Character names and titles are important in fiction (duh!)
Different genres have different naming trends and types, if not outright rules. A clever writer can exploit or twist those, while a tone-deaf writer can suffer for them. Of course, it helps to read massively and currently in your target genres.
I have a perennial problem with names. Many of my characters go through name changes during their story’s evolution (Tel from ‘Bloodshadow’ has had five different names). Or they’re called by different names by different people or groups (Moro from ‘Moro’s Price, poor lad.)
Some characters will stubbornly keep their names, no matter what plotty bribes I throw their way.
I’ve got two naming problems right now, with two separate projects.
My editor felt uncertain about a 52nd Century character calling himself ‘Bill’, with a given name of William (which he hates, hence the nickname). Realistically, linguistic drift and culture changes should result in very different name structures.
But this is a smutty M/M space opera, not literary fiction with scholarly linguistic projection.
The character has good reason to go by a jaunty, unassuming nickname. So I left him as ‘Bill’.
I gave him an Eastern European version of ‘William’ that links back to part of his family’s heritage. He still hates it, because it makes him look even more like a rich mobster. And, like the rest of the book, it offers an indirect political comment on RL current events.
My second name problem is an honorific, a job title, a threat, and an insult…applied to one of the founding characters in my secondary-world high-fantasy Lonhra Sequence books. I’ve had this (mostly background) immortal character in his/her/their current form for over three decades. (What happens when you worldbuild as a hobby.)
That character’s given name changes often due to marriage and politics, but their title is a bedrock of Lonhran history.
Imagine my reactions when I read today about a new YA author using almost that same title in her fantasy book! After the initial jolt passed, I examined my problem logically.
I doubt she ‘stole’ it, even though my version has been trade-published since early 2012. The title is a combination of two common English language words. It’s likely many people have used it.
Could I use the Lonhra language version: Tilurak? It means the same thing. I like both, but the longer English version is more familiar and approachable for me.
If an agent or editor brings up the coincidence, I’ll have to explain and justify my reasons.
Until then, that character title stays.
The lesson for other writers? Names can be a battleground. Be prepared to fight for, alter, or jettison them as needed.
Salient points here, subjective in nature as practically everything in writing. In my book many characters hail from modern-day Polish and Korean families. They have a given name in their native language, an Anglican version of same, and even a pet diminutive how their family and close friends refer to them. I’ve had to go out of my way to balance these so as not to confuse or confound my readers. Not an easy task, but their characters and their heritage is key to the plotline. So the names remain.
And those bell bottoms relegated to the backs of our closets even before Carter left office are now back in fashion again. Who is to say that by the time the 52nd Century rolls around again “Bill” won’t be a relatively common name once again? Although I don’t expect “Hiram”, “Rutherford” or “Ulysses” to come into vogue again as a popular given name. 😉