Names with Pre-Conceived baggage?

[AnnMarie]

A friend was glancing through my notebook today, and told me I had totally inapprobriate discriptions for my main characters! :eek: :eek: I'm gonna list them... could you all tell me what picture comes to YOUR mind, just on the names?


Rose Montgomery

Heather Montgomery

Hubert Arthur Charles Montogmery

Camilla Elizabeth Hubert Montgomery Amberlee

Jonah Devon

Charlie Walsh

[Feena_bronze_rider]

You've got characters that look like they came out of Anne of Green Gables?
Thats nicer than crazy hoochy women and creepy demon men... (Thats what my family calls my work...)

[Anareth]

Camilla Elizabeth Hubert Montgomery Amberlee

That's all one name? :eek: :faint: THAT one says to me "author od'd on babynames.com."

I like Rose and Heather Montgomery. Ditto Jonah Devon and Charlie Walsh.

Hubert makes me think of Hubert Humphrey. (Sorry, he's the only person I can think of named 'Hubert', and no, I'm not dating myself, I just listen to Tomm Leher records. "Whatever became of Hubert?"...)

[AnnMarie]

Camilla Elizabeth Hubert Montgomery Amberlee

That's all one name? :eek: :faint: THAT one says to me "author od'd on babynames.com."

I like Rose and Heather Montgomery. Ditto Jonah Devon and Charlie Walsh.

Hubert makes me think of Hubert Humphrey. (Sorry, he's the only person I can think of named 'Hubert', and no, I'm not dating myself, I just listen to Tomm Leher records. "Whatever became of Hubert?"...)


Actually, Camilla's name is just tacking her two married names onto her maiden name. (She's Hubert's momma, hense HIS name.)

What I was asking is do these names generate any suggestions to YOU how these people might look or act? And I have NO idea where "Jonah" came from. His name was actually the first one I had, and his character was the second I had a fairly good grip on.

[Tabra]

Hubert sounds like a big, round butterball type guy, like Dudley from Harry Potter.

And Rose sounds about 60, thin, elegant, short grey hair, maybe in a bun. Always wears pearls and wears white gloves to go visiting.

[AnnMarie]

Hubert sounds like a big, round butterball type guy, like Dudley from Harry Potter.

And Rose sounds about 60, thin, elegant, short grey hair, maybe in a bun. Always wears pearls and wears white gloves to go visiting.

Well, thin and elegant sorta fits.... but she's only 18.....

[Tabra]

:rofl:

[Ryuu]

The image I get are that of a rather well-to-do family, possibly British aristrocratic background, and other characters who are interacting with members of the family.

Rose & Heather would seem to be the children of Hubert & Camilla while Jonah Devon & Charlie Walsh might be suitors vying for the girls' attentions, whether ligitamitly or by neffarious means, depending on your story--it does sound like a romance fiction--a la Danielle Steel, Barbara Carland, or even :shudder: Anne McCaffrey's:D

Now, if you really want a name with preconceived baggage, try "Attila" or "Adolf" :razz: Interesting to note, before Hitler, Adolf was considered quite a nice name for a man--but not anymore :devil:

[Anareth]

The overall impression is a bit posh, pretentiously so in the case of Hubert (who, again, strikes me as stuffy and fussy solely because of whom I associate the name with) and overall a bit dated. Except for some reason "Heather", maybe because it was popular around the time I was born and I went to school with quite a few Heathers (but no Roses.)

Definitely a flower motif. But nothing jump out like, say, "Bambi"=blond flake, or "Mykenzie"=my parents are hopelessly trendy.

[Shalyn]

The first thing that jumped out to me was "Regency". Or "Pride and Prejudice". Actually, I thought that both Rose and Heather were young, possibly twins. Heather has dark hair, not sure about Rose though. Camilla seems to be 40-something, on her way to being the family matriarch.

Hubert seems to be a pretentious 40-something. But since he's Camilla's son, I guess that's wrong.

Jonah Devon seems to be the tall, dark mysterious stranger with the piercing eyes, and Charlie Walsh seems to be the bumbling American cousin.

[AnnMarie]

Oh man, am I giggling now!

Anareth, Shalyn... you are half right about Hubert. Snobbish, pretentious, posh appearance. (Or yso you the reader are led to believe. You never actually meet him, and he kicks off on page 3)


"The image I get are that of a rather well-to-do family, possibly British aristrocratic background, and other characters who are interacting with members of the family." Ryuu

Good call. Again, sort of. The breeding is there. Hubert lived like he was as rich as anything. Camilla still is, due to hubby #2.

Jonah Devon seems to be the tall, dark mysterious stranger with the piercing eyes, and Charlie Walsh seems to be the bumbling American cousin. Shalyn

Close. Not real mysterious, our Jonah. And Charlie isn't bumbling, just young. Heather, by the way, is a blue-eyed blonde.

I think, though, that this little exercize has proven to me that the person who made the comment really has her OWN ideas about what these names should look like, that don't really match what anyone else might think. She told me Jonah HAD to be blonde, and Rose couldn't be so short {5'3"} And the Hubert couldn't be the name of a gambler/heavy drinker.

[Anareth]

I think, though, that this little exercize has proven to me that the person who made the comment really has her OWN ideas about what these names should look like, that don't really match what anyone else might think. She told me Jonah HAD to be blonde, and Rose couldn't be so short {5'3"} And the Hubert couldn't be the name of a gambler/heavy drinker.

Uhhhhhh...yeah, I'd say this proves it. What, there's a LAW that "Jonah" means the man must be blond? (Given he was a Semite, I find it hard to believe the one swallowed by the whale was...) And if her name is Rose, she has to be tall? Not to mention 5'3" is average, not short. And Huberts are all teetotalers? Not where I'm standing, there isn't any such rule!

In any case, write them well enough and people will think of Jonahs as tall, dark strangers...

[anonew]

A friend was glancing through my notebook today, and told me I had totally inapprobriate discriptions for my main characters! :eek: :eek: I'm gonna list them... could you all tell me what picture comes to YOUR mind, just on the names?


Rose Montgomery

Heather Montgomery

Hubert Arthur Charles Montogmery

Camilla Elizabeth Hubert Montgomery Amberlee

Jonah Devon

Charlie Walsh

Ready for the worst case scenarios?

Hubert Arthur Charles Montogmery and Camilla Elizabeth Hubert Montgomery Amberlee

A stuffed shirt who probably spends his days clad in a wax jacket and welly boots, blowing away small defenceless animals with a huge shotgun on his Hertfordshire estate and running over anti-foxhunting protestors with his 1988 Range Rover, trying in vain to work off the suppressed anger he felt towards his parents for hanging the unfortunate name of 'Hubert' on him.

Camilla, who also has serious issues regarding her moniker, divorced her husband in 1978 after giving birth to the twin daughters below and now spends her time cruising round Sloane Square in a chauffeur-driven Jag dropping her alimony payments on hideously expensive (and just plain hideous) tweed clothing and also supporting some irritating NIMBY pressure group aimed at keeping foreigners out of London or some such rubbish.

Rose and Heather Montgomery

Disassociated themselves from their parents as soon as they hit 18, dropped out of whatever Godawful boarding school they'd been packed off to, changed their names from Eusebia and Portia, and went to live in a squat in Camden where they devoted their time to reading Class War, screen-printing Ban the Bomb posters, and dating their male equivalents Jez and Bez (born Rupert and Tristan Foxleigh-Smythe). Probably destined to be advertising executives or marketing consultants in later life after rediscovering their posh accents and credit cards.

Jonah Devon

Far too countrified to be true. If this guy is a craggy, salt-of-the-earth smock wearing turnip farmer with a gruff manner but a kind heart, I'll scream. You'll hear me all the way from South Asia, trust me.

Charlie Walsh

Either:

a) A cockney bank robber straight out of The Italian Job

or b) An Eton educated rugby playing twit destined to have one of those ill defined jobs in the city where one is required to wear a pink striped shirt with a white collar and act like a total obnoxious prat. Introduces himself as 'Hi! Charlie Walsh! They call me Chazza dowm the rugby club. I'm with Smeggs, Smeggs and Smeggs, in futures, y'know?' Will probably blow own head off with shotgun after an ill timed sneeze loses the company eighteen zillion pounds in one point eight milliseconds.

Sorry - it's early and I haven't had any coffee yet.

G

[Shalyn]

Nah, Anonew, you have Jonah and Charlie mixed up. Jonah is the elite, yacht-club, country-club denizen. Charlie goes to the local corner pub and does the two-step.

And, AnnMarie - I do think that Rose sounds like a short person. Probably the reason I think she's got dark hair is 1. Because of Titanic and 2. It's my mother's middle name, and she had dark hair before it went gray!

[AnnMarie]

Laughing hysterically at Anonew's post......

Camilla is Hubert's MOTHER. Yes, she drops disgusting amounts of money on her wardrobe. After all, she has appearances to maintain. She is Heather and Rose's step-grandmother. The girls are cousins, not sisters, and Heather is a year younger than Rose.

Hubert is a dandy, I think I would have to say: Fine clothes, partying with the beautiful people (he is titled, after all) gambles heavily, has never done a day's work.

Jonah isn't a tunip farmer....and I wouldn't say his features are "craggy"... but he DOES run a multi-use holding (livestock, crops, mineral rights, timber) If he and Charlie were to spend much time in town, they would both be at the corner pub. Jonah has a good heart...and a menacing glare, but he's not gruff. And he's no saint. Both Jonah and Charlie are originally from the US (at a time when country designations don't mean as much, really.)

Basically, the story is taking similar stories that happened in New South Wales in the 1800s, and tossing it into the universe.

Yeah, my friend wasn't impressed by that one, either. But think about it: Penal colonies on diferent planets, with diferent colonies for diferent levels of criminal activity, makes more sense than keeping people locked up in earth-side jails, doesn't it? Debtors can't work off what they owe in jail. Juvies RARELY get straightened out in jail. And think of a planet where you could just drop all the murderers and dangerous nutcases, drop supplies, and let them fight amongst themselves.

[anonew]

Well, you wanted first impressions, you got them. Names do have baggage, especially in any society with pronounced class divisions, such as the UK or the US (and don't try to deny that the US isn't just as class-regimented as the UK ever was). Even the Soviet Union had it's Nomenklatura.

Also, names don't actually mean anything in the west, at least not normally. I was listening to an interview with a Indian author on the BBC World Service yesterday: over here, names denote your geographical area of origin, your caste, possibly even your occupation. In order to write in a character from whose name readers would not immediately draw any conclusions, he had to make up a name. This is for a contemporary novel set in modern day India dealing with the trials and tribulations of a street child, it's called Q and A, I forget the author's name.

G

[Vyon]

The names all sounded like English 1920s upper-crust whodunnit to me. One of them should finish up dead, and the rest rambling in some huge, run-down Country manor house. Or two of them are ghosts. Or both. Otherwise nobody would ever get to hear that those are the names on their birth certificates except in court. Good luck :good: