Can I name a male character Artemis?

Question

So I'm writing a story and there is a character that is a male that I want to name Artemis. The reason, simply put, is that he has a sister with a name I really like that is TECHNICALLY a boy's name (the nickname however is sweet sounding and was the reason I chose the full name).

I wanted to go for a 'OMG, your brother has a girl's name and you have a boy's name' but I'm worried about using it because it isn't a common boy's name at all. In fact the only male called Artemis I've ever heard of is Artemis Fowl (Who is nothing like my character other than the fact that they'd have the same first name).

Is it alright for me to use it?

Answer 1

Yes, you can use Artemis; it is from Greek mythology and impossible to copyright as a name. The Greek for the male versions of this name are Artemas and Artemus, both are listed in The Character Naming Sourcebook (and mean "gift of Artemis"). You violate nothing by using a name already in the public domain.

I would avoid using the full name of a fictional character; Don't call a character "Clark Kent" or "Bruce Wayne" or "Harry Potter". The copyright owners of those characters might be able to claim damages if the name of your character helps you succeed commercially. But that is a combination: One cannot copyright "Clark", "Bruce", or "Harry", and cannot copyright the surnames "Kent", "Wayne", or "Potter", none of them are original combinations of letters used as names.

Answer 2

It’s your story. You are free do whatever you’d like with names. I would say many readers, but not most, will be aware of the mythological twins Artemis and Apollo, and among those readers you will produce your intended shock factor.

Answer 3

You can name a male character "Sally" and a female character "Bruno" if you want to. It's not like there's a law against it.

But the question to ask yourself is not, "Am I allowed to do this?" but "Is it a good idea to do this?"

If there is some reason why this name is significant and the story won't work if the character has some other name, then of course do it.

But if it's just a matter of, "oh, this name popped into my head and I kind of like it", I'd say probably don't. Giving a male character a girl's name will be distracting to the reader. Readers may be confused if this character is a guy or a girl, or if this is the name of the guy-character or of some other girl-character. If no one in the story ever notices or comments on the odd name, it may seem unrealistic. Like if I knew a man named Sally in real life, I would be very surprised if he did NOT get jokes about his name and people being confused by it.

Answer 4

It's not so uncommon for boys to have girl names and otherwise. As example I can give the example name "Kim". It can be both: A boys name, a girls name, a short form from "Kimberly".

It is completely up to you if the name matches or not. From my opinion Artemis is not a name that sounds like boy or girl and can match both

Answer 5

There is no law against it, but I would discourage it. Personally, I would find that particular quirk distracting and immersion breaking. Unless the fact that this character has a feminine name is very important to the story, I don't think it's worth it.

This is actually one of the reasons I wasn't able to get into Artemis Fowl.

Answer 6

My first thought was of the Johnny Cash song "A boy named Sue", and it sounds like you're already thinking of an interesting back story. There's also a nice opportunity to refer to him by a shortened version in earlier chapters and go for a dramatic revelation of the full name.

But the short answer here is that you're the writer and as long as you do it well, you can do anything you like.

Anything at all.

[Twitches cape over shoulder and walks away into the night with an indulgent but slightly disturbing chuckle.]

Answer 7

I don't know of Artemis in ancient greek being used as a male name, but, for what it's worth, in modern greek Άρτεμις is the female name (same name as the godess) but there exists a male version too, which is Αρτέμης. Note the accents: in the female version, the stress is on the initial A, whereas in the male version it's the second vowel, the e, that is stressed*. The different spelling of the last vowel is just historical spelling with no impact on pronunciation. (transliterating: Α->A, ρ->r, τ->t, ε->e, μ->m, ι->i, η->i, ς->s)

My impression is that, while the female version of the name is the more popular of the two, the male version isn't too rare, either.

*Modern greek does not have short and long vowels--they are all short. But each word has one syllable that is stressed, i.e. louder than the others (of course, the cadence of sentences complicates how words sound in natural speech, but that's the basic theory anyway.)

Answer 8

Go for it! It is not that uncommon for males to be called Artemis. Besides, I have always found it strange that humans made a different set of names for both halves of humanity.

(By the way: may I read your story? It looks pretty awesome :D)

Answer 9

I am just reading a book A Winter Journey by the critically acclaimed Amelie Nothomb (~110 pages, definitely worthwile read! Great language, interesting plot), which does something very similar. Even with the greek references. The main character is called Zoïle (which is based on the greek philosopher Zoilus, with which the main character is not happy, since Zoilus was considered a very cynic small mind and his parents actually wanted a girl, which they could call Zoe to rhyme with their first daughter Chloe) and the target of his affection is called Astrolabe, which I think was based on the writer Astralabius.

So yeah, you can do that, get away with it and even make it an essential part of your story, since this is something the main characters bond over in the aforementioned "A winter journey".