Ever Google your characters' names to find out how many people in the real world have them?

[Leyelle]

For "Rigamarole"

There appear to be quite a lot of people out there named Leia Taylor, which isn't surprising because it sounds like a very normal name. Riley Taylor is apparently the name of a musician. Eunice Taylor is also already taken lol

For "Damsel in the Red Dress."

There are a few folks named Alicia Palmero out there, a couple Clara Moons and a LOT of Shannon Carmichaels. At least one Juana King and Emelia Howard, and even a few Melissa Xochitls, but not one Kattar Moon.

So I guess I got one?

[2DLenzy]

I did google "Friar Chicken" to make sure it wasn't some big idea already put in use (it wasn't, yay!).
I just googled Alec Tryon. Amongst a bunch of Alectryons, I got one Alec Tryon who is an athlete in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. Neat.
I know there's no Aldi Zemay. (Zemay means corn, doubt anyone irl has that XD)

So far none of my characters have exact matches to full names.

I know two men irl that have the nickname "Bucky", my dad, and my uncle Brian. Didn't know of the second until later, actually. Pretty cool family resemblance.

[NickRowler]

I like to go to Forebears and look up names. It mostly tells you where in the world people with the name live.

Zombra is a name I made up (combines Zombie + Umbra). It is surprising that people do have the name. But when you think about it, almost anything can be a real name.

Except for my character named Shoo-Fly. There are Shoo and Fly but not really together.

[Nossumy]

When I created my character named Chippo (a little chick whose memories were gone, and he found himself in the treehouse surrounded by mist) google didn't show up anything with that name.

A few months later it showed a footballer "Youssef Chippo" and mini golf named Chippo.

Today I googled it again after I saw this post and I got:

• dog named Chippo from the Doraemon game
• Japanese manga with cat named Chippo
• picture book "Chippo the chicken"
• worst of all, a chicken dish named Chippo... this is where I drew a line in my book, that dish does not exist.

I know you only asked for people but I wanted to list all those >v<

I'm surprised that the footballer is named Chippo and Google didn't show him up before.

[Leyelle]

I did google "Friar Chicken"

well my story is the only thing that comes up as an exact match for "Damsel in the Red Dress." Rigamarole being a single word is probably going to have TONS of results.But most of my characters have very normal names that don't have secret meanings behind them, so it's unsurprising that Kattar is the only one without an exact match. His mother is eccentric, and all the things about the way he grew up, his name included, were unusual

[Nossumy]

I never heard of that site. Thanks for the recommend

[llobucervallince]

Henry Hare

[Leyelle]

wait, did you know the name was taken (I mean that there was a real person named it) when you made the story?

[KevinReijnders]

I wouldn't really call that name "taken", since it's just a guy's name.

[Leyelle]

I mean used already. my character's names are "taken" too. But you can't patent names as far as I know.

[llobucervallince]

weeeell even sooo... there are books of other Henry hares, but they usually have things like Henry Hare and the storm, or Henry Hare and the carrots...
but luckily, I should be able to play around because technically each title is Henry Hare by llobu cerval

at least that's what a lawyer friend said. I can always enlarge the official title if it comes to legal problem, since it'll be clear that it is mine.

At least the comic itself, now the character is kinda different. yeah sure his name is Henry Hare, but in actuallity, his full name is Henry Von Spots Hare the I (and his original not pun name is Zhang Ming). and using all his unique features, face spots, palette, and outfit, I can always claim as my own character.
edit: also I didn't know until months later, I actually had an aunt also discovering and asking the same thing.

[BoomerZ]

Baul isn't a normal name but Little Ball of Hate is a hockey players nickname. Didn't know that when I made the comic.

[skidiggy]

Constantly. I have this hold-up where I don't want anyone to impacted (positively or negatively) with anything I make, so I Google every name for usage. The same goes for non-human characters and locations. Why, you may ask?

I knew a Harry Potter in school. The poor kid had the worst high school life, mostly due to an unrelated wizard character who'd made the headlines around then. I felt so bad for him and the ceaseless teasing he received. I lost touch after graduation, but I hope Mr. Potter's doing okay for himself...

[Leyelle]

yikes. well I don't worry much about names like that, but that sounds awful. yet even if you're careful, there will be parents who go out of their way to name their kids after characters, which still causes trouble

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Some of them have names that are very common to uncommon.

I feel of common name as even safer, because lot of people would have that name. Unless my series was like Harry Potter level of popular, it would be just treated like a statistical occurence reflected in fiction. Some dude from fictional X in my series is named Y? No shit, in real life Y is a common name in X.

[allenT]

'Maor' is my English phonetic of my protagonist's name in chinese '毛兒' (Mao er), at that time i didn't know it means 'light / luminary' (& also a name) in Hebrew.

In google search, there's Maor Mo, Maor Levi in the first few entries.

[kyupol]

Wow she's an Instagram model

Claudia Márquez (@claudita.marquez) • Instagram photos and videos

And has another one has a tiktok
https://www.tiktok.com/@claudita011421

"Claudita " in google search... some of the results

[llobucervallince]

would you say Zhang Ming (张明) is a midly common name? or very unique?
from john Smith to Walter water how common would you say it is?
I'm also not sure if those would be apropiate kanjis for the name or not.

[allenT]

I think it's a very common name for Chinese people, but not so much when search the name in western medias.
The kanjis are correct, not to worry!

[SumireHime]

Nah. I choose common names on purpose. It's more effective for the slice of life genre, more believable. I do try to make sure that they don't have the same name of a celebrity alive or dead, though.