Can I name my character a certain way, even if the name has already been taken?

[TheDoublekey]

Alright so, I just found out that a character of mine, that is yet to be revealed, has the same exact name as another existing character from DC. Now, my genuine question is: will I get in trouble if I keep the name as it is? I think it's perfectly fitting for my character, but I'm very much afraid something might happen.

I never read DC comics and I'm not a huge fan of superheroes, hence why I didn't know this other character already existed. If I had known, I would've probably avoided it and chose another name.

I'm very conflicted because I don't want to change their name and I don't know if I'll be able to come up with another one that can sound as good as the one I picked. Let me know your thoughts on this.

[BlairFujin]

Does the character act and look like that dc character - could they be mistaken for them? No - then your only worry would be a chance of someone mentioning that character in comments, that's all.

[CarltonIsaac]

Title character names (Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Iron-Man) are usually trademarked by their publishers.
And you should change your character’s name if it is the same as a trademarked character.

But if the name is an alt like Peter Parker, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark you can keep using it.

[thecrystalrook]

As long as the character isn't a trademark, and your character doesn't act/look like them.

[TheDoublekey]

My character has the same name as the titular character, but the only thing they have in common beside the name is their power. That's were the similarities between the two stop.

[TheDoublekey]

I've been looking in the Trademark search system and... I'm afraid I will have to change the name

[Lensing]

"Where there's no plaintiff, there's no judge"
But what if? And that´s the question you have to ask yourself,
you can name the character Mickey Mouse as long as they don´t sue you
but do you want to take that risk?
You can also name the character with the name of your neighbor and if
he will never find out it doesn´t matter. But what if he googles his name
finds your comic and sues you?
I´m not making this up, similiar stuff happened with comics, people
having the name as real people and creators getting letters from lawyers.

[TroyVSTheWorld]

Can you just put a "Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental." tag at the bottom and call it a day?

EDIT - me posting that then literally realizing it says absolutely nothing about fictional names already taken

[TheDoublekey]

Woah, yeah I definitely wouldn't want to get sued by anyone let alone my neighbors . Ok, jokes aside, I agree with what you said. It's a matter of: are you willing to risk it? I think I would rather play it safe and change the name but it also feels sad, since I've got accustomed to it.

[Lensing]

I learned my lessons over the years and I got really careful with names and the risk of getting letters from
lawyers and also people´s advice about legal matters and copyright

[NickRowler]

It depends on what the characters name is. I have a character named Mistique and there is an X-men character with a similar name. But that is also just a person’s name, Marvel can’t own a name. If my character was also blue with red hair, then there might be an issue.

If you have a character named Bumblebee, well there are several characters with that name. It’s an animal, you can’t copyright it. The issue arises when your Bumblebee looks like another person’s character.

[TheDoublekey]

Mmmh... well, my character's name is that of a natural phenomenon, so you have that. Only thing that kinda worries me is the fact that I found out they have one more thing in common while reading on wikipedia.

The designs, backstories, motivations and overall personalities are completely different.

Guess I'll keep the name for now along with other options just in case. They don't have other similarities besides the one I've already pointed out.

[NickRowler]

Well, you also don't want people to be distracted. If your character's name was Starfire, I would say yes, do change it. Like there is nothing stopping you from naming your character Elmo, Homer, or Rudolph, but readers might be a bit distracted because those are also names of iconic characters. I had a character I originally wanted to name Luna but MLP fans used to freak everytime they say someone with that name so I changed it (not so much an issue now but was an issue back when I started).

What is their name?

[Kelheor]

Name and the power? I think the question will be if you really want to name the character like that and not only because of legal reasons. Maybe change the name just a bit? So that readers won't say they strongly associate your character with that particular DC one (if it's a popular character). If it's a natural phenomenon you can... try another language, for example? (or something else that suits the character's background)

[TheDoublekey]

The character is called Firestorm and he's basically a fire elemental who will play a pretty important role in the story. After playing Injustice 2, I found out that this other character called Firestorm exists and I decided to read the wikipedia page for more info.

Apparently, it seems, this character became an elemental as well . So yeah, these are pretty much the coincidences.

[BlairFujin]

It is just a word for a big fire according to cambridge dictionary, plus apart from the dc character there is also an old film with this title, some multiplayer browser game, some book series and a... soundtrack on steam by "Lady Firestorm"? 'xD
I really think the worst that could happen to you is you may keep being asked if you were inspired by that dc character

[powerplantanimations]

As someone who's planning a superhero comic this has been difficult for me. I had to rename so many characters, but honestly I think it's for the best? It allows me to create some wacky and out there names.

Like a gun loving alien hunter is named "Chk-Chk".

And his dog is named "Tch-Tch". Because that's the sound I make when I want my dog to come to me.

Or names like an alien dictator being named Totalitarian Eclipse. I'm thinking about changing it because it doesn't quite roll of the tongue, but I may keep it because it's FUNNY. Also his nemesis is sun themed... so it thematically makes sense. The best part is that he was born before the word was even invented so it's just one big coincidence. People loved him too. Like can you imagine being human and hearing people say positive things about "Totalitarian Eclipse".

Yeah, I'm sure that guy's mentally stable.

[TheDoublekey]

Well in that case I would be perfectly ok . This is honestly a big relief. My only fear is that of possibly infringing copyright or trademarks and having to deal with legal stuff lol.

[TheDoublekey]

Yeah, the thing with superhero comics is that the genre is so saturated it's almost impossible to find a name that hasn't been used. As you said, though, it does allow for some creative thinking!

[BlairFujin]

I'll be brutally honest, do you really think your series can become big enough for dc to notice that you named one of the characters like theirs? xD I mean, even if they had a team that's just googling all of their characters' names how deep would they need to dig to get to your stuff? Let's not kid ourselves, we're all way too small of a fish for such big companies to give a damn about ;p