Names You Hate in Stories

@ Qhuinn

Some of the posts on this thread imply that if a person sees x, y, or z name, they'll refuse to read that story. There's a difference between a story containing a word that's constantly misspelled because that's obviously an error, people's names are not errors. In the real world, people do choose to name their children weird/uncommon/unusually spelled names, so I don't see why character names would be any different.

The tone of this thread really bothers me because it's basically just people complaining about names they don't like as if their character names are really all that better.

I don't see a problem with naming a character whatever the hell you want. As readers, if you don't like the name no one is forcing you to read it, but it seriously shouldn't be any reason NOT to read it. You could name your character "Chair" and I still would read it.

Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way.....

I don't see a reason to not read a story just because you don't like the name. I mean, it's one thing to be turned off by a character because of the REASON the author picked that name. I don't like snobby popular girls named Jessica or Katie or Brittany because I know the author picked those names out of spite. I don't like goths named Raven because it usually shows a lack of originality. I hated "Bella Swan" because I don't like an author waving in my face how super special their character is.

That said, I'm not going to NOT read those stories just because the name isn't something I would pick. Names don't turn me off. Authors picking them for the wrong reasons does.

laxpolilla:

That said, I'm not going to NOT read those stories just because the name isn't something I would pick. Names don't turn me off. Authors picking them for the wrong reasons does.

But how do you know for what reasons a writer chose to give a character a certain name, let alone whether they're doing it for the "wrong" reasons? That kind of thing is rarely explicitly stated in a story. I know I certainly don't go around explaining to everyone I meet why my name is Kandi, it just is, and I wouldn't expect anything different from a story. Parents name their children random things for no reason sometimes. I know I'm constantly getting people trying to correct my spelling when I write things for my best friend because her name is spelled "Autum" and not "Autumn." There's no reasoning behind why her mom didn't include the "n," that's just the way it is.

I give my characters whatever name pops up in my head whenever the character does because it's usually the whole package for me. If a character happens to come to me who's s a popular girl named Jessica, that doesn't mean I have some undying hatred for some girl (I never had any problems with the popular girls when I was in high school), it just means that's the character's name. If a character comes to my mind with a certain name, whether it be ridiculously common, uncommon, strange, or weirdly spelled, I'm not going to change the name just because other people have a problem with it because to me, the name is a part of who the character is.

@ i saw sparks
A book is not real life. Things are decided for a reason. If they weren't, there wouldn't be entire literature classes revolved around picking out symbolism and themes. Not everything needs to be explained to be understood. Good writers know and take advantage of that. You don't have to look far in the literary world to see characters who's names brings something out of their character: Albus Dumbledore, Bilbo Baggins, etc. Their names are not explained in the book, nor the author's reasoning behind it, but it is there.

Not every author does this, but it doesn't take a genius writer to pick names for a reason, even if you don't know you're doing it. You can easily tell from the author's writing style, the tone of the story, and the character in question what it is they think of that name and why they gave it to them. A writer naturally doesn't give what they consider a "likable" or "heroic" name to a villain, or vice versa.

I never said anything about alternative spellings. I have three characters with alternative spelling: Ayden, Dmitri, and Crevan. I picked them because they felt right and I can't imagine spelling them any other way. It doesn't bother me when other people do it either.

You're free to name your character whatever you want. No one ever said they expect you to change your character's name for your audience. These are just my personal opinions that affect my reading experience.

Blood Scar Ever Lyric Athena Midnight.

@ laxpolilla

Books are works of literature, literature is art, and art, for the most part, reflects real life. There's an obvious difference between putting thought into symbolism and themes and choosing a character's name. Not every character's name is supposed to represent who they are as a person because people are given names by their parents. If anything, a character should give meaning to their name and not vice versa.

I also disagree with your second point. An author could very well give a noble name to a villain because a human being is not born a hero or a villain, they're just born a blank slate and grow to define who they are. Magneto could just as easily be a superhero's name, but it's the development and actions of the character that give it a more sinister association.

I didn't say that you said anything about uncommon spellings, I was remarking about the tone of this entire thread. The only point of yours that I commented on was that I didn't understand how you could automatically know that a writer was naming their character a certain name for "the wrong reasons" without making your own assumptions. Unless a writer specifically states it in the story or elsewhere that they gave x character x name for x reason, you don't know why they chose to name their character that, so it's unfair to assume that they did it for the wrong reasons. For example, if someone chose to name their lead female character "Bella," it would be unfair to jump to conclusions and assume that they stole that name from Twilight when you don't necessarily know that at all.

@ i saw sparks
I didn't say I assume immediately from a name that I know where an author got it from. I said that from the overall story, you can often tell their attitude towards certain aspects of their story, including names. For instance, if there is a popular girl in a story named Jessica, and the main character spends a good chunk of time telling the reader how much of a bitch she is, and how awful and rude and stuck up, and there also happens to be a trend in that story that every bitchy popular girl has a popular name like Jessica, or Kaitlyn, or Stephanie, while the main character is described as an outcast who has a unique name like Jade, Raven, or Ebony, it can be pretty obvious through the writing itself that the name of Jessica was picked to make her seem MORE unlikable, because the author associates that name with a nasty popular person. Which is, from their point of view, perfectly reasonable. Your real world associations with people can affect whether you see a name positively or negatively because you associate it now with a positive or negative person.

Putting Twilight on the pedistal again, Stephanie Meyer is guilty of this. Bella's "friends" who she doesn't care about are named Jessica, Angela, and Mike. However, the main characters who are supposed to be super special all have older, stranger names, because someone named Alice or Rosalie is obviously going to be more important than somebody with a plain name like Jessica.

Going back to the real world: no, art does not always, or even often reflect the real world. Art often defies the real world and offers a more imaginative world. When it does reflect it, it is also capable of being clever. It is also presumptuous to assume something is random-even a name-and not worthy of being used to construct. Many real world societies think name meanings are very important. Bruce Lee's Chinese name was female because his father feared the family curse would kill him if it knew he was a boy. Certain African tribes will given their children ugly "not names" to confuse spirits and keep away disease. My own parents named me Lauren because it is a derivative of laurel, the tree of the gods, and they wanted me to have a strong name for a strong personality.

Names are used and interpreted like anything else in this world.

@ Qhuinn
My cousins name is Lyndsey, so I wouldn't use it, but I don't mind it.

@ i saw sparks
I agree.

@ The Real Mitt Romney
That's almost as bad as Raven Ebony Darkness Dementia Way

I hate it when authors use song "girls" such as Jasey Rae and Cara because it's like... Pick your own names. Too many people use those names.

I can't stand names that are pronounced like Emily, but spelled Emmahlee, you know what I mean? That's probably a terrible example.

I hate names that are just unrealistic or predictable. "Popular" bitchy girls are always named Jessica, Britney, Stephanie, and the special snowflake emo girl is always named Raven or something.

I've not seen it much on here, but on Quizilla I remember reading a story that featured a lot of Scottish and Irish characters. The main characters were American and had relatively normal names. Every Scot/Irish person had a hardcore Gaelic name with about two million unnecessary letters ("Kirsty" became "Choirstadh"). It happens here, but I've never met a single person with a name like that, and the closest is "Mhairi" which is quite common, and I know an Irish lass named Roisin, but WE HAVE "NORMAL" NAMES TOO.

I think the only names I don't like seeing in stories are names that I have negative associations with, like Ethan, Christian, and Reed, and even then, it doesn't bother me enough to not read the story. I'll just pretend that there's another name there The name "Jacob" also kills me because my former boss's name was Jacob and I could not stand him.

I'm also not big on the names "Candy," "Candi," "Kandy," "Candace," "Kandace," etc because I feel like they are too close to my own name

I don't hate an particular name but I can't stand it when characters get names that fit their role.

Like 'popular' girls get popular names like Jessica, Madison, Vanessa. Goth girls get goth names like Raven, Rowena, Ebony. Country boys get country names like John, Samuel, Calvin.

That just irks me.

I live in Maine and I've never met a country boy named Calvin, but names that bother me are, like someone else said, unoriginal names like Cara, Jasey Rae, or even just Jasey. I know someone with that name but her's is spelled much different. Stella might be seen as unoriginal. Any name that's mentioned in a song fangirls immediately jump to because they think the irony of it all is cute. I'd never not read a story because I don't like then name, because honestly a name couldn't define a story. Names can be changed. I don't tend to read "Goth" stories but I still see Raven widely overused. I'm not particularly bothered by the name Rain, as long as it's spelled like the actual word and not some deranged unattractive spelling. But hey, can I ask a serious question? What are named you LIKE to see in a story?

laxpolilla:

Putting Twilight on the pedistal again, Stephanie Meyer is guilty of this. Bella's "friends" who she doesn't care about are named Jessica, Angela, and Mike. However, the main characters who are supposed to be super special all have older, stranger names, because someone named Alice or Rosalie is obviously going to be more important than somebody with a plain name like Jessica.

Not to stir up old dirt but you also have to keep in mind that Alice, Rosalie, et co. are vampires and were originally born in different time periods. It makes sense that Bella's human friends born in a normal time (the late-late 80's, 1988 or 1989- maybe 1990) would have names we deem "average" because they were very popular then. But names like Jasper and Emmett and Rosalie had already reached their height of popularity and are now seen as "uncommon" because they're old people names that no one uses any more. I'm sure if you could look at census records of the 1900's, 1910's, 1920's, etc, (or in Jasper's case, the 1850's and 60's), their respective names would be very popular and considered "normal," "boring" names by other people, just like we consider Mike and Jessica to be today.

Just thought I would point that out. Meyer did a lot of things wrong but I think the names are something that she thought through and put some effort into. Especially when you get to the fourth book and see the names of all the vampires from all the different regions as well as the werewolves.

I don't think there are any particular names that bother me right away. I think it has to be a combination of things that really irk me to make the name also bad.

Like Raven - this seems to be a common complaint. I know a Raven who almost "fits" the stereotype, but I don't dislike her, so I don't mind the name quite as much.

But when a story opens with, Hi my name is Raven Dark'ness Way and I have ebony colored hair, with red streaks in it and I wear white foundation and a lot of black eyeshadow, then I'm not putting up with it. It's bad writing and a name that fits the stereotype, so NERGS. (Wow I'm articulate today.)

I feel like the name Raven is just so saturated in vampire stories or just typical miserable-girl-with-a-horrible-life-who-cuts-herself-in-awkward-graphic-scenes that I would love to see that name in a story that changed that perception.

The only thing that bothers me 100% with names is that apostrophe in the name somewhere. Dark'ness. First, her last name shouldn't be Darkness. Be creative. Second, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

I'm also beginning to hate female characters with traditionally male names, if only because I feel deceived when I get a good way into the story thinking it's a guy and realize that it's a girl

I'm usually okay with names in stories. Unless its something weird like BonBon or Cherry. I've never met a girl named Cherry. Or a person with a name after a food or beverage. But I usually like names with a slight difference in them. I get that most girls is stories and books have the names Rachel, Hannah or Danielle. But hey can't some popular mean girl be named Anna?