Villain renaming

Marian Perera · Mar 31, 2018

I'm getting a bit tired of the trope where the villain (in the latest romance I read, the heroine's evil soon-to-be-ex) calls the heroine by her full name rather than the nickname she prefers. I've seen this often enough that it's stopped being a Subtle Sign that this guy does not understand her.

That said, this was done well in Wide Sargasso Sea (not a romance), when Rochester starts calling his wife Antoinette by the name Bertha, but that was because of the Jane Eyre connection. Plus, it was just plain creepy, how he was erasing her identity.

Has this trope ever been reversed - the heroine calling the villain by a different name? Or would that make no real difference?

Elenitsa · Apr 1, 2018

This is not only for villains. In a family, various members might call one of them differently, without nefarious purposes. And in life, a person can have many names attached to them... Lovers find different, special names for each other too.

Zombolly · Apr 1, 2018

Using the wrong name is a common device in novels. Purposefully mispronouncing a name to antagonize another character. Pretending not to remember the name of a romantic rival.

Harry Potter calls Voldemort by his given name at the end of the series to show that Voldemort is mortal once again.

I think it works well if you do it right!

Hbooks · Apr 2, 2018

I see this trope a lot between Hero and heroine, too, where Hero prefers to call the heroine full name, when she prefers nickname. Often in controlling Hero type books.

Villain renaming

Marian Perera

starting over

Elenitsa

writing as Marina Costa

Zombolly

Hbooks