I read somewhere recently that actor Rob Morrow named his kid Tu Morrow.
One of my cousins has a daughter named Harleigh Davidson.
My kid went to school with a girl whose name was pronounced "TOE-shane." Kind of pretty, isn't it? Unfortunately, it was spelled "Towchain." Did her mother see a wrecker on the way to the hospital to deliver?
But the quirky names I really want to talk about today are character names. I've had a few, usually by accident. Like Chance Reynard in A Little Bit Dangerous. I knew "chance" meant luck or fortune in French, but I used the last name of my friend, Monica. (The book was dedicated to her, too.) I didn't know until the book was done and my editor told me that "reynard" meant fox in French.
In the Tuesday Night Margarita Club/Tallgrass series, I've got twin brothers, Dalton and Dillon. I named Dalton first, knew that because of the family tradition, his brother's name also had to begin with a D, and chose Dillon. It wasn't until my editor mentioned Marshal Dillon and the Dalton gang that I recognized the significance. You'd think someone born and raised in Oklahoma would have caught on right away, but I didn't.
Not long ago I read a review of a book that takes place in Texas in which the three best friends are named Dallas, Austin and Houston. Now I'm reading a book in which the hero and his brothers are named Clay Rhodes, Stony Rhodes, and Tulane Rhodes.
So now I'm curious. What's your thought on quirky character names? Do they make you smile or roll your eyes, or do you just not care?
Great question. If I am certain of the intended pronunciation I have no problem with a unique name. There are so many in real life anyway. But if I am constantly struggling in my head with what to call a lead character, I have a problem. A recent book I read had Aunie as the heroine. I really fought with that one.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. One of the big problems I had with Jordan's Wheel of Time series was trying to remember how to pronounce the names of the six thousand major characters who came from thirty or forty different countries. And it didn't help that every single book includes a dictionary/glossary because the way it was done, I still couldn't figure out some of the pronunciations.
DeleteI like names that I can feel relatively sure that I'm saying right. (Though when I had Masiela as a heroine, my editor asked me to work the pronunciation into the first chapter.)
I went to college with Rain Ann Storm, btw.
ReplyDeleteAw . . . I like Rain, but together with Storm . . .
DeleteI saw 1st President Bush's granddaughter on TV the other day -- Lauren Bush Lauren. I think I'd've kept my maiden name.
It all depends on how the name "hits" me. If it's corney, there's no way I'm going to make it through the book. If it's "unique", I'm ok with it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there's definitely a line between the two, isn't there? I tend to lose patience with names that are a play on words (like Tu Morrow). Unique -- as long as I can say it -- works okay.
DeleteDepends on how "quirky" the name is. Some are subtle enough, I just don't see them unless someone points them out.
ReplyDeleteSubtle is good -- in fact, when I've read a book with a character whose name has some really subtle significance that the author doesn't spell out for the reader, it's like being in on a private joke.
DeleteIf it's clever and fits with the story and genre, I like it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I notice more often is multiple characters whose names all start with the same letter. Err, I'm guilty of that. I got to the end on one of my mss and realized all the women's names started with C. Not very original since my own name starts with C. I had to go back and change the names and that was so hard to get use to when I was reading and revising. I'd go, "Who is Mary? Oh, yeah, she used to be Catherine."
LOL, I've done that with the same first letters, too. When I submitted the proposal for A HERO TO COME HOME TO, my editor asked, "Did you choose Dane, Dalton, Dillon, David and Delia on purpose? Because that's a lot of Ds for a couple of chapters."
DeleteI read a book a few years ago that was part of an ongoing series, and something like 13 character names started with the same letter. And they were all unusual names, like you couldn't tell by looking whether it was a man's or woman's name. I couldn't keep them straight.
I'm not always a fan of quirky names though I've used plenty in my writings.
ReplyDeleteI used to do quirky though when naming our race horses. ;-)
I think I like them on animals. I have to confess, back in the 80s when Eddie Rabbit's career was strong (with that gorgeous dark hair of his), I bought a silky black rabbit with big ears and named him Eddie. :)
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