Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
What fictional character names do you come across that don’t work?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
These are not getting easier. I know there are names that don’t work but I don’t tend to remember them. For me names that are unique and unusual that are not easy to pronounce. It’s more of an issue when the author doesn’t explain the name somehow. One author had an older German name and when she was introduced the character said Its xxx pronounced like xxx. I then was find as I knew what the name is. In other cases it really pulls me out of a book when its a name I have never heard of and not hint of pronunciation. I am one who uses phonics to work out words and strange spelling doesn’t work. Ironically I am ok with Irish names due to relatives with Irish names.
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Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. Remember all comments go into the monthly drawer for a gift voucher.
Names that have unusual spelling or are just really hard to pronounce. I read a book the other day with a male character ‘Jaden’. Based on the nicknames he got I think it was actually supposed to be pronounced ‘Jay-den’, but honestly it was hard to work out.
Sometimes it’s a cultural thing where letters don’t have the same sounds between languages. My name seems very normal for English, but because of the sounds are actually not translatable into languages such as Russian and French.
It’s good that authors use different names – it would be boring if they all used the same ones – but it can reduce the enjoyment of the story if you can’t figure out how to say the name.
Hi Beth, Jaden I can help with it is pronounced Jayden (I only know cos of knowing someone who had a baby last year spelt this way and they pronounce it jay-den). The one I struggled with was Irelynn and found out its Ireland without the d.
I have a friend Jana, I tend to pronounce the European way (Jana Wendt). I know another where the J is a J so its Jan a, and my friend her mother wanted Jane with an a on the end.
“Teabing” in The Da Vinci Code was a definite turn off for me, both that I ever bothered with the book. I can handle strange names, English or foreign, as long as they sound believable, though I find that some writers introduce Asian stock characters with stock Asian names, which irritates me. Worse if they only get a family name: the author doesn’t care.
The only author I can think of who did this a lot was W E Johns, but, of course, all his characters (Biggles, von Stahlhein, Ginger etc) were stock characters.
Thanks for stopping by. I get that with the Asian names its like English using Smith or Jones.