Do you google your characters' names?

Novelist in Paradise · Dec 29, 2007

In years past, I wrote some stories in which one character googles another character's name to find out more about him or her. So I, as author, had to do the same.

Lately, I've been googling all my characters' names. The stuff that pops up can be interesting. Doesn't replace character building of course but a few times what I've read on the first two or three pages of hits (that's all I really need, I don't actually open up documents or websites) makes my mind go ping! with a new twist or insight into the character.

Do any of you also do this? Maybe for legal or other reasons as well?

Scrawler · Dec 29, 2007

Yes I do it. One character of mine is an attorney and I went so far as to check with the CA Bar (there are 3 real attorneys with my character's name, a name I randomly chose). The freaky thing is, the real attorney and my character are eerily similar. Now I wonder what the real one looks like.

Good thing there's "This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental."

Polenth · Dec 29, 2007

I check names to make sure they're not celebrities or famous book characters. Or worse. My final year project for university was a kid's game. It turned out my first choice for name was a sex toy. I decided to pick a new name.

Honey Nut Loop · Dec 29, 2007

When your character is called Three, no .

SpeckyBrunette · Dec 29, 2007

I do, mainly out of curiosity.

I also search for them on Facebook too - and have been surprised at how many there actually have been with the same names. It just seems weird, that's all, when it's your character. But unless you have a character called Aphrodite Rose Cadwallader-Skye the Third or something just as odd, it's likely that most characters will be sharing their names with real people.

A while back, after putting a chapter or two of my first attempt at a novel on a critique site, one of the reviewers told me that my character's name was 'famous' and that she just couldn't stop thinking of it and asked whether I did it on purpose. It annoyed her, but I had no clue - the character's name was Sarah Winchester and being from the UK, I had never heard about the weird Winchester house until I was told. I'd just thought up the name one day with no real reason behind it.

I kept the character's name, but now I check thoroughly beforehand as if a character shares the same name as someone else who might be (or have been) known for a specific reason, some readers might think it is deliberate, and that the character's fate may be similar to that of their 'namesake.' Something like that, anyway!

Chris Grey · Dec 29, 2007

It's always interesting to google a name you made from scratch (and/or took from the Iliad) to find "baby names" pages on it...

Interestingly enough, my character has found himself a life in fan fiction. Even cities were named after him. And flowers. And a river.

As if I wasn't procrastinating enough already, this is really fascinating stuff.

TrickyFiction · Dec 29, 2007

I did it just now, just since you brought it up. Looks like I have a couple French Canadians. No one else seems to exist online, or at least, Google isn't talking.

megan_d · Dec 29, 2007

My MC's name is Shakespeare. Think I might already know what I'd find if I googled it...

HourglassMemory · Dec 29, 2007

I've been lucky enough to create names that have something unusual about them.
they're usually a normal name, but slightly modified.
My MC's name can actually be found in Bram Stoker's Dracula.....and the story has nothing to do with vampires at all. but I'm so attatched to the name and it fits very well in the character.
I've found other surnames but those just don't feel the same way.

imagoodgurl4 · Dec 29, 2007

"Aphrodite Rose Cadwallader-Skye the Third"

That's what my friends call me.

Gillhoughly · Dec 29, 2007

Googling character names should really be standard operating procedure if only to avoid a faux pas.

I did a crit of a neo's book that had a MC with the exact same name as an international best-selling author and suggested he change it. The writer flatly refused to see it as a problem, but I know danged well any other editor is going to tell him to do the same thing.

Oh, for Google when I was a kid.

Claudia Gray · Dec 29, 2007

I do check, just to make sure there aren't any famously creepy coincidences out there.

Ravenlocks · Dec 29, 2007

I've been googling new character and place names recently, although I haven't gone back and googled the ones I came up with earlier. Since I write fantasy I'm not likely to find any real people or places with the names I chose, but I figure it's good to make sure my invented names aren't already out there.

ishtar'sgate · Dec 29, 2007

No, I've never googled fictional character names. I write historicals so frequently google real people and that's pretty fascinating.
Linnea

badducky · Dec 29, 2007

I vanity google way more than I google for character names.

Just wait until you get the sheer, terrifying time-drain of vanity googling.

althrasher · Dec 29, 2007

I Google my fantasy place names, just to make sure no one has come up with them first.

Plus, then my characters get to Google these fictional names, which is fun too.

SpeckyBrunette · Dec 30, 2007

I did a crit of a neo's book that had a MC with the exact same name as an international best-selling author and suggested he change it. The writer flatly refused to see it as a problem, but I know danged well any other editor is going to tell him to do the same thing.

This happened with me once: as part of the crit site I was reading someone's (chick-lit) story and the main character was called Sophie Kinsella. Of course, SK is a huge chick-lit author and I told the writer this. She said she didn't know about it which is fine, but I told her it may cause her problems later on.

GeorgieB · Dec 30, 2007

Scrawler said:
Good thing there's "This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental."

Yeah, but the character name you chose is a lawyer's name. Not only that, you said there were three! with the same name. Good grief, that's really asking for trouble. :flag:

I don't Google the names I've chosen for my characters until they've formed a bit better than the outline suggests. I use simple names at the start, only to make typing easier and faster. When I do chose a name I use Google and a global search/replace.

For the NaNo, one of the names I chose was Prince Everard Percival Valentine of Umbrera...tough nut to type correctly. But NaNo is different...word count and all that.

Enzo · Dec 31, 2007

Never bothered to Google character names, but then I choose names I never heard before, without going for the too outlandish.

cethklein · Dec 31, 2007

No I have not Googled my characters. But after reading this topic, I might do it just out of curiosity.

Thomma Lyn · Dec 31, 2007

Enzo said:
Never bothered to Google character names, but then I choose names I never heard before, without going for the too outlandish.

I tend to choose unusual names, too, at least for my MCs. And I google their names just to see what's out there, but only their names, not the names of supporting characters.

badducky · Dec 31, 2007

I do actually name characters after my friends. Especially if they're going to get killed in some horrible way.

I always ask their permission before I publish it, though. And, I am always willing to change names.

HeronW · Dec 31, 2007

Taking badducky to the 10 Step Class for Vainity Googlers. :}

I rarely google names because I make so many up by reworking 'standard ones. Besides it's all fiction and disclaimers are wunnerful things!

Gray Rose · Dec 31, 2007

I googled just now. Nothing. Which is what I was aiming for.

Esopha · Dec 31, 2007

I googled it.

...apparently my MC is the wife of a drug tycoon.

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