Reusing names

I don't think there's any problems with it at all. If it's not part of the same series I don't think you'll confuse anybody by running up against the One Steve Limit.

Agreeing with D.E. Wyatt, that if they're not part of the series, and not going to appear in the same story, it's no big deal.
Also, if they share a common name, even more likely that people will accept it smoothly. There is a fondness in my family for naming people variations of 'John' and 'Patrick', (which is probably why no-one has attempted a family history.)
Try writing a book set in an Italian or Spanish area with only one girl named Maria.

People may wonder if all your books are going to have a character named Sisygambis, though.

Interesting comments, all. I agree that Kat's situation isn't an issue, but curious that so many others take it to a farther degree. It's something I would avoid myself. We all do it differently, I guess.

Maybe I missed something- but couldn’t they have different surnames?

Editor hat on.

You can reuse names in different series, but avoid the same first and last names or readers will wonder WTF, did they miss a title?

I have favorite names, all writers do, it is not a biggie. However, my series often cross pollinate, so if I have a George in one book, he doesn't interact with the George in another book.

What any editor will advise--if they're on the ball--is avoid names starting with the same letters and rhyming names. So no Tod, Tad or Tom, no Tad and Shad or Shawn and Dawn. It may be cute for twins in real life, but readers will have trouble keeping them sorted. This includes names for characters of different genders.

I had trouble with two characters names Evelyn and Emily and though quite different and never appearing in the same scenes, I kept mixing them up. I changed one to Annabelle and ended the confusion.

If they're in completely different settings (not a series, no connection at all between the books, not set in the same world), I wouldn't worry about it. I've accidentally done this, too. I didn't know that about Agatha Christie. Huh. I guess I would worry if you did it again and again, readers would start to wonder if they were supposed to be picking up on a connection?

Personally I think as they're different genders and with different spellings, you should be okay . I've read a lot of Stephen King and he reuses names all the time (probably because he's got about a thousand characters, but whatever xD)

Gillhoughly said:

What any editor will advise--if they're on the ball--is avoid names starting with the same letters and rhyming names. So no Tod, Tad or Tom, no Tad and Shad or Shawn and Dawn. It may be cute for twins in real life, but readers will have trouble keeping them sorted. This includes names for characters of different genders.

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This happened to me. The editor noted that a lot of my characters' names started with J: Jimmy, Jerry, Jenny (Jerry and Jenny were twins), and I think there was a Joe in there too as a minor character. I kept Jerry and Jenny, but changed Jimmy to Frank, which I didn't like, but the editor raved at what a great name Frank was for that character: "so full of connotations." (Uh, sure, yeah, that's exactly why I chose it. I'm a literary genius. I guess.)

Side note: I saw Tom Perrotta speak at a book fair some years ago, and someone in the audience asked him if there was special significance to naming the MC of his latest book Tom, and if it was weird having a main character with the same first name. Perrotta kinda hemmed and hawed, as it apparently hadn't occurred to him there was anything strange about it. "He's just a Tom in my eyes," Perrotta said.

Chris P said:

Perrotta kinda hemmed and hawed, as it apparently hadn't occurred to him there was anything strange about it. "He's just a Tom in my eyes," Perrotta said.

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I can relate. I gave a bad guy the same name as one of one of my friend's pen names (she is very well known under that one) and just never made the connection. Fortunately she thought it was hilarious.

She dealt with a Walter and a William (arch enemies!) in a book. Drove her editor nuts until Walter became Adam.

Our theory is the writer is unconsciously linking same letter names together because the characters just aren't that well developed so offshoots happen. That was true for me.

Trick I learned: divide a paper into 26 squares, put each letter of the alphabet into one square. When you get a character name set, the main name they will go by through the story, write it in that square, that letter is done.

This is harder to do in vast epics, but it can keep things under control in other books.

Gillhoughly said:

What any editor will advise--if they're on the ball--is avoid names starting with the same letters and rhyming names.

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To paraphrase George RR Martin, this is impossible advice if you've got more than 26 characters in a book.
But then again he also reuses names all the time. Hell, look at all the people named Jon and Bran. There's even multiple Neds running around. Though I personally think this sort of thing is forgivable in Fantasy in particular--people in the Middle Ages didn't exactly have access to babynames.com, after all, but other genres might not be able to get away with it so easily.

I suddenly want to write a book where EVERYONE is named some variation of "John" just to screw with readers and editors.

D. E. Wyatt said:

I suddenly want to write a book where EVERYONE is named some variation of "John" just to screw with readers and editors.

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'John: A Tale of Small Town Life'
John, Jack, Ian, Sean, Evan, Ewan, Ivan. Jean, Giovanni, Jan, Juan.

Not to mention the nicknames: Lil' Johnny, Big Bad John, Jackie, Father John or the Reverend Sean. Jacko, Don Juan, Old Jack, Young Ian. Biker John.
Not to forget, some of these would work well as last names. Evan, Ewen, Johnson, St. John, etc.

And, if you need more characters - give'em straight up nicknames, disguising the fact that their names are John. Tubby, Frenchie, Flash, Chalky.

For the women:Jan, Joan, Joanna, Jane, Jean. Etc.

D. E. Wyatt said:

I suddenly want to write a book where EVERYONE is named some variation of "John" just to screw with readers and editors.

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There's a recent short story called "The David Party," by David Leavitt, where the host and everyone at the party is named David. This is of course the point, but also makes for some fun craziness during the dialog.

I’ve actually used the same name (a surname) in stand-alone novels within the same genre as a deliberate gimmick. I use the name once per story for an off-screen character who wouldn’t even rate a name in ordinary circumstances. Whether future readers will ever notice the gimmick isn’t anything that ties me into knots, I just put it in there as a form of personal amusement. If we aren’t writing our stories for our own satisfaction, then whose?

FWIW, most of those stories are incomplete at this stage, but I have earmarked the reference as a Do Not Forget note to myself.

frimble3 said:

'John: A Tale of Small Town Life'
John, Jack, Ian, Sean, Evan, Ewan, Ivan. Jean, Giovanni, Jan, Juan.

Not to mention the nicknames: Lil' Johnny, Big Bad John, Jackie, Father John or the Reverend Sean. Jacko, Don Juan, Old Jack, Young Ian. Biker John.
Not to forget, some of these would work well as last names. Evan, Ewen, Johnson, St. John, etc.

And, if you need more characters - give'em straight up nicknames, disguising the fact that their names are John. Tubby, Frenchie, Flash, Chalky.

For the women:Jan, Joan, Joanna, Jane, Jean. Etc.

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LOL that's some list!

anybody watch Ed, Edd and Eddy?

I'm in the midst of writing a series (currently working through the 1st draft of the third book).

In the first book I introduced a tertiary character, a soldier named Earl that showed up in several scenes - he was just sort of there in the background. In the second book, Earl was the main character. I want the books in this series to stand alone as much as possible (although there is some carry over), but I do plant seeds in the earlier books that grow into something later. Knowing the background of Earl isn't that important, and he is introduced in the second book as any other MC would be - however if the reader is familiar with the first book, my hope is that they will have a richer experience in the second.

In several of my novels would appear a Marina, an Emilia, an Andrea or an Alexandru/ Alessandro (depending on the setting). They are my favourite names. In most cases, Andrea is Marina's or Emilia's brother and Alexandru a lost/ unrequited love (not a main character). They are differentiated between books by their family names, though. Emilia Roșu is not Emilia Mavrodin. Marina was once Marina Kateriniotissa, once Marina da Colomba and once Marina, a playful nickname Emilia Mavrodin got in certain circles.

In the Lives in turmoil (Vieți în vâltoare) series, there are also several characters (in two or three generations) named the same, because the older one had been the godparents of the younger ones. They are also differentiated by family names. Luigi Pasqualigo is Luigi Accorsi's godson. Celia Pasqualigo is Celia Gagnon's goddaughter. I think it is also normal, because this is how names get circulated, from godparents to godchildren.

D. E. Wyatt said:

I suddenly want to write a book where EVERYONE is named some variation of "John" just to screw with readers and editors.

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I actually did it in a short story. The two main characters were named Yanni and Ion, the Greek and Romanian versions of this name, and they were best friends. They died together, in the same battle.

I will definitely avoid using the same name within the same work or series (or shared universe). But I have no problem repeating names from short story to short story. Even with main characters, you can usually get away with it if the character has a name like John or Anne.

I will name one instance of an author sharing names that really annoyed me. Both girls were named Kim. On the surface, this shouldn't bug me, as one girl was a main character and the other had one scene. But they were both Korean adoptees to wealthy families and they were both only children. And yes, they were very clearly different people that were met at different times. It just seemed lazy on the part of the author.

If the setting is one where the multiple unconnected people might normally have the same names because those names are common in the setting, there's no problem doing it as long as you make sure there's no confusion within the same work. (If you're writing in Norman England where the women are all named Joan or Maud and the men are all William and Robert, that's a real challenge!) In any real-world setting before 1970, and in many communities even today, there's going to be a set of popular names that come up again and again in the population, and if you're writing different stories with the same broad setting, even if the stories are not connected, it's only natural the popular names keep coming up attached to different characters. Worth noting, what counts as a popular name may vary greatly from one community to another even in the same years.

Using the same name for multiple characters in the same work can be a way to make some kind of point about the characters, to add humor, to create deliberate confusion *for characters in the story*, or simply to enhance local color (if one of the characters is prominent and others are just in the background). But if it's not done carefully you end up with reader confusion, which is always bad, or creating an impression, as Spy_on_the_inside notes, that the author has done something lazy, not clever.

Repeating unusual or invented names is more problematic because (1) they're unusual and (2) they stick out more. If there's not an organic reason why they're being repeated, probably better not to. If a name that calls attention to itself shows up in multiple unconnected works, readers are going to attempt to draw a connection based on the name's reappearance. Fine if that's what you want. Avoidable if you don't.

Unless you are very passionate about the name, I would come up with different ones.