Name games.

[half_double]

Questions for y'all.

Let's say you have a writer friend (WHICH YOU DO). And let's also say you have a common given name (WHICH YOU...UM...might). You discover that your writer friend's newest book/story/play/what-have-you contains a major character with your name

Comments

[malcubed]

I personally would assume that they are referring to one of the twenty other people they know with my name or an obvious derivative. But then again, my name is sufficiently common that we once established that 50% of the people sitting at the gamer table had the same name or an obvious derivative. So, um, yeah.

[half_double]

Well, you're a special case, as you have not one but about ten thousand common names.

[hrhqod1]

I know of at least 5 other people with my same name. One of them is an uber-christian softball-playing psycho-bitch from Holland, Michigan. When someone mistakenly fb's her, thinking it is me, she e-mails me these scathing messages about how irresponsible my friends are not to do better research before attempting to friend. (Yeah, seriously!)

I'm not sure what I'd do. My name could be a good character name. It is alliterative. Your name is cool because of the hyphenation.

Good luck with all that...

[half_double]

Oh, see, this is interesting because I was only thinking of first names. If your name were Sally Jones, and your very good friend wrote a novel whose main character were named Sally Smith. I usually try pretty hard not to give characters names that exactly match those of people I know.

Your name is cool because of the hyphenation.

The editor of Steampunk Tales referred to me as "the awesomely-named Eli Effinger-Weintraub". I felt honored.

[hrhqod1]

This is true, you are in possession of an awesome name. It speaks of both alliteration and ethnicity. Oh coming from a people who paid attention to these things. Really, Really great.

[hrhqod1]

Oh, and as one of the more famous horror novels and movies bears my name, I try not to get all that hyped. For that matter, the main character in sex in the city has my name. I'd love to have her awesome job, fabulous sex life and amazing shoe collection.

[mmerriam]

With my first name, seeing it in someone's work is just another day at the office.

I do worry about this as a writer, though. I don't want my friends to think I'm writing them into a piece when I am not. I have also had occasion to write an unflattering character, name the character, then later make friends with some with that same name. I always feel a little wierd and hope my friend maybe doesn't read my story.

[half_double]

I have also had occasion to write an unflattering character, name the character, then later make friends with some with that same name.

I have a similar situation. I name a character (not necessarily unflattering) and then end up working with someone with that name. It's weird, because the relationships I have with these folks are not such that I "ought to" be naming characters after them. Then again, they're highly unlikely to read the stories, so I probably shouldn't worry so much. But, you know, that's what I do.

[aedifica]

Oh, first names? (Since I saw your comment to hrhqod1.) If the character's name used the variant you know me by it would feel a little weird since that's one of the less-common nicknames, but a character who used the whole first name or any of the other nicknames, I probably wouldn't think twice about it.

OTOH, if I had a particularly uncommon first name that my writer friend thought was just such an awesome name they wanted to use it for a character, I'd love it if my writer friend asked if I minded--and if it were a negatively portrayed character, I'd really like the book/story to have a foreword explaining that it isn't me, that it was just a cool name. Because my writer friend and I would certainly have mutual friends who'd read the book/story, and then they'd start wondering if my writer friend and I had quarrelled, and so forth.

[half_double]

but a character who used the whole first name or any of the other nicknames, I probably wouldn't think twice about it

I don't even notice it IRL! I know so many people with my first name, but they all go by different variants, and I usually forget that we're all actually part of the same club.

OTOH, if I had a particularly uncommon first name that my writer friend thought was just such an awesome name they wanted to use it for a character, I'd love it if my writer friend asked if I minded--and if it were a negatively portrayed character, I'd really like the book/story to have a foreword explaining that it isn't me, that it was just a cool name.

That's an interesting thought. I'm not sure I would give a friend's uncommon first name to a negatively portrayed character--unless the character were a total badass.

[aedifica]

I don't even notice it IRL!

Yes, exactly! I do notice just a little, because I've used four variants of the name at different times and in different contexts, but even so there are so many of us around that the "ping!" of recognition is pretty worn down by now.

[half_double]

The wife of one of our staff attorneys goes by the whole shebang of the name. Every time he mentions her, even if he's not talking to me, I do the prairie-dog thing like someone's talking to me. I think it's because that's what my parents still call me, and so when he says it, I think my parents are here, and I'm in trouble! :-D

[half_double]

I do sometimes use names that also belong to real people I know

But you ask for people to volunteer their names, and then you give those names to characters with way cooler backstories than we actually have, so that's wicked awesome!