Using an Idiotic Name - On Purpose

[Shalyn]

My mind was wandering the other day, because I've been working on a boring project. (Revising a technical manual. Yay.)

Anyway, I was thinking about how people name their characters or their what can be construed as idiotic names, and reasons to use one on purpose.

For some reason, my mind wandered into the possibility of naming a girl "Flicka" (yes, after the horse), then whenever she tells someone her name, she has to explain that her mother named her that because she just loved the book.

Kind of how on M*A*S*H, Hawkeye Pierce would tell people his name came from "The Last of the Mohicans".

Now - I'm not saying I'm going to use this name. It just hit me how people do weird things, and was wondering if anyone has already done this.

[Madrigal]

Meh... I usually find that annoying. The reader only needs to hear it once--but it's not plausible for other characters never to ask more than once. So you either have something obnoxious or something implausible.

[Rabble]

I've got a rpg character called Mary Sue.
She was born in the late 1800s, has never heard of 'fanfic' and cut her hair off because it was annoying her.

[Shalyn]

OK - know something? It wasn't "Flicka" that I was thinking of.

It was "Aysha". From "She" by H. Rider Haggard. THAT was the name I really liked.

Now, is Aysha too silly/stupid of a name to use?

[McClance]

I generally do it with minor characters who only have one or two lines.

[Greenrider Tresa]

Nah, don't think I've ever really used a dumb name. At least not for people. I might look for ones that have particular meanings, but I wouldn't make them dumb or silly.

[Madrigal]

OK - know something? It wasn't "Flicka" that I was thinking of.

It was "Aysha". From "She" by H. Rider Haggard. THAT was the name I really liked.

Now, is Aysha too silly/stupid of a name to use?

Depends on who her parents were, and what ethnicity she is.

[granath]

Absolutely.

Incidentally, Flicka just means girl in Swedish.

[Anareth]

Well, a lot of fantasy has characters with idiotic names. (Or some books by authors we all know--"Joat", with it costantly explained as "Jack-of-all-trades"? Be glad she never went to grade school; she'd have been Joat the Goat and other variations....)

I wouldn't consider "Hawkeye" idiotic, either, especially as IIRC it's not even his real name.

It depends on how annoying it gets, and why you feel the need to use it. Generally, if it's an otherwise normal setting, unless there's a really good theme or plot-related reason to use it, why bother?

[Bane]

I just posted a story where the main character's name is Chaos. :erm: Yeah. No real explanation for it, it just popped into my head as her name and I used it. She's half elven, half demon... :erm: That'll work as my excuse.

[Ian]

Absolutely.

Incidentally, Flicka just means girl in Swedish.

Yeah, there's a girl on another site I go to who goes by Svenskaflicka (needless to say she's Swedish).

[Brenda]

Hey Bane, I don't recall you mentioning in the story that she was part elven. I assumed the non-demon half was human.

[Bane]

I didn't mention it. I never had call to describe her or her mother, just to say the mother's a whore who did bad things with demons... :erm: Yeah...

[Brenda]

Okay, just thought I'd mention it in case you didn't realize it wasn't in there and you had planned for it to be!

[Bane]

There wil prolly be several re-writes. And thanks for the suggestion of tightening the writing. I think I know what you mean, and will try accordingly! :yes: First thing will probably be to mention the fact that her mother was elven...

Back to the topic, I also used the name Gyldorr...and Ptinis...and Heirnos. They just popped into my head, so I guess they weren't on purpose, except for Gyldorr, which I had been toying with as a character for about a week before writing Demonkeeper.

[Yonuh Adisi Fiend Jedi]

I wouldn't consider "Hawkeye" idiotic, either, especially as IIRC it's not even his real name.


His father called him Hawkeye from the book Last of the Mohicans because his father liked it and it was supposedly the only book Pierce's father had ever read.

That was how it was explained in several episodes.

[Vyon]

What bugs me is names that are three lines long and obviously unpronouncable. Even aliens need use-names or trade-talk names.

[Bane]

Aliens...

Meet DBabdjfkew and Bob. :D I wonder how many times they made him say that before they got the scene perfect... :evil: