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Names of MCs in Erotica

Thread starter tedi.s
Start date Jul 27, 2011

tedi.s

Demigods, wolves, & Vamps... Oh my!

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Jul 27, 2011

#1

:welcome:

So I've been reading a lot of erotica (for research mind you :e2brows:

:e2brows:

) and noticed that names are all over the place. I come across some odd names-- the more different the better. And then there are always the old standbys. Some names I have seen are so off that it is distracting when reading, but I don't know if that is just me. :Shrug:

:Shrug:

So I am asking you, how do you decide what to name your MCs? :e2writer:

:e2writer:

What naming rules do you follow? Are the same as you followed for your kids (if you have any)? :e2BIC:

:e2BIC:

Or are there some sort of unwritten naming rules that apply to Erotica?

Guardian

just the worst honestly

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Jul 27, 2011

#2

I always name my erotica character Slutty McBigboobs. I like to think it hints at what the reader can expect.

tedi.s

Demigods, wolves, & Vamps... Oh my!

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Jul 27, 2011

#3

Guardian said:
I always name my erotica character Slutty McBigboobs. I like to think it hints at what the reader can expect.

Well that is succinct

Adam

Not dead.

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Jul 27, 2011

#4

Steve, Michelle, Craig, Ellen... I don't go fancy or anything. Just regular names.

ETA - When I'm working on my fantasy stuff, I push the boat out a little, but for my erotica I like to keep it simple. I'm sure if I thought about it hard enough I could find a fancy reason, but I'll go with 'because I like to keep it as realistic as I can'. What? It's late and I'm a lazy lazy man.

Last edited: Jul 27, 2011

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

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Jul 27, 2011

#5

tedi.s said:
So I've been reading a lot of erotica (for research mind you) and noticed that names are all over the place. I come across some odd names-- the more different the better. And then there are always the old standbys.

I don't name them any differently than I do for nonerotic fiction.

1. Make up a list of candidate names, mostly drawn from lists of baby names and the phone book.

2. Narrow it down to three or four, and then look them up in howmanyofme.com to see how many people (in the US) have the same name. I prefer names that are common enough that at least 20 people have that name.

3. I google the name to make sure I haven't chosen the name of a celebrity, or a person with the same occupation as my MC. It's surprising how often I choose the name of a real person who is spookily similar to my MC.

4. I'll make a final choice of a name, but once I start writing, I don't ever change the character's name. It would change my whole mental picture of the person.

tedi.s

Demigods, wolves, & Vamps... Oh my!

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Jul 27, 2011

#6

dangerousbill said:
I don't name them any differently than I do for nonerotic fiction.

1. Make up a list of candidate names, mostly drawn from lists of baby names and the phone book.

2. Narrow it down to three or four, and then look them up in howmanyofme.com to see how many people (in the US) have the same name. I prefer names that are common enough that at least 20 people have that name.

3. I google the name to make sure I haven't chosen the name of a celebrity, or a person with the same occupation as my MC. It's surprising how often I choose the name of a real person who is spookily similar to my MC.

4. I'll make a final choice of a name, but once I start writing, I don't ever change the character's name. It would change my whole mental picture of the person.

Thanks Bill! I like points 3 and 4. I never really considered Celebrities though or people with the same occupation. Since I was a teacher it is not often I have not had a student with that name

I so agree with point 4. A beta keeps telling me to change the names because she does not think they fit a gay man. I am like what kind of name would be "gay." They have the same names as straight people! Anyway, you can see why I don't listen to her. . . But anyway, I don't want to change the names since I like them. Well I like the one (Aiden) and I have a picture of him but I was asking, as the other MC, his name is just "eh" (William) and I am thinking the name is what is keeping him from really coming alive for me.
Thanks for the input!

BigWords

Geekzilla

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Jul 28, 2011

#7

It's more interesting when the name is slightly unusual, but not so unusual as to call too much attention to itself as "arty" - I don't want to read something which has me stopping to hit up Google for an explanation. That defeats the entire purpose.

scarletpeaches

Banned

Jul 28, 2011

#8

I have a list of names I like in my Moleskine. When I come up with a new idea I look through the list and see which grab me. Sometimes I play around with different forename/surname combinations, but when I hit on the right one, I always know. It's as if the characters tell me what their names are, rather than the other way round.

So far my MCs have been Piper and Leo; Lydia and Spencer; Reece, Georgia and Daniel; Mallory, Jonathan and Cian; Kit and Steven; Jess, Tyler and Sebastian.

VoireyLinger

Angel Wing Fetish

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Jul 28, 2011

#9

Unless I'm dealing with a fantasy creature, like my angels, I use basic, everyday names. Alice, Amy, Maggie, Sarah, Adam, Donovan, Eric, Thomas...

I don't really put a lot of time into the name. I focus on the character.

Maryn

I Tried

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Jul 28, 2011

#10

I select names well after the writing has begun. I start with the same few character names (Kevin, James, Patrick) which never appear as part of a longer word. That makes find-and-replace flawless when I get the right name.

I hugely prefer names which are

easily pronounceable on sight, including for those with no exposure to an ethnicity different from their own (no Margot, Aloysius, Said, or Shelagh),
gender-specific for minor characters the reader might not remember well (no Chris, Pat, Jess),
 consistent (Robert stays Robert, never becoming Bobby, Skeet, Sarge, or Constable Jones without explanation),
age-appropriate according to the time of the character's birth (Jason and Kimberly are younger than Vicky and Jim, who are younger than Lillian and George),
not overly lovely and elegant, since there are few people whose first and last names are both,
not the real names of any celebrity or any person similar to the character I've created,
not similar to another character name of the same sex (no Helen and Ellen),
don't carry a lot of ethnic baggage unless I intend it. Naming a character Moira O'Fallon, Dominic Felluca, or Aaron Baumgarten implies certain things about each which may not be true or realistic.

I'm not a fan of too-beautiful or dramatic names, or names which have meaning or imply traits. I tend to remix the names of people I've known to get results which seem real. I also mine the obituaries, movie credits, and the rosters of sports teams, orchestras, etc.

Maryn, whose name violates these rules

c.m.n.

Beary cute ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Jul 28, 2011

#11

I like normal names with a bit fancier depending on the story itself. I decide solely based on the story. If it's a fantasy story, it's a slightly odd/fantasy name. If it's modern, it's a fairly normal name.

In reading, I can go for either. But I think it would be weird to read a high fantasy story where the MC's name is Carl, Joe, or Bob etc lol

Ruth2

Tam, na Koncu Drevoreda

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Jul 28, 2011

#12

In my light fantasy fiction I've got Meg, Joe, Thomas, Oberon...

In my paranormal erotic thriller, there's Amélie and Philippe who are French, and Zoran who's Slovene. The names may be exotic to us but in their culture they're not.

Outside of Oberon I haven't used any Fae or other fantasy names.

In my dark erotic horror I haven't even named them yet. It's first person present and names haven't come up.

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

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Jul 28, 2011

#13

tedi.s said:
Thanks Bill! I like points 3 and 4. I never really considered Celebrities though or people with the same occupation. Since I was a teacher it is not often I have not had a student with that name
I so agree with point 4. A beta keeps telling me to change the names because she does not think they fit a gay man.

I always thought people were given names before they found out they were gay. Who knew?

The problem with changing names of characters in a partly finished novel is that it changes your attitude to them completely. They just seem like different people once you do that.

I learned my filtering trick when I had (what I considered to be) a close call. I named my dominant female character RoseAnn X. Only when the story was done did I do my ground truthing. It turned out there was only one RoseAnn X in the US Census. When I googled her, her social networking site rambled on endlessly about how sad she was without a boyfriend and when would her prince show up, and all that. Her self-image was really in the toilet.

Well, I could imagine one of her friends googling her name and finding a dirty book with her as the star. It would be almost inevitable. Even if there were no legal consequences, I didn't want to do that to what was clearly a fragile person. So now, my character is RoseAnn Perez, of which there are about 20 in the US. And none of them resemble my FMC.

Satori1977

Listening to the Voices In My Head

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Jul 28, 2011

#14

I have a similar method to SP. Years ago I started keeping a list of names I liked. I keep adding to it if I hear/see one I like. Also have a section of last names. Usually I just through the list until one pops. Occasionally I don't find a name on the list, and I search through baby sites. Sometimes I will google popular names from the year my MC was born and go from there. I had a Russian vamp once, and I looked up Russian names from his time period (16th century). I love the internet.

Satori1977

Listening to the Voices In My Head

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Jul 28, 2011

#15

dangerousbill said:
I always thought people were given names before they found out they were gay. Who knew?

LOL. Tedi, I do agree with Bill about changing names. Only do it if the name feels wrong to you. It can change the character, and even the tone, of the story. Don't listen to your Beta. The idea of a gay sounding name is ridiculous. And btw, I love the name Aiden. I have a character that name.

Bracken

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Jul 28, 2011

#16

Just be sure the names you pick are representative of the age your characters are, if you see what I mean.
Characters in their twenties are unlikely to be named Dorothy and Edith. Those are old lady names, names which were popular for baby girls in the 1930s and 40s, and they won't be believable names for a young woman (the movie "Thelma and Louise" fell victim to this; I can only assume it was intentional).

On the other hand, if you give characters in their 30s overly youthful names (names that are popular for baby girls today), you end up with a phenomenon I call "stripper names".
These are unlikely to ring true, either.

There are lists on the internet where you can see the top ten most popular names by year.
If your character is 30 years old, look up which baby names were the most common and popular in the late 1980s, and choose from that list.

Then again, there are certain classic names- Jane, Anne, Kate- which are timeless and could conceivably be the name of anyone between the ages of one and eighty.
Those are always safe to use.

tedi.s

Demigods, wolves, & Vamps... Oh my!

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Jul 28, 2011

#17

Thanks Everyone!

SP: Leo and Piper, like from the TV show Charmed

Maryn: all the info was really helpful. Thank you so much! No wonder you are a moderator. BTW, I have a good friend from college who is maned Maryn

Ruth: I never even considered writing the Characters without a name. I just couldn't do it! Kinda like I couldn't wait until my child was born to name it. As a little Manatee on the sonogram screen it received a name. Hmm, I might consider that.

DB: There is a porn star who shares the same name as my real name (not pen name). Yea, nothing like a high school student googling their teacher's name and finding ta-tas

Sat: If my daughter had been a boy, she would have been Aiden.

Tedi, whose name followed her from Freshman English lecture to now

scarletpeaches

Banned

Jul 28, 2011

#18

Nothing like. I've never watched Charmed and so many people think I stole the names from that show. I'd never even heard of the other Leo and Piper before LTC was published.

pandora

Watching the movie inside my head.

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Jul 28, 2011

#19

I start out with names that most of the characters outgrow once I get to know them better. I don't put an X for a character name or placeholder, but very few get to keep their original names.

Satori1977

Listening to the Voices In My Head

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Aug 1, 2011

#20

Huh, I used to watch Charmed, and never caught that the character names were the same when reading LTC. Yep, they are NOTHING alike.

Bartholomew

Comic guy

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Aug 4, 2011

#21

Richard Pierce Johnson.

/nod

HarryHoskins

Straw-fed

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Aug 4, 2011

#22

scarletpeaches said:
So far my MCs have been Piper and Leo; Lydia and Spencer; Reece, Georgia and Daniel; Mallory, Jonathan and Cian; Kit and Steven; Jess, Tyler and Sebastian.

Far too pedestrian!

Haven't you felt the urge to insert a Randy J. Horniman or a Muffy Silkensnatch into your pages?

Maryn

I Tried

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Aug 4, 2011

#23

Excuse me, but my real name just happens to be Muffy Silkensnatch!

Maryn, all harrumph

HarryHoskins

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Aug 4, 2011

#24

Maryn said:
Excuse me, but my real name just happens to be Muffy Silkensnatch!

Maryn, all harrumph

Time for the autobiography then, eh?

KathleenD

New kid, but no need to be gentle.

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Aug 4, 2011

#25

I can't use the names of people I know, unless the names are crazy generic.

I do try to keep the period/setting in mind - my steampunk, if I ever finish it, has a Frederick and a Caroline.

My time travel has Bill and Jenny because the characters are... in their mid-30s right now.

My vacation romance isn't supposed to be tied to any particular era besides "nowish" and I wanted it to age well. So I went with Sara and Marco (the Italian she meets on vacation).

You can see those are also easy on the eyes, and you don't have to think too hard about pronunciation.

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