Names You Hate in Stories

  • archivist

    archivist (660)

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    Whoops I sucked at Mibba way back when. ^^^
    I hate scene names in general, flowers, birds, and real words. However, I tend to use these very often. Wren and Beast were two of my favourite names.
    I also dislike Halloway/Galloway as a surname. 3:
    June 12th, 2014 at 09:00pm
  • nearly witches.

    nearly witches. (15250)

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    XXXataktoulaXXX:
    I don't have a problem with any name, because those name do exist. BUT I don't like it when there is a character from Russia and his last name is English or Greek.
    I agree with this a lot. I think that, especially with surnames, the author should search what the most common surnames for the area are. I've seen it done in print where the author has Scottish characters with names that are extraordinarily rare for the area. I mean, I know so many people with the surname Mackie / McKie that it gets confusing after a while, the same with McClelland, McLean and McDonald. I just don't understand why someone would use a name that isn't geographically correct, especially in the case of characters from countries where English isn't a first language.

    I mean, if the character is supposed to have English / Greek heritage, then I'd be okay with a surname of those origins rather than a Russian one, but most characters are written to be 100% their ethnicity and it just surprises me that people don't put more time and effort into making geographical surnames more authentic. There's nothing more off-putting in a story than a character with a geographically correct forename and a completely out-of-the-blue, unsuited surname.
    June 12th, 2014 at 09:09pm
  • Katie Mosing

    Katie Mosing (33815)

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    I have trouble reading stories with characters that have the names of people I'm close to, because I always end up picturing the person I know as that character and think the whole time "That makes no sense. She would never do that." Facepalm
    July 9th, 2014 at 01:16am
  • burning.

    burning. (100)

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    Katie Mosing:
    I have trouble reading stories with characters that have the names of people I'm close to, because I always end up picturing the person I know as that character and think the whole time "That makes no sense. She would never do that." Facepalm
    Guilty! I don't like reading stories with people I know or have known in the past, because generally I tended to dislike said person or would find it odd and start picturing said person in the fiction.
    July 17th, 2014 at 10:05am
  • Em_Bur35

    Em_Bur35 (100)

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    In my opinion, unless there is some important reason a person has a strange name in correlation to the times (more so for last names than first) such as Stephen Dedalus from "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man", then it shouldn't happen. I definitely believe in reasonable last names, but first names are a creative license that I believe writers are entitled to. When they are over the top with spelling a common name it can be distracting and annoying, but maybe there is a story behind it. Who knows.
    July 18th, 2014 at 04:52am
  • nearly witches.

    nearly witches. (15250)

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    I really hate it when people use names from a certain culture without actually looking into what they mean. For instance, on Quizilla I used to see a lot of Celtic-based names from languages such as Scottish Gaelic, and it used to piss me off to no end if it seemed like they were simply used to make the character 'quirky' or 'unique'. If I'm writing a character with a culturally significant name, I'll always look it up before I use it to find out what it means and if it's appropriate to use it.

    I don't see it as much on Mibba, luckily, but I honestly used to see some hilarious names. I once saw a character called Alba. That's not a person's name, that's Scotland in Gaelic. I just think if you're going to write anything with a base in a culture / country other than your own, you should look it up.
    March 23rd, 2016 at 04:08pm
  • mr. twin sister

    mr. twin sister (100)

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    I hate 'dark' or 'scene' names that are just over used and tacky.

    I can't stand when people use a cultured name for a character that has nothing to do with that culture or the author uses a name but doesn't make a connection between the character and the name used. I feel like the racial background of the character should coexist with the name versus have a white character and use a Gaelic, Italian, Scandinavian or Russian (ect.) name because it's 'cool'.
    May 4th, 2016 at 03:53am
  • This.Useless.Heart.

    This.Useless.Heart. (115)

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    The only time I can think of where I hate a name in a story is when the name doesn't fit the character, and by that I mean, it isn't realistic that they would have that name (unless it is a nickname and then it's whatever because nicknames can be self-imposed or given by others for any number of reasons.) Like when an older character has a name that either wasn't common or wasn't really a name at all when they were born, or when a character of a certain nationality doesn't have a name that fits that (and doesn't have a good reason not to have a fitting name.)
    Or when it is a name that their parents obviously wouldn't name their child. Like how on Glee, the show creators have said Kurt Hummel's middle name is Elizabeth, but that makes zero sense when one knows the character Burt Hummel; Burt would absolutely not have given his son a woman's name as a middle name. And that's the kind of stuff that makes me crazy. Names need to fit the characters and the characters who would have, in universe, named them to be realistic, and when they don't and aren't, it aggravates me.
    July 9th, 2017 at 10:15pm