Awkward moment when you realize you must change a character's name

Devil Ledbetter said:

Well, I appreciate you changing the name from Kate. MCs named Kate/Katie/Kaitlyn/Kat are bookwallers for me. Lovely name, done to death.

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I don't know why but MCs named Cat or Kat get on my nerves soooo much! And in Graceling the MC's boyfriend kept calling her 'Wildkat' and I was like ARRRRGHHHH!!!!

ccarver30 said:

I've done this too but usually with last names. Or the first and last name between characters start with the same letter. i.e. Dan Smith, Darla Sage, Dorkly Smegma

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LOL. Can I use Dorkly somewhere? j/k. It wouldn't help my "too many D's" problem.

I had the hero and heroine of one of my books named Gerard and Katherine. Then, after I'd finished the first draft (steamy historical romance) it dawned on me that my husband's cousin is named Gerard and his wife's name is Cathy. Jersey Guy's family's very close and I don't doubt someone would have noticed the similarity. So Katherine's name had to go.

I google names, too, before I settle to make sure they're not accidentally some famous person's name, especially if it sounds particularly cool.

However, I have one character I'm definitely going to have to change at some point. Complicated explanation in three...two...one...

I'd started out naming an MC's best friend "Jack Johnson." Okay, so there's a singer named that, but I didn't know that at the time. The name was perfect for him, but I ended up deciding to name one of the other characters Jack, so obviously that name had to go. So I switched it to Mark. Problem is, Mark is very similar to another name in the book and that name is cooler, so Mark's going to go. I just haven't figured out what to yet. Probably Ben. Anyway, for now he just stays "Mark" and if the books ever look like they'll get published I'll change it to something else.

I have a book I wrote ages ago that I've always figured I'd go back and rewrite one day (the premise is cool, the execution beyond sucks), and I'm going to have to change at least two character names in that one. By sheer coincidence about four of them ended up being the same as characters in Lost.

I've got a Rickey Sanchez, and I was mildly concerned that it's too similar to the journalist Rick Sanchez, but I decided both names are uncommon enough and there's a variation so it should be okay.

Haha-- I just did a google search and discovered there is actually a person in the world with my MC's name, which is kind of trippy. Never even occured to me before!

Whoever mentioned they'd realized later they'd written a novel with their current husbands name-- haha, I'm always worried that will happen!! It also amuses me that it was Adam... one of my main characters' last name is Adams, and when I was just done it I briefly dated an Adam. Just something about the name, I guess!

The other year I picked up something I'd written like five years ago and discovered I'd used one of my characters' names before and totally forgotten about it, that was also weird.

Is any of this on-topic? Well, OP, if I were you I'd be very grouchy. My next work has a character named Adele and I'm less than pleased there's now a super popular singer named Adele, though I won't change it just because of that, seeing as how mine is set in 1919 and it was a much more common name then. (that's kind of on topic, right?).

Ok, so after I started reading this thread I also searched my MC's name and she's an actress. I don't care, I like the name, and if I didn't know who she was maybe few others will. Dammit! Probably gonna change it...

I have a Harper and I was totally annoyed at Beckham for naming his daughter that!

Why is it awkward? I've changed character names many times, and with a word-processor it's the simplest procedure imaginable.

caw

Except that one time I decided partway through to change a guy's name from Mike with "find/replace..."

That turned out to be a terrible idea.

kaitie said:

Except that one time I decided partway through to change a guy's name from Mike with "find/replace..."

That turned out to be a terrible idea.

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Peter entered the kitchen. His mother scowled at him.

"Michael Montgomery Davidson," she said. "Go to your room."

There are only so many names in the world, and all of them have been used by somebody, somewhere. There will always be somebody to point out that so-and-so has the same name. I don't worry about it. I let characters pick names that fit them, and if the story is good, the character real, the name will become as invisible as 'said'.

I once new a police officer with a very long, very complicated last name with lots of z's and c's and w's in it. I overheard him discussing it, and he said he'd never seen that name anywhere outside of his family. He spelled it for them, and that clicked for me. I had just read a book with a character who had that same last name. I had to bring it in to show him.

What irritates me is characters with very long names that are never shortened. Evangeline. Emmalique. Samantha. Dominique. I want to say it quick and move on. Gimme Kat, Sam, John, and Carl any day and let me enjoy the story. I've got a Katrina in a WIP, shortened to Kat, and I don't care how many other Kats are out there: My job is to make my Kat and her story so unique and interesting that readers will remember her for that- not vaguely recall a humdrum story that had a character with this really different name.

Now having too many characters with names that are similar- that bugs me. I do it. I do it and I don't catch that I do it until long after I've done it. Right now I have a WIP with two male characters; Dean and Dave. Can't change Dean because his full name is Dean Dean Dean. Says his momma named him that to save her time when she was pissed at him. Dave is the title of my story and I'm going to have to be really persuaded to change it. But he's dead- sort of- so it's not like he has a lot of dialog.

The female character has five dogs, and all of them have names that start with M. I did that on purpose because that's her personality, and they're different enough- I hope- not to cause too much confusion. They're dogs. Not a lot of dialog tags there, either. Meg, Molly, Max, Mose, and Marg. At least they're all different breeds, so I can refer to them by that.

But yes, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I do hate it when a bunch of characters have similar names. Even had an editor call me on it once, insist I change one of them. Guess I'm going to have to stop trolling the phone book for ideas.

What I'm curious to see now is, how many Baracks start to crop up in fiction.

Titus, Teak, Thorn, Thorpe, Trub, Thor - these are all character names I used for the SAME STORY.
Apparently, I think the letter 'T' is uber super duper freaking awesome!

blacbird said:

Why is it awkward? I've changed character names many times, and with a word-processor it's the simplest procedure imaginable.

caw

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For this reason alone, I will (ha!) never call another character Will.

The longest names I've got are . . .

Euhm . . .

"Nephthirna" "Allahnrah" "The Progenitor" "Lighthearter" "Silverwood" "Koromov" "Mitenov" "Whitehorse" "Corbonhavon" "Getherion" "Ishhrggen" "Silver Rivers"

Eh. Probably a few more, but I can't be bothered to remember them. Some good contractions might be in order for Nephthirna and maybe Silverwood. Silver Rivers, Whitehorse and Silverwood are titles though, and we have Wayne, Kevin and Andrew respectively for them as actual names.

I'm rather fond of a few European names. Kara, Nadia, Natasha, Kate. Ann/Anna is also really nice IMO.

There aren't many names I hate, except for things like "Billy" and "Joe-bob" and that's because my family is full of hillbillies that I hate being related to

But yeah. I've never really had to change a character's name - I usually make 'em up as I go. I DID find out that there was a character called Agente in a movie, but it was a guy whereas mine is a girl, and I'd never heard of that movie so meh. A Laiin is a barrack in some southeastern Asian language, but I figure that doesn't matter at all

-Lighthearter

But then you have people with names so original they're hard to pronounce.

Hi.

Meet Sir. Argarflarguleemannariyumahumalamplofagzitt.

Haha well, I included a pronunciation guide in the index to the manuscript.

-Lighthearter

I am not attached to the names I choose and don't mind changing them as necessary. It is an easy process in a Word document file.

Some characters have names that are mere bookmarks to me. My WIP has scads of names that will need to be changed at some point.

What is more difficult is if the character changes. That has happened to me in my WIP. I started out with Darby, who was one sort of kid and ended up with Max, who was an entirely different kind of kid with different problems that were somewhat the same (who might actually need a name change, but not a character change).

amschilling said:

But in my current WIP I did unintentionally have five characters whose names started with D.

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Haha, same exact thing happened to me. I had five supporting characters with D names. I didn't even realize I liked D names that much. It's been a giant pain changing them because no new name seems to suit the character as much as the old one.

Also had a Sambo in this wip, and my best friend pointed out Little Black Sambo, which I was entirely unaware of. It happens, I guess. I'll be the first to admit I'm a cultural moron. (Well, second or third on this thread. At least I'm in good company!)

dawinsor said:

I absolutely hate changing a character's name, though I've had to do it once or twice. Their name becomes fused with their identity really quickly and changing it is a wrench. Proper names are all like that really. The character or place or thing coalesces around the name somehow.

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This. This is why it's so hard.

In my wip, the MC is named Jericho Jones. It's not a name I'd ever heard before, but doing some quick googling, (this thread made me paranoid), there's a Jericho Jones baseball player, a couple different bands name Jericho Jones, some random guy on fb, a character from the old Daniel Boone t.v series named Jericho Jones, and god knows how many other instances. I'm wondering if since it's not unique to just one person (like the baseball player for instance), if I can still get away with it. I'm a little married to it now. It might help that my MC is a girl, too. What do you guys think?

Gah... stupid paranoia-with-reason inducing threads. Now my face is covered in sad. :{

I like the name Jericho Jones. If your character isn't in a band and he doesn't play pro ball, I don't see a problem. But you could always change one or two letters; Jericco Jones, Jaricho Jones, Jerrico Jones, Jericho James, etc.

blacbird said:

Why is it awkward? I've changed character names many times, and with a word-processor it's the simplest procedure imaginable.

caw

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Try changing "Rick" with find/replace and see how well your characters like living in a bMarcus house.

You gotta click the Match Case and Whole Words options before Replace All. It's one of life's lessons.

I change character names a lot at the start and then absolutely hate if I have to change one again once I've settled on it. I had a lot of trouble with my female MC. She had the wrong look, wrong age, wrong profession for her role in the story, but when I changed her personality and background, her name didn't suit her anymore. I had almost settled on Bridget Gates for the new name, when a friend pointed out that Nicholas Cage played Benjamin Franklin Gates (B. Gates) in "National Treasure" and his girlfriend's name was Abigail. My villain is named Abigail. And I can't stand "National Treasure." So I went with Bridget Donovan instead.

blacbird said:

Why is it awkward? I've changed character names many times, and with a word-processor it's the simplest procedure imaginable.

caw

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My situation was awkward, in that I thought I had an Arabic first and last name for one of my character's, when it turned out that they were Jewish names. D'oh! Back to Google.

I know a guy whose first and middle names are the Arabic and Hebrew versions of the same name. You might have been able to keep those names with just a little spelling tweak.

muravyets said:

I know a guy whose first and middle names are the Arabic and Hebrew versions of the same name. You might have been able to keep those names with just a little spelling tweak.

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I seriously considered it, then decided to change it to something where there is no mistaking that the character is Arabic.

Ha ya I had to change the name of my MC recently, turns out that Ezra has had quite a life (according to the bible) and it didn't work with the readers who were already familiar with him.

No big deal though, as it was only in the second chapter.