Have you ever needed to change a name in a story due to media?

[YangKoete]

I've held this in for a while now, but...Because of Doki Doki Literature Club, I fear that I'm gonna need to change one of my character's names because of it.

Monica's a character of mine in a planned comic, but all in all, I don't want to have people compare that Monika to my Monica.

Does anyone else have that feeling? Worlds, settings, characters, artifacts, etc.

[Chita]

To be honest, I don’t think that this could be a problem, characters from famous shows or games may have the name of one of your characters but it’s impossible to choose a name that isn’t associated to an specific media, like in the real world normal people share names with celebrities and that’s ok. I personally that Monica it’s a great name and you don’t have to change it for just that, but do whatever feels right for you

[joannekwan]

I would only change it if it's a fairly unique name and the media was super popular and main stream.
Like if I had a character named Robert Baratheon, yeah I'll probably change it.

In my opinion, Monica/Monika is not unique enough and DDLitClub isn't main stream enough for most people to make a connection.
Like the first Monica I think about is from Friends, and then I think about the song Monika Tanzband from the band Anajo.

[LyliClovis]

Well, Monika is a common name, so I don't think there's a need to change it.
Plus, once time passes, the hype will slowly fade (a normal thing), and then most people won't associate your character to DDLC.

Also, if your character doesn't look similar to Monika from DDLC, then you'll be fine.

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

Don't change it because of that. And yeah, Monica's not uncommon. If you get comments like that, then block the people sending them

[trinkettrancemusic]

I was going to make blatant critique of Star Wars and Scientology but figured it would be much safer and more fun to create a whole new thought-universe/cult franchise within the world of my own story. And now it's spiralled out of control into an idea for an 11 volume series of its own...

[AmysGames]

Yeah, I think Monica is a generic enough name that you can get away with it without too much trouble.

I definitely know the feeling though. One of my characters used to be named "Falcon" and I got sick of Captain Falcon jokes pretty quick. I did eventually end up changing his name; not just for that, but because I thought the name was a bit silly anyway, haha.

[DiegoPalacios]

Embrace the memes!.

Now, seriously. If your character is different in appearance and behavior, it should not be a problem.

But if it concerns you that the name may break the inmersion to the story or this character needs to be taken completely seriously by the audience to work, then changing the name may be better.

Bill Cypher from gravity falls was nicknamed an "iluminati Dorito", but that only made people love him more.

It depends mostly of the tone of the story and the character itself if it is better to change the character name.

[Wumbl]

I've only had this issue once. It was about my character Cirrus. They were part of a cast of cloud-based characters, so naturally they were named after the cirrus summer cloud.
It turned out there was a popular webcomic with a character of the same name.
Someone commented on my stuff saying "Ooh, some of the names are also used in this other comic" and I just... didn't really care that much. I considered whether or not it was worth acting on, but I realised that it's just a name. Nobody is going to devalue my character because of it.

I've got really dumb character names in my main universe though, like Increase Decrease and Satan Rapist and Jammin' Jivin' Coolguy (a girl! don't judge!) so I think the fact that my work is full of its own memes makes it even more unique and charming. Hell, I've got a thing where the phrase "gobshite" appears all over my canon in various different languages but never english.

I think memes shouldn't be something to hold you down - I think they can also work in your favour! Play around with it!

Also, Monica is a normal enough name that sane people won't connect it automatically. I don't think it's that much to worry about. If it was a more specific name then maybe...

[NickRowler]

I had a character named Luna which I changed to Laluna due to me wanting to avoid Princess Luna from MLP references from readers. However I feel the fandom has seriously calmed down now, so I think Luna is safe again.

My guess is that is probably going to happen to the Doki Doki fandom. Once the hype dies down, people won't compare the name as much.

If your character's name was Elsa, then you are doomed.

[Rhombik]

If your character's name was Elsa, then you are doomed.

Good point. I would change the name of a character if there was a lot of hype around that name somewhere else.