# Character Names Derived From Real Life Friends



## Laurence (Feb 12, 2015)

What do you guys think of using the names of real life friends for characters? Are any of you guilty?

Are there any well known authors that openly do this?

I live in England so some of my friends have quite fitting surnames like Blaxill and Devine.


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## Svrtnsse (Feb 12, 2015)

I've not copied names from people I know. My thinking is that in a way it would subconsciously make me connect the character with the real-world person and that may not be what I'm going for.

I have, however, copied character traits and personalities from real-life friends and applied them to characters in my story.


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## CupofJoe (Feb 12, 2015)

I've used place names... there are a slew of villages not far from me that all sound like characters in a Victorian melodrama... and that is where they ended up... there was even a carpet bag left at a railway station...
I wouldn't use names of friends or acquaintances for similar reasons to Scrtnsse and I'd add - what happens if you fall out with them? Or they hate "their" character...


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## Incanus (Feb 12, 2015)

Seems pretty iffy to me.  The potential problems would likely outweigh the minimal benefits derived.  Why not just start with the names, but tweek them into something original?

I'm not certain, but I think this sort of thing is not recommended by the generic writing 'guidelines'.  And yet, every case is different.


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## Tom (Feb 12, 2015)

I gave one of my characters a friend's last name...Klotzbach. How could I pass up such a unique name? 

Generally, though, I avoid naming characters after people I know. If you're not careful, you can slip into lazy characterization, or even offend the person you named the character after if the character is a jerk/a villain/sarcastic/what-have-you.


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## Laurence (Feb 12, 2015)

All good points, thanks guys. I think if I did do it, I would only place the names on characters I have already created and written about as part of my lore, rather than the main plot line.

I think my friends would love it if I made them in to dick characters!


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## Tom (Feb 12, 2015)

I made the character with my friend's last name a sarcastic jerk, and she loved it. But she's just that kind of person...


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## stephenspower (Feb 12, 2015)

I have many character names based on people. That's the toughest part about novels: coming up with so many names. It is a fun thing, though, when you realize some character has stepped over the line from passing to minor enough to be worth a name.


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## Penpilot (Feb 14, 2015)

Laurence said:


> I think my friends would love it if I made them in to dick characters!



Though this might be fun, it can get you into trouble. Let's say you name a character after a friend and that character is a despicable sod. Let's say your story gets picked up and published. If you're friend didn't agree to let you use their name, they might get pissed and sue your ass.

There's a famous case in comics that's similar to this situation. Comic writer and artist Todd McFarlane is a tremendous hockey fan. In his comic, Spawn, he used a professional hockey player's name, Tony Twist, for a mobster character. He got sued and had a $15 million dollar verdict slapped against him for profiting off Tony Twist's likeness. After further legal battles they settled out of court for $5 million dollars.


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## Laurence (Feb 14, 2015)

Well I don't mind paying Â£5mil so long as it's not 15!


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## K.S. Crooks (Feb 14, 2015)

I have used a few names of people I know, either their first name or last but never both. I do so when I specifically  want the character to have some of the same characteristics of the real person. I do this sparingly and am more likely to name a place after someone. I want to feel free to harm or even kill a character without feeling guilty and having to explain to my friends why they needed to die.


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## Ireth (Feb 14, 2015)

I've done that a couple of times, once unintentionally. A pair of minor characters in Winter's Queen are named after an old friend of mine whom I've unfortunately lost touch with. The characters are a pair of twin brothers; one twin got my friend's first name, the other got his middle name, and they share his last name. The unintentional example is in a different story, when I gave a character (who is used with permission from a close friend of mine) a name that's the same as one of the friend's IRL nicknames. XD We both had a laugh over that.


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## cupiscent (Feb 15, 2015)

I collect interesting names that I come into contact with, but usually I just use a babyname list from the culture I'm making use of in the story.

On the other hand, sometimes my friends or acquaintances say, "Hey! Can I be in your book?" At those times, my rule is: yes, but the character named after you will die.


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## Velka (Feb 16, 2015)

cupiscent said:


> I collect interesting names that I come into contact with, but usually I just use a babyname list from the culture I'm making use of in the story.



I generally do the same. I try to avoid using names of people I'm close to. I find their personality haunts the name and it doesn't match the character I'm writing.

That being said, I did name one character I killed off in a gruesome way after a horrible co-worker. Very cathartic!


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## Laurence (Feb 16, 2015)

If you're starting a character from scratch then being inspired by the personality of someone you know well seems like a great way to make a relatable character. 

That being said, I'm a hobby writer and would be perfectly happy if my book appealed to no one but me.


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## Russ (Feb 16, 2015)

While you are writing the draft do what works for you in creating the story.  If you sell the manuscript just tell your publisher what you have done and let their legal department decide for you.

If you are going to indy publish the manuscript with the names of real people there are real legal risks if you don't have pretty explicit consent to the use in writing.


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## S.T. Ockenner (Jan 27, 2021)

I mean, Ban and Orc Knight and the rest of us often put each-other in stories.


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## Electric Bone Flute (Jan 28, 2021)

Svrtnsse said:


> I've not copied names from people I know. My thinking is that in a way it would subconsciously make me connect the character with the real-world person and that may not be what I'm going for.
> 
> I have, however, copied character traits and personalities from real-life friends and applied them to characters in my story.


On that topic, in one story I've used a character name for a girl I know _precisely because _I wanted her personality to be the model of that character. Funny enough, I scrapped her in a later draft because there were functionally three protagonists with no center.


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## Alexander Knight (Jan 29, 2021)

I had a writer friend of my use my first name and the last name of a mutual friend of ours to name one of her characters. I found it to be an honor (since the characters wasn't a bad guy).


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## Chasejxyz (Jan 29, 2021)

I'm really bad at creating "NPC" characters, I can't think of anything about them besides what they do (the barkeep, the fellow soldier etc). Sometimes that's totally fine, but other times they do need some sort of name/info/personality, so I ask my friends if I could just use them/their fursonas/their characters.


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## Toby Johnson (Feb 9, 2021)

sure wy not, but make sure that they resemble the person in real life, that'd be a cool little nod to your freinds


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## S.T. Ockenner (Feb 9, 2021)

Toby Johnson said:


> wy


...


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## Eosphorus (Feb 14, 2021)

It's a risky move. I prefer not to do it, personally. Not unless I'm using the name of a friend I haven't seen in many years. I know of no authors who do use their friend's names, but there must be some...


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## Prince of Spires (Feb 15, 2021)

Eosphorus said:


> I know of no authors who do use their friend's names, but there must be some...


Brandon Sanderson does. But, and I think that's the important thing, he does so at their request. He's mentioned multiple times that the bridge 4 crew is mainly based on friends. Either names or parts of personalities. 

There's nothing wrong with putting your friends in your books. But I would always ask permission or do so at their request, though they might die a horrible death as a result... 

Of course, I might put parts of people in my books. Not literal parts, but pieces of personalities. For instance, I recently learned that one of my friends has an eidetic memory, and we had an interesting chat about how she percieves memories. I might use something like that for a character in a book. In such a case, I wouldn't ask for permission, since the rest of the character would be very different.


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## Rosemary Tea (Feb 21, 2021)

I haven't done it on purpose, but recently did it unintentionally with a minor character. The protagonist of one of my stories has an older brother, who's in the story mainly as part of the background (she has a family! Big brother took the ordinary life path they were expecting of their children, Character is in some conflict because she doesn't want that for herself!) I gave him a very, very common name (think "John"), and well after I'd written that, I remembered that I knew a slightly older boy with that name when I was a very young child, and while I didn't have an older brother myself, "John" was something of a big brother figure.

It's such a common name, and the characters ended up being so different, that even if John from my childhood were to read that story, I doubt he'd make the connection.


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