Renaming your main character

[60Six]

Alright. I wanna decide this before I get any further in my comic, as I already start to roll into chapter 7.

Long story short, I've had my main character since middle school, and while I've changed TONS of things about him from his very first version, his name (that I came up with at the height of a Kingdom Hearts phase) has never changed.
I've been told more than once that the name "Rexerse" is dumb and even been told people didn't or almost didn't read the entire comic based on just his name alone (plus also half of my readers don't even know how to pronounce it).

Honestly, outside of the actual pages, I pretty much just always call him "Rex" now, because I'm just embarrassed by his name these days. It was a baby I wasn't willing to kill when I started working on this comic about 2 years ago, but I now am.
So here lies my question. 7 chapters into my comic...do you think it's too late to go and change my main character's name? Keep in mind...I have every single PSD of every single page, and going through and changing his name would probably only be an hour or two of work. It certainly wouldn't kill me and any new readers wouldn't even know.

What do you guys think? Do I wage on with an embarrassing middle school name that nobody knows how to pronounce, or do I go through the transition period of explaining to all my readers that his name is just canonly "Rex" now?

[joannekwan]

I always thought Rexerse was pronounced Rex-urse, like "universe"?

Anyway, I think changing it to Rex should be fine since that's what he's called for short anyway. It's not a drastic change.

[60Six]

Yep, that's how you say it. I never thought it was hard to pronounce but the countless number of times I've been asked about its pronunciation has proven otherwise.

Thanks for the opinion, especially as someone who is subscribed.

[MidZM]

When I first saw Rexerse's name the first thing that popped in my head was Rex-urse just like joan said.

The name Rexerse sounds like it's Japanese (Or omething like that) while the rest of the characters names kind of sound like they're American, while this isn't a bad thing it may throw some people off (Or they're just jerks who can't give a series a chance just because they think the main protagonists name is dumb -.-)

[J.Z.Castillo]

I thought his name was pronounced Re-xer-cee lmao! I think you can just have all characters slowly phase into calling him Rex and just be done with it if you really want to change it

[Michelle]

I, too, assumed it was "Rex-urse"!

In any case... if you no longer like the name, and it causes so much grief, then ultimately I think it'd be smart to change it now! It's not like you're renaming him to something totally different. Your current readers probably won't be thrown off, and new ones won't ever know the secret of his original name. :>

[TrustyShamrock]

yeah i kinda like the name rexerse. but rex is cool too. i dont think itd be a big deal to start callin him rex. like just have people start callin him that for short cuz i feel like people would do that if it was real life anyway

[WintreKitty]

I think changing it won't impact anyone too negatively. If you really find the current name cringe-worthy, I would actually recommend you change it. This is your project in the end, and if there is something that you don't think is right, you should always correct it to reflect your best work. This is a situation on par with creators going back and redrawing old pages that no longer represent their artistic style/talents.

Either way it's your decision, but I'm sure most (if not all) of your readers will support you with whatever choice you make.

Cheers,
Wintre

[UzukiCheverie]

oh man i have characters with names similar to KH characters too

checks character information doc Xixion, Ixion, Luxerus, Kronoa.... fuck my life lol

Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to change my main character's name (also inspired by a Tetsuya Nomura game, not KH tho) but if it's really bugging you that much on a personal level, then there's almost always a way around it. I personally like Rexerse, it's unique and honestly it doesn't scream KH to me as a first impression, but it's your character so it's your decision

[zetina]

I... don't have a good naming sense, I think... So I still like Rexerse's name. Mostly, I really like unique names - there isn't another Rexerse anywhere but there are a ton of Rex's. That's really my only, uh, thought.

[Kura]

I haven't changed a characters name AFTER I started making comic pages (lucky for me, because it would be a lot of work to go back and fix), but it's not uncommon when I'm still working on the script, especially if I picked up and decide to work with an idea I originally made as a kid. (And we all know how great we can be with names as kids)

[eleoza]

Personally I love his name. It's original. Rexerse had his name for so long now. Rexerse is Rexerse. You don't hear Rexerse anywhere else. People will instantly know who Rexerse is when talked about. I think it's weird if people instantly give up on a comic because they don't like that character's name.

I've been in a similar situation. I let readers on smackjeeves name my characters. Big mistake. Someone suggested 'Kurokawa' as a name so the other character could nickname him 'Trashy-kawa' I thought that was funny and went with it. Later on I heard that this nickname came straight out an anime. People have commented on it so much, and I explained the situation many times. So I too have been thinking of changing my characters name. Eventually I decided to just let it be because the name grew on me and I just didn't want to give him another name because I was used to the name he has.

I can imagine the name Rexerse grew on you as well, especially after such a long time. And personally I don't see what's embarrassing about his name at all! It's your decision though, but IF you change his name please do it because YOU yourself don't like it. Don't let the opinion of other people decide what you'll do.

[Devika]

Pronunciation is always going to be tricky with an international audience. People will pronounce any name differently depending on their native language. Example: Hermione. I'm pretty sure most people didn't know how to pronounce that until the films hit... The books were still a huge hit. So I say, don't worry about that. (I will always pronounce "Shnee" like the German word "Schnee". Sorry. xD Too deeply ingrained)

Names will also mean different things in other languages or evoke different associations. Take the band Kiss for example - straightforward enough what it means in English, but in Swedish "kiss" is "pee". I bet a lot of people thought it was dumb at some point. They made it big in Sweden anyway. So don't worry about people thinking it's "dumb" either.

Now if you don't like the name and just want to shorten it to Rex, I see absolutely no problem with it. I think most readers know his nickname anyway. Most of us want to get rid of MS/HS luggage at some point :'D But if the only reason you want to change it is because of some (honestly really rude) "readers" calling it dumb or threatening not to read your comic because if it... Screw them. I mean honestly, if one name is enough to deter them from reading the comic, even if you fixed it, you might have, idk, one mouse too many on the next page for them and they'll go "this comic has too many mice in it I'm not gonna read it". Who are these nitpickers to say what you should do with your comic?

My personal opinion is that you should keep the name - Rexerse is unique, it's marketable, it's something you can google and find the comic with. Honestly! Google images spits out your character in the top results for me, and that is a real asset. And idk about my taste in names, but I like Rexerse.

Speaking of associations... When I hear Rex all I think about is my uncle's hyper-active fox terrier. A cutie with wayyyyy too much energy. And separation anxiety. Geebus. Howled all over the lake last time we left him.

[J.Lovelace]

If you don't like it anymore and it causes a lot of trouble, I'd suggest you change it. If it can be replaced easily, then go for it. The change doesn't have to be drastic either, Rex is just fine I guess (well in my country it's a very popular dog name, we don't name people by Rex, so to me it sounds just like a guy with a dog name :'D)

[justinkrever]

For me what I do with my characters is to google similar people. For example the main character of my webcomic is a detective so I looked for famous female detectives . I found that the first female detective had a interesting likable name. Isabella Goodwin. So I would recommend looking for people who are related to the characters.

[60Six]

Thanks everyone for the input! It was especially nice to hear some opinions of people who are familiar with the character and have known him as Rexerse for a while now. I've been thinking about this all day and I think I've decided to compromise with keeping his name as Rexerse, but shortening it to Rex most of the time (kind of like how Alphonse from FMA goes by Al 90% of the series). Like @devika said, I really like the fact that if you google the name Rexerse, all you get is my comic. I think that's something I wanna hang on to. I've also acknowledged several times in the story that his name IS unusual, even in this comic's universe, so I think I'm gonna just tweak some dialogue to have him say something along the lines of "Just call me Rex" earlier in the story.
Thanks again everyone, I am glad I asked because I think I would have just went through with demolishing the name if I hadn't read some of the opinions on here. This is something I've been super on the fence about for a while so I'm happy to kind of have a solid decision now.

[Shanny8]

You could still keep his name as Rexerse- but folks just call him Rex for short.

At this point of being 7 chapters in, I think you'd get a pass on calling him Rex now.