl, if that makes sense, which just kinda implies [name]Ever[/name] was the author’s favourite because she got the beautiful, whimsical name whereas [name]Riley[/name] got the normal, down to earth name. Basically if I met a girl called [name]Ever[/name] I would not think her sister was called [name]Riley[/name]. It just seems the most unbalanced sibset possible. [name]Ashton[/name] and [name]Riley[/name], or [name]Ever[/name] and Remedy, something like that feels more likely.
Until I read the book, I had that issue where it always looked like [name]Aryan[/name] as well. But it’s not too bad now. I pronounce [name]Arya[/name] as AAHR-ee-ah or Are-yah, whereas I pronounce [name]Aryan[/name] as air-ee-un.
I’m curious, what do you think of [name]Echo[/name] and [name]Aurelia[/name]? Rachana and [name]Lilith[/name]?
He claims he made it up? Lol. I’ve gone off [name]Martin[/name] since the disorganised mess he made of books four and five and the silly note he leaves between the two.
I was flipping through a historical romance novel at the library yesterday and the female main character was named [name]Ashely[/name]. They didn’t give an exact date on the novels back flap, but I felt it was safe to assume that it took place between 1870 and 1925. It didn’t seem historically accurate at all!
I remember reading a book, where the main character was a male name [name]Cecil[/name]. It just felt weird, even though I know historically [name]Cecil[/name] was commonly used for a male. The story took place in modern times, so that could explain it. Also he had a a best friend named [name]Isaac[/name] who had a sister named [name]Isabel[/name], and I thought those names where too similar for siblings!
I once came across a fantasy book whose main protagonist was named Axis. While the story itself sounded like quite a good read, I just couldn’t force myself to buy it - bad character names are a major turn-off for me. If I don’t like them, the other factors that usually influence my decision whether to buy a book or not (such as the synopsis, the cover, and the overall impression) really have to stand out in order to outweigh the names. Can anyone relate to this or is it just me who’s weird?
On the other hand, I managed to buy a copy of the first volume of [name]Lorna[/name] [name]Freeman[/name]'s Borderlands trilogy, whose protagonist is a soldier named Rabbit. Go figure.
What really irks me is that a lot of times, the author will make the main character’s name a really beautiful, whimsical name while giving all the other character’s name like [name]Sarah[/name] or something else totally normal.
It also annoys me when the main character’s name is really cool and such but the meaning is the complete opposite of them or the name doesn’t really fit with the character’s personality.