Charactors with names starting with same letter

Marian Perera said:

I once read a novel where four of the five main characters were called Annie, Suzy, Carey and Patty.

I didn't confuse their names, but despite their characterization, they all blended into a curiously homogenous single entity in my mind, and the similarity in their names was largely responsible for this.

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This. This thread made me think of a book I read a few years back where all the male characters had names like Hank, Joe, Matt, Jeff... all short, common names and I couldn't keep them straight to save my life. I think it's more about what someone said earlier in the thread, it's about the length and shape of the names, not so much the beginning letter.

"Hank, this is Joe, Matt, Jeff, Mike and Xrolorboxinor III, Eater of Souls. I hope you all get on."

I find similar names blend together, but it's probably due to syllable count as well as opening letter. I think "Tom" and "Terrance" would be quite easy to tell apart, but "Tom" and "Tim" would kind of blur, unless they're very distinct characters.

I have two characters named after the same person. There is no getting around them being similar. Hopefully the characters are unique enough and the variations of the name that I use will be enough for the reader.

Family members are often called by each other's names. I call my son by my daughter's name whenever he acts up in a way that she is known for. Their names are nothing alike. It's behavior that matters.

My mother will run through a string of names until she gets to the one she means. She's been this way since I was a kid. It has nothing to do with the names, gender, age and physical appearance also don't matter.

I've tried to avoid too many names starting with the same letter in the past, but then I tried to retell Greek mythology. Greeks were excessively fond of the letter A. Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis - and that's just the gods. Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon, and Andromache were famous mortals. Zeus and Poseidon were a relief, because there's also Hera, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hades, and Hestia. And it's not as though you can rename them. I'm counting heavily on that they already have distinct personalities, and are unlikely to be confused with each other. And I didn't use all of them, but it was impossible not to repeat letters.

Of all the challenges that come from writing in a different historical period, this one was the most unexpected.

Go read the Goblin Emperor: Csoru, Csevet, Chavar, Chenelo, Cora, Cala...

And the "C" names are actually shorter and simpler than many of the others. It's a good book, but it is danged hard to keep all the names straight.

Do you confuse Tom and Ted in Real Life[sup]TM[/sup]?? Of course not. You don't even confuse Tom the baker and Tom the dentist whom you barely know, not to mention Ted your uncle and Ted your son. If you do confuse them, it's because you have no reason to care which is which.

I think weak characterization is probably the origin of the 'rule', thus:

It is confusing when the characters are not sufficiently individual.

It is not at all confusing when the characters cannot be mistaken for one another.

When I muddle two characters together in my head, generally they have completely unlike names, proving that similar names is not the cause at all.

Debbie V said:

My mother will run through a string of names until she gets to the one she means. She's been this way since I was a kid. It has nothing to do with the names, gender, age and physical appearance also don't mater.

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Geez yes. Grandma syndrome, where you have to sort through the whole list of grandkids before you get to the one you want. And if there are one or two or a dozen Toms and Elizabeths makes no difference. I do the same with dogs (fortunately, they usually know who I'm talking to, same as the grandkids do).

I once had three RL acquiantances, all associated with the same place and time in my life, named Tom, Tim, and Jim. While I could tell them apart without trouble, I constantly mixed up their names.

While it's certainly possible for readers to differentiate between Tom and Tim, why would an author want to make them? Especially considering the infinite number of names and name-variations at our disposal? One doesn't necessarily have to change the first letter or even the root word. Thomas and Tim are much easier to tell apart at a glance, or Tom and Timothy.

I find it much harder to keep track of similar names when they're comprised of vowel/consonant combos that are unfamiliar to me, or especially if they're long and complex, and I read them without "hearing" them in my head.

If that makes sense.

For instance, in a fantasy novel, a name like Anikathklakati would just read as An with some letters in between, and ending with "i" to me. No idea how to pronounce it, therefore it's hard to remember and keep straight with similar names in the same story.

And actually, there are some real-life names I mix up when I first meet people. For instance, if someone's name is Celina and another person is Celia in the same class, there's an excellent chance I'll mix them up for a while.

And I've noticed that people often want to call me either "Lisa" or "Jessica" when they can't remember my name. Neither of these is my name, or particularly close to it, but maybe certain names get associated in peoples' brains some strange way. I have a friend named Todd, and he says people always mistakenly call him "Scott."

Weird.

I agree, though, that it's probably a good idea to pick distinctive names for support characters who appear infrequently, at least if it's important for readers to keep them straight. If there are two palace servants, for instance, and their names are Celia and Celenia, the pov character had better be mixing them up too. Heck, their own mother would probably mix those names up.

I have** three friends named Greg, Michael, and Brian, who don't really look very much alike and certainly don't act alike, yet for the longest time I mixed them up. I knew all three through the same venue, but my real excuse is that I can't remember people in Real Life anyway; it takes years to set their identities in my head. I do much better with characters in books, regardless of how they're named.

** Well, had, since two are no longer with us.

scifi_boy2002 said:

I have three mcs that have first names that begin with the same letter. I have Tom, Terrence and Todd. Now, Todd's full name is Todd "Spider" Wills and he is refered to as Spider most everywhere else in the book. But Tom and Terrence are used whenever their names are mentioned.

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Question: If Todd is usually called "Spider" then when is he called "Todd?" At my job and with friends and family, people know me by my nickname, not the name on my birth certificate. So why would Todd be called both Todd and Spider in your novel?

Shunter said:

Then again, I read a book where half the random 'walk-on walk-off' characters were called Jean-something or other. Jean-Claire, Jean-Paul, Jean-Etriffe. It was part of the world-building and it was quite interesting for that, added to the atmosphere.

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I really do not like when very minor characters have names. Giving a character a name makes me think that person is important to the story in some way. If it's just the waiter you only see once, or the dentist's receptionist that only appears once, or someone else that is very incidental to the story line, don't name him!

Cathy C said:

Harry, Hermione, Hagrid, Hedwig, Hogwarts...

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Yeah, but that's a boy, a girl, a (what exactly is Hagrid, anyway? just a big guy?), an owl, a place ... So it's not the first letter, but the identifiers to the name that make it easy to remember.

Roxxsmom said:

Later in the book, when things are finally happening where their different identities are actually important, I'm having to flip back and figure out who is who. A glossary of names would actually have been helpful.

... so I wonder if the lack is something in me. As far as I know, I'm not dyslexic or anything, but names have always been hard for me.

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I get names mixed up too, especially with a large number of characters. Even in series that I've read for years, I'll have to think back to how they're connected to each other. It's just a blank spot in my memory bank.

Some novels used to have a list of character names, but it's uncommon. I rather liked that feature. At times I've thought about writing my own list when I start a new novel. Maybe just an index card I can tuck into the pages.

greendragon said:

The problems I usually have, as a reader, stem from names that are unusual, and hard to pronounce. For instance, Laoghaire is a name in a novel I've read (Outlander). It's the name of a town in Ireland I've been to, so I know it's pronounced Leery, but most people won't know that. If there were another character in the novel named Lenihahon, for instance, I would confuse the two - unusual names, hard to pronounce, both start with L - they would conflate in my mind.

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Oh yeah! In my teens I was most taken with British novels, and there are a lot of names I pronounced incorrectly. This was way before the Internet made all things knowable. I mangled my way through a lot of stories. Some of those old English names, like Cholmondley, which is pronounced "Chumley" I think. Yep - just checked - there's even a YouTube video on how to pronounce it. (is there a YouTube video on everything?)

Blinkk said:

people call me by my siblings names all the time.

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My brother and husband have names that aren't really similar but are both one syllable and start with the G (like giraffe) sound. Separate, no problem. When we're all together, I'm always mixing them up.

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For the OP - I'm with the group that says make it easy on your reader, and don't use both Tom and Todd. Terence is fine - different look to the name and longer.

Reziac said:

I have** three friends named Greg, Michael, and Brian, who don't really look very much alike and certainly don't act alike, yet for the longest time I mixed them up. I knew all three through the same venue, but my real excuse is that I can't remember people in Real Life anyway; it takes years to set their identities in my head. I do much better with characters in books, regardless of how they're named.

** Well, had, since two are no longer with us.

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Probably because we actually see the names used more in a book. I know I have a better visual than auditory memory.

Plus, during interactions with real-life people, they hardly ever tell us their names (unless we ask them, and of course, it's very embarrassing to admit we don't remember, especially if we've been interacting with them for a bit). My students don't say, "Yvette asks, 'will chapter eight be on the test?'" when they address me.

I do dog agility, and while I know most of the dog's names (because people mention them when talking about their dogs, and of course, because they say their dogs' names while running the courses), the dogs simply don't return the favor. I was ring stewarding at a trial last weekend, and to my chagrin, I realized there were a few people I've "known" for years whose names I still don't know.

Roxxsmom said:

I do dog agility, and while I know most of the dog's names (because people mention them when talking about their dogs, and of course, because they say their dogs' names while running the courses), the dogs simply don't return the favor. I was ring stewarding at a trial last weekend, and to my chagrin, I realized there were a few people I've "known" for years whose names I still don't know.

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Priorities, man... I'm a pro dog trainer in Real Life[sup]TM[/sup]. I remember dogs I saw once 40 years ago. People I saw five minutes ago... who??

I think (and this is just my opinion) that if characters have the same first letter, but drastically different personalities there is no mistaking who is who. I read a story recently with two characters who had similar names but they were so different, I never got them mixed up.

I'm not sure it really matters if the reader mixes up names so long as they always know in their heads which character is which. Much as you might call the grandkid by another grandkid's name, but you still know which one you're talking to.

Frex, I have characters named Karza and Kezra (that's how these people do names; deal). I expect some readers will swap the names, but anyone who can't tell a funny and personable doctor from a psychopathic control freak is Not Paying Attention.

I have never understood this. Never have the names of two characters confused me, even when similar.

biggie321hp said:

I have never understood this. Never have the names of two characters confused me, even when similar.

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Lucky you. You may have a brain that's very good at processing that kind of information, because it's definitely an issue for some readers.

I think the problem in print media is that the name is the only thing one has to go on. As Reizac said, if I have two friends whose names I confuse, I still know who is who. And I often watch movies where I don't remember the names of support characters. Sometimes I don't even catch (or remember, at least) the name of the protagonist. But I know who's doing and saying things because I can see them and hear their voices (plus I usually recognize and know the name of the actor playing a character).

But if I can't keep Kerza and Kaza straight in a novel, then I may genuinely get confused about who is doing and saying what in a given scene, because the name is the only thing you have to go off. Unless the character voices are incredibly strong and distinctive.

Reziac said:

Frex, I have characters named Karza and Kezra (that's how these people do names; deal). I expect some readers will swap the names, but anyone who can't tell a funny and personable doctor from a psychopathic control freak is Not Paying Attention.

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It's not that we can't tell a friendly doctor from a controlling psychopath; it's that we might not remember which name goes with which.

I'm terrible at remember names, even in real life. I can also mix up people's names in real life as well, lol. Even when the people are different from each other and have different names, and I'm actually seeing them in person, I can still occasionally mess up.

Still, I think it depends on how well the characters are differentiated and how strong their characterization is. Also depends on how much similar the names are (ie. Jayla vs Jayna which is different than Kyle vs Katia).

When it comes to reading (or looking at subtitles in an anime), I try to remember a vague idea of what the name "looks" like, if that makes any sense. I try to visualize some parts of it. For example, if I vaguely know the name starts with a k, and but has a l in it but ends in e, if I see a name with those letters, then I'm guessing I have the right character (ex: Kyle vs Katia).

I had to use this technique whenever I watch anime or read manga, because Japanese names are difficult for me to process.

Roxxsmom said:

But if I can't keep Kerza and Kaza straight in a novel, then I may genuinely get confused about who is doing and saying what in a given scene, because the name is the only thing you have to go off. Unless the character voices are incredibly strong and distinctive.

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Like I said above. The problem isn't similar names; it's indistinct characters, whose only real identifying features are their names.

I'm tempted to formulate an Exercise where the hapless student must write about identical twins with near-same names and similar habits, yet make them so distinct that we never lose track of which one we're looking at.

I have noticed that in particular since the Era of UF Snark and Strong Women came upon us, there seem to be a great many interchangeable characters not even distinguishable by which book they're in, as if these authors borrow from the common pool rather than inventing their own.

BethS said:

It's not that we can't tell a friendly doctor from a controlling psychopath; it's that we might not remember which name goes with which.

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And outside of the scene presently and literally in front of your nose -- does it matter if you swap their names?