Do You Mind Unusual Names?

[nathanKmcwilliams]

@skicoak Zzzax would like a word or two with you

[joannekwan]

LOL that was one of the points of confusion for some of my readers. I had to keep replying to them in the comments that it's like 'bow tie'.

Beau's originally short for Beauregard. Darn French and their confusing spellings. Don't even ask me to spell hors d'oeuvres (thanks spell check).

[WillowTree]

My sixth grade english teacher had a good laugh when she wrote 'Hors d'oeuvres' on the board and told us to pronounce it... The whole class said 'Whore's do-er-vers.'

[DiegoPalacios]

I have no problem with unusual names or made up ones, as long as they are fitting and/or sound good.

However: If you name your character something like "Shabadaba Shabadoo" i will find it ridiculous....(this can be a deliberate move too for some comedic cases)

[skicoak]

@skicoak Zzzax would like a word or two with you

Lol! I think Zzzax is safe... Unless we're supposed to pronounce the ZZZ part differently than a bee buzzing past your ear! 🤣

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Then in that case...howabout this guy?

[joannekwan]

Cursed. Get rid of him.

[Phantomlight]

This sort of conversation should be brought to the attention of the scientists who name prescription drugs. Like...how am I ever going to pronounce that to anyone, including my doctors? And how the heck do I spell them on a form when they ask "what medications are you allergic to?" I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL THEM SO I AM GONNA GIVE IT MY BEST SHOT AND HOPE I DON'T ACCIDENTLY SPELL SOME OTHER DRUG.

[artamazon]

Usually I don't mind weird, silly or unusual names. The only time I stopped reading a book due to the names was while reading one of the Dragonriders of Pern books. They all had apostrophes in their names and I couldn't tell anyone apart and I just got frustrated and stopped reading, lol. If I can't say the name in my head or tell the characters apart then that's too much for me. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it was one or two characters, but it seemed like every character's name was like that. I could have also been too lazy to bother and am currently remembering it wrong, lol.

[Rhonder]

The only thing I believe is that they should suit the setting. Seeing a "normal American student named Takeshi Narukawa", or "typical Chinese girl named Sarah Lindenbaum" most likely will be cringey if there are no particular reason for them to be called like this.

This is basically what I came to say, having been a victim of this myself in my younger years Deviations can definitely happen with justification, but I think it mostly is to the author's benefit to like... match the naming convention to the setting? Of course if you're creating an original race on a different planet or something you can make that up, but especially for comics located in real places... basically the above.

My personal example was in middle school I made this isekai-style story that started with the group of characters in a very typical north american style high school... but I also thought anime was really cool at the time, so I had a very north american looking cast of main characters with names like Raguna Takichiro, Arisa Sakura, and Tala Yumizuko. Ahh, that nostalgic cringe

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Impossible. Only Mr. Mxyzpltk can get rid of himself.

[liamnaughton7]

I think like many things it depends on the tone of the work. If the tones light or even just a little unusual then you can get away with a lot more.
I'm also partial to never naming characters unless absolutely necessary so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

[cherrystark]

This sort of conversation should be brought to the attention of the scientists who name prescription drugs. Like...how am I ever going to pronounce that to anyone, including my doctors? And how the heck do I spell them on a form when they ask "what medications are you allergic to?" I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL THEM SO I AM GONNA GIVE IT MY BEST SHOT AND HOPE I DON'T ACCIDENTLY SPELL SOME OTHER DRUG.

Okay, speaking of medicine names... I still am not sure what brand is which when I want ibuprofen. But, with my asthma medication, I was taking albuterol for upteen years. Eventually, it wasn't helping anymore so I went to a new prescription. All I knew was the brand name since they were "different" turns out I'm just taking a stronger dousage of the same medicine I'd been taking. I had no idea.

[Iris-Grimoire]

That advice just sounds so american-centric (not even European considering the names you can have within just those countries). What matters the most is that, at least for your main characters, the name has to be memorable or can be shortened into something memorable. You can absoltely get away with, like, someone named Illanasagies Something Something because you can shorten it into Lana and it rolls off the tongue so well.(just pulled that name out of my head I hope it doesn't mean anything weird in another language)

A name that has meaning in a reader or just feels like it fits the character is what creates attachment. It's a lot of gut feeling to make them, but never stick with something just because it's safe, do it because it's the name that character would have.

[HGohwell]

That advice just sounds so american-centric (not even European considering the names you can have within just those countries).

Just to be super clear (I might have to go reword it) it was a generalized example. If you're writing for an American audience use "a good proper American name" like Jack and if you're writing for a Japanese audience you'd use "good proper Japanese name" like Hiro (wow all the anime I watch and that's the only name I can come up with right now). It's more use a "proper normal" name from whatever audience you're writing for because otherwise alienates your auidence.

[joannekwan]

For a fiction title, if one wants to pick a vanilla name (either first or last name), I think it would still have to be paired with a somewhat unusual name to stand out and be memorable, or have a good cadence to it.

Like:
Harry Potter
Jessica Jones
Percy Jackson
John McClane

are more memorable than
Harry Smith
Jessica Williams
Peter Jackson (not to mention there's already the famous director with that name so it would cause confusion)
John Simon

Like I always forget if the actor's name is Peter Evans or Evan Peters because both sound right. xD

[TAMAnnoying]

Oki look- listen- fellow creators

Imma be 100% real with you here as a reader

As someone with dyslexia, and who can’t rememeber names for shit-

all ya characters getting shitty joke nicknames (like “worst girl” or “the 70 year old man.” (Who’s actually only 50 but he acts 70)))

This will continue till they do something interesting or distinctly horrible and then they usually get cool joke names (like judus the one who’s totally gonna betray everyone- or female solid snake)

Then I will maybe learn there real names we’ll enough to write it while talking to people about it-

I don’t care what you name your characters Cuse TRUST me I’ll never actually remember Anyways.

[ar-ninetysix]

You know, that's actually somewhat easy to come up with a pronunciation for, assuming people haven't tried yet lol

"Mix-ease-peh-tilk"

You misspelled the guy's name btw rude

[carreonaiwille]

I am mostly neutral but I tend to like it when the names though rare seem beautiful. My real name is unusual in itself so an unusual name in fiction is no biggie.

Also, from a non-Western view, the same names can get boring. I see people get miffed by unusual names if its something like Xyltiel when people jam all the consonants into a name it is nearly unpronounceablel

[kmlangleyauthor]

I have such mixed feelings on this! Honestly, I’m cool with any kind of name as long as it makes sense in the story. My personal preference is for the main character cast of names to not sound or look too similar. That’s a major frustration of mine since I’m always in the middle of so many stories. I don’t want to open a new episode and get half way through before I realize that this episode is about Jessie - not Jazzie. I don’t care how perfect that one name was. Make your character names unique enough to each other for me to keep up with my 85 ongoing stories with ease
(Is this a personal problem? Yes, absolutely. Am I sticking to my argument? Also a yes )

I will totally look up any name pronunciation I’m not sure about. Granted, I also do this for random words, so that’s kind of my norm