New answers tagged naming
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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)
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As others have said, no, you don't have introduce anything before a dialogue. Infact, you can have dialogues with totally unknown characters:
A low, menacing voice whispered behind his ear.
"I'd put that weapon down, kid."
or
She heard someone screaming in the distance.
"Fire!"
In both cases the character speaking is unknown to the PoV, ...
13
No. Trust your reader's intuition for the obvious. If the first lines of your book read:
"Put that back!" Alicia scolded.
"No! Mine!" Richard said, defiant.
She grabbed the plastic bottle of cough syrup from him, and put it back on the grocery shelf. He started crying, and reached for it again, Alicia moved the cart to the center of the aisle so ...
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The only issue to worry about is that your reader knows who is speaking and can remember who the characters are scene to scene.
How you accomplish this is up to you.
That being said, it's a little weird to have "the man" and "John" so close together. So I'd shake it up slightly. An easy way would be to leave off the "said John" tag (that's easy because ...
4
There is absolutely no rule against it, but if your set of names crosses a certain threshold of recognizability you will have to reckon with the perceived reference to another source, intentional or not. Readers accept intertextuality and will look for a deeper meaning when they spot a coincidence like this.
The more unusual any given name is, the more ...
3
If you are writing for an academic journal, don't use the honorifics. Many notable scientists have been given titles if they happen to come from a country that still has such things, but I have absolutely never seen them used in academic contexts and I would find it both surprising and, frankly, ridiculous to see them.
For example, Edwin Southern was ...
2
That depends a great deal on how common the names are and how well known the other book is.
I've never read "Miss Peregrine", I think I vaguely heard of it somewhere, but it's not particularly famous or iconic. And as you say, Emma, Oliver, and Jacob are all fairly common names in English. So I don't this this would be much of an issue.
The more common the ...
4
From Wikipedia: In the Uk and commonwealth it is proper to use the title Sir prefixed to either the given name or full name. It is never proper to use the surname alone. Thus for the individual John Doe, "Sir John Doe" or "Sir John", never "Sir Doe".
The term "Dame" in the modern usage is a woman who is knighted and follows the same rules as the male ...
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Usage will vary based on the style guide. Some will ask writers to omit the title. Others will conform closely to standard English usage.
In MLA 8, under 1.1.2 (Titles of Authors), it recommends that titles "such as Dr., Saint, or Sir" be omitted from works cited lists and "usually" omitted from text discussion. Among the examples is "Philip Sidney (not ...
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The other answers have covered software numbering thoroughly, so I'll skip right to spacecraft.
You get a wide variety of naming patterns for spacecraft, but generally not the 1.2.3.1234 style numbers currently popular with software.
Here's some examples:
SpaceX:
Falcon 1 - the 1st Falcon model, and has 1 engine in its first stage.
Falcon 9 - the 2nd ...
0
I would say 3 but do the guide for pronunciation in a way that works in the story. For example, in Harry Potter, Rowling became aware that fans were having a difficult time pronouncing Hermione's name, so she had a scene in the fourth book where Hermione is on a date with a foreigner who doesn't speak English as a first language and was unable to correctly ...
1
Just to add to this list, a common method is "semantic versioning". There's a Wikipedia article explaining it which is worth reading. It's widely used where multiple components and dependencies are involved.
Another method (used by Microsoft) is Major.Minor.dateA.dateB. The build date and time is encoded in the last two fields. When a new version is built ...
1
Real names
Real human names with counterintuitive pronunciation should be used for artistic integrity if nothing else.
However, as a children's writer, educating children is your job, too. Provide correct pronunciation straight away in the footnotes at the name's first appearance.
Don't use the International Phonetic Alphabet; instead, imitate the correct ...
0
While I generally agree with "don't worry if the reader can pronounce a word or not", I'd like to point out that having a letter that's not available on the "standard" keyboard makes a bigger difference than your typical hard-to-spell name.
There was a Siobhan in my classes in middle school, and while I wouldn't be surprised if her name was actually Siobhán,...
27
The answer to your question depends on how strongly the set of names is associated with the preexisting work of fiction. Not just the individual names, but the set of names together.
For example, individually Romeo and Juliet are common enough names, if you set your story in Italy. However, if you name the main characters in your story Juliet and Romeo, it ...
0
Use prime marks: Jim, Jim', Jim'', Jim''' etc.
1
... what are some good ways to distinguish between them without taking the reader too far out of the story?
First introduce the main character (unless you prefer to introduce the alternate first).
Provide an overview that establishes some characteristics of the person.
Reveal additional information about the person later to further develop our impression ...
3
This is a frame challenge. I think your issue could also be that your characters do not have a distinct voice.
A 15 years old sounds different from a 20 years old. I am not referring to the timbre of their voices, which should also be different. The vocabulary is different, the ability to articulate their thoughts is different. Even their logic, their ...
9
If it were me, I would pick a name with a common, well-known nickname, and then call the younger version exclusively by the nickname, and the older version by the full name --for instance, "Andy" and "Andrew."
Andy was starting to think he didn't like "Andrew" very much. Apparently, as he got older, he was going to turn into an even meaner version of his ...
14
Pick a name and go with it.
If the fact of the new character being future Adrien isn't a secret from the reader, you don't have to worry about names that spoil the surprise.
Use whatever name Adrien himself will use. He's not going to refer internally to his future self by his own name or by something long. He'll pick a name pretty quickly, because his ...
8
The Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer has this situation with a core character (so it's not a passing situation). The narrator and the characters identify the two as Brit the Elder and Brit the Younger. When more time-travel shenanigans happen, we also encounter Brit the Even Elder and Brit the Much Younger, which doesn't seem sustainable but these are ...
4
Clarify each character's motivation in the scene.
The best way to keep dialog straight is when the dialog makes sense. This shouldn't be any different than any other two characters engaged in dialog. The limited-POV MC certainly won't be confused by which one of the two is speaking. Stick closely with him since he can lampshade the weirdness of talking to ...
3
Software numbering
There are lots of schemes in use, and sometimes software vendors even switched between schemes.
The most important feature of numbered schemes (as opposed to pure naming schemes like "Windows ME, XP, Vista") is that the version numbers always increase, that is, later versions get greater version numbers (what "greater version number" ...
27
I think it may be solved using the same term consistently.
From what you wrote:
"the man", "his older counterpart", "his future self", "his older self", "Older Adrien", and "his other self".
Those are a lot of synonyms. While they are correct and they do convey the idea, a reader is going to be pulled out if you change "the name" of a character every ...
2
Software version numbers tend to be company or endeavor specific as @JonStonecash covers nicely.
A few examples:
Ubuntu releases their Linux distribution twice a year in April and October and uses a date format of YY.MM, but they also use fanciful names going up the alphabet such as Bionic Beaver for 18.04.
I have a tiny project of my own which is ...
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I developed software for many decades for several organizations. The standards for versioning were varied, but there are some general guidelines that most of them followed.
I will call the leftmost number in the version identifier, the Version. The releasing organization will change this number when there are major changes in the feature set of the ...
0
Don't do it.
Compare:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_(disambiguation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_(disambiguation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_(disambiguation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(disambiguation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_(disambiguation)
Some "established ...
2
Searches will be hijacked
The ramification is that people searching online for you and your story by the character's name will be rerouted to the substantially more famous character.
Beowulf is also the title of the historic poem and numerous film versions, compounding the problem.
You're not just making it harder to find you online, you're making it ...
0
If I name a character Helen (maybe even Achilles) in a novel set in the time and society that's way different from the Greek mythological world, would it bother you as a reader? I don't think so. Why? Because subconsciously you would already know that my character is just named after a famous established character from mythology.
That being said, if you're ...
3
Well, there's lots of characters that share names with mythical beings. Artemis Fowl (after Artemis, the huntress), Apollo Justice (after Apollo, the messenger god), Arthur Reed (like Arthur Pendragon, legendary king of England), et cetera, et cetera. Some of them have a meaningful connection (like Thanos to Thanatos - both are god-like beings heavily ...
5
I, personally, believe that while people may comment 'Hey! He's named after that Beowulf myth!' I doubt they would automatically assume that your character is or has to be the SAME as the original Beowulf.
To go a bit further, is your Beowulf a purposeful retelling of the original? Is he the original Beowulf, but you've decided to dump him into a different ...
5
Here's a system I use for main characters or characters that must have the 'perfect'name:
choose a language (English, Chinese, Spanish, etc)
1.1 decide whether to apply the same language to both first name and surname or use different languages (if in a cosmopolitan country, usually)
1.2 make sure you understand naming conventions of the chosen language (...
9
TL;DR
No need to worry: when you write a good story, any name sounds great.
Good names are as good as the story
Good unique names are not easy. In particular, it is not easy to come up with a good fitting name before having the whole story laid out. On the other hand, most of names however sound great not because of the name itself but because of the ...
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Have more faith in your process, but run it by others.
Rufus Drake is a great name. It has personality, it's easy to pronounce and it's memorable. It's not uncommon but the combination isn't going to be used much. There's nothing wrong with the name Michael Brown. I bet the million other Michael Browns agree. It's awfully generic though.
Google and ...
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