'real' names in Fantasy Settings.

[Mad Swede]

I'm not sure how common/uncommon this is with books and other media.
But with video games it happens a lot. Particularly in Final Fantasy. Heck, sometimes it happens in Zelda (Though very rarely)
Everyone seems to have names like Elliot etc, you know typical fantasy or fantasy leaning names.
Then there's always the one guy/girl with a 'normal' name.

You know, a guy named Bill or a girl named Joe/Mary etc.

In my book I plan to make fun of this (because the whole 'thing' of the book is poking fun at video game tropes) by having a village/town of people with regular name and the one 'oddball' with a fantasy name. But I do wonder if the bit would run a little thin. There's a strong chance readers won't get the 'joke' as well. Since the characters only draw attention to it once.

What you seem to want to do is make a joke about the so-called Aerith and Bob trope. It's been done before, in various parodies. Readers may get the joke, but it won't be new to them so you've quite a bit of work to do to make your version of the joke original.

Some of the in jokes I'm making are fairly obvious. (at least to me they are ? )

This is always the danger with in-jokes, and it's one reason why they so often fall flat with the wider readership. Gamers might get the joke, but no-one else will and eventually these others get tired and stop reading.

Like one of them I reference a couple of times is about doing a 'check' or rolling a 'D twenty' both of these are blink and miss it moments. But I feel like the joke is obvious. (DND) I feel like most people know about DND these days, even if it's just from the movie from a while ago.

Using an expression like "check" doesn't quite work the way you think it does. Sure, as roleplayers we talk about doing a "check". But the expression also gets used when playing chess, when controlling the speed of a car or train and in a number of other situations. So you need to read widely before you start using expressions like that as the basis for a joke - and if you read widely you may also find that you can make the joke work on several levels, as Sir Terry Pratchett did in his books.

I believe he's the guy that wrote Olliver Twist right? Forgive me for making the mistake lol I have heard his name before. (though I forget which book)

Sorry, that is something I as reader and writer don't forgive. Whilst you're being brave admitting it here, that is the sort of thing you should think vert carefully about admitting in any half serious writing community because it makes you look both badly read and ignorant. No-one will take you seriously as a writer with those sorts of gaps in your knowledge, not given where you live.

As for the other jokes, the book isn't explicitly about poking fun at video game tropes in fantasy, just fantasy in general? But I will admit a few of the references are super leaning toward video games.

Much as I hate to write this, and based on what you've written in all your various posts here, I don't think you have read anything like enough fantasy and other genres to make your story work. What people often fail to understand about writers like Sir Terry Pratchett is how widely and how much those writers read as the basis for their writing. Those same people also fail to understand how much good writing depends on the ability to observe people and how they interact with one another.

Comedy is more than just poking fun at something like video game conventions. It's far more subtle, in that it also takes in wider aspects like people and society. Watching (or better still listening to) a good stand-up comedian can be very revealing, as that sort of act requires good observational skills and a broad understanding of people, culture and society.

As for names, I'd echo what Prince of Spires wrote. Do your research. What some think of as modern names or odd names may not be that different. It all depends on where and when the story is set.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

You accept a talking sponge but draw the line at a submarine squirrel?

Okay...

I may have laughed too hard at this....

 

[xena]

I actually like the idea Flipping the trope instead of just pointing it out is a fun twist. As long as you don't over-explain it, I think it'll land naturally for the readers who do notice it

 

[Gurkhal]

I mostly used real world, or real-ish, names for humans but that because fantasy names often end up as silly or looking the same.

Not to mention that it signals some things to the reader which are in accordance to what I want to signal to them. Or at least it signals that to me when I'm reading.

 

[The Dark One]

In real life, every second kid (in Australia at least) has a weird made-up name.

Life imitates art once again.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I actually like the idea Flipping the trope instead of just pointing it out is a fun twist. As long as you don't over-explain it, I think it'll land naturally for the readers who do notice it

I mean yeah, I like it too, flipping the script is probably better than just going 'hey look everyone, there's 'bob' let's all point and laugh at the guy with the weird name' and those that know the original joke (the Aerith and Bob situation that MS mentioned) will probably be amused. I'm not targeting a particular audience with the jokes in my story. But the humor is for those who are at least somewhat aware of said tropes, video games or otherwise.

I realize this is (As MS said, and PMMG) a bit of a double edged sword. The joke when not executed well can land flatly, or not land at all. I am fully aware of that. But I also feel that I won't learn to get it right if I don't try it first and figure out if I did it wrong.

As far as the Dungeons and Dragons jokes/references. I'm keeping those to a minimum (I've only made literally a couple so far) and I may revise those later to something else. As of right now I'm just 'writing it ugly' as others have suggested. Said puns/gags might not amuse me as much during the edit, so I may or may not cut them.

That's kinda my vibe with this project since I been told to take that approach. I'm just rolling with what feels right in the moment. Letting the characters reveal their personalities to me before I go practicing surgery on them until they're more like what I imagined them as.

One of the Main Party has been interesting. I had initially imagined him as a 'begrudgingly social' archetype but he's revealed himself to just be slightly distrusting of others at first. Which both of these get the job done, I don't know for sure how much he'll lean into one or the other by the time the book is done.

I mostly used real world, or real-ish, names for humans but that because fantasy names often end up as silly or looking the same.

Not to mention that it signals some things to the reader which are in accordance to what I want to signal to them. Or at least it signals that to me when I'm reading.

Yep, for my humans I stick to human, or human names from famous characters in fiction. (The Main character is Sinbad, no relation to the mythological entity known as Sinbad other than he journeys across the sea) For my Non humans I use more fantasy leaning names.

 

[Romy]

A joke that doesn't really work is comedy on its own... Dad jokes are in at the moment.
Names are weird.
Imagine a dad so drunk he can't remember the agreed on name at the city hall and just wings it. If he is a writing and his daughter is named Aerith, naming him (or... a girl named) Bob just to be funny.
I'm sort of happy my dad was not the most imaginative but my mother did hate the name he gave me. At least he did not opt for the solution his parents requested... If he had to come up with another girl name, they wanted him to name me after the girl they wanted him to marry instead of choosing mom, that would have gone over well.
My mom wanted to name me Jeremy... after her idol, the singer of CCR... And yes, if you know... there is an issue with that too.
Only a few years ago, law changed that this 'damage' can be changed, last century you had to live with it. I did take the 'cheap' option to change later in life.

 

[Toob Waysider]

You know, a guy named Bill or a girl named Joe/Mary etc.

I was going to point out that Joe and Mary were major characters in one of the most famous fantasy stories, but that's just me being the friendly neighborhood semi-god of Discord and it's too nice a day to stir things up. Oops. Looks like I did anyway....

 

[AlexS]

There's the Tiffany problem to consider. Which is that some names you think of as modern are actually somewhere between pretty old and very old. With Tiffany being a prime example by sounding modern, but the earliest writen record with it is from the 1600's, with some sources pointing to 1200s.

The Tiffany Problem is not real.

The name Tiffany (spelled exactly like this) is modern. Different variations, such as Theofania, Tyffanie, Tiffanie, Tyfany, etc. existed in the Middle Ages, but until the 20th century it was never spelled T-i-f-f-a-n-y. I know because I spent a full day researching English baptism archives. There is zero records of a newborn with the given name Tiffany (spelled exactly like this) being baptised in England before 1900.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

The Tiffany Problem is not real.

The name Tiffany (spelled exactly like this) is modern. Different variations, such as Theofania, Tyffanie, Tiffanie, Tyfany, etc. existed in the Middle Ages, but until the 20th century it was never spelled T-i-f-f-a-n-y. I know because I spent a full day researching English baptism archives. There is zero records of a newborn with the given name Tiffany (spelled exactly like this) being baptised in England before 1900.

Greetings, oh researching one. The Tiffany Problem is very much real. This, here, is the Tiffany Problem. It's the assumption that a name or whatever is 'obviously modern' because you've seen or heard one in our modern life. There's also the assumption that if it's not in English it doesn't exist. The whole world culture's in English, apparently.

But, rather than give a lecture that I don't have the time or the energy for, I'm giving out homework. I do that. So, research time. Search terms: what is the origin of the name Tiffany? I see emphasis on the "exact spelling." That's not how language works. Search: When was spelling in English standardized? By who? Why? And how is this important to the Tiffany Discussion?

I write a lot of immortals, so here's a few of mine. How long has the name Etienne been in use? Where? Where does the surname "Knight" originate? What color were classical sculptures? Why are they all white, today? How long has the word 'merde' been in use? If women were doing everything I insist we were, why don't we ever read about them? Quick! Improvise a tracheotomy with the contents of your purse! (Trick question. The character is a trauma surgeon, and I know what a medical person's purse looks like.)

 

[Mad Swede]

The Tiffany Problem is not real.

The name Tiffany (spelled exactly like this) is modern. Different variations, such as Theofania, Tyffanie, Tiffanie, Tyfany, etc. existed in the Middle Ages, but until the 20th century it was never spelled T-i-f-f-a-n-y. I know because I spent a full day researching English baptism archives. There is zero records of a newborn with the given name Tiffany (spelled exactly like this) being baptised in England before 1900.

No, the spelling Tiffany is not modern. The earliest example I know of is French, from a marriage in Tolouse in 1555. The earliest English example I know of is from 1568, from a baptism in Devon. I can find quite a few women with the name Tiffany in the early 1800s in the UK, and not just in the birth, marriages and death registers. One example is the widow Tiffany Cott, mentioned in the Land Tax Assessment for Rastrick in 1808.

And now to A. E. Lowan's questions:

The spelling of names in British English was not standardised until 1 July 1837, when civil registration of births, deaths and marriages began. Before this the way names were spelled depended on the parish priest (or the parish clerk) who maintained the parish records. Some wrote in Latin, some in English, and the way they spelled names varied greatly.

The name Tiffany (or the variants like Tyffany, Tiffani etc) comes from the Greek Theophania meaning "manifestation of God" (from the words theos meaning "god" and phainein meaning "to appear" or "to shine"), and it is usually taken as a synonym for Epiphany. The name was often given to girls born on or around Epiphany.

So yes, the Tiffany problem is very real and does not just apply to the name Tiffany.

 

[pmmg]

Imma take a guess, that now that the Tiffany problem is out on the internet, it will fade. Enough writers know its a legit name and it will show up more.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Imma take a guess, that now that the Tiffany problem is out on the internet, it will fade. Enough writers know its a legit name and it will show up more.

I think you're probably right, especially with younger writers. I just don't think I'm going to be one of them. I hear "Tiffany," and all that I can think about is, "I think we're alone, now," and suddenly I've lost the plot under all the hairspray.

Our immortal characters change their names on the regular. We have a London courtesan born during the Restoration, who's mother named her Amarylis. Today she is a vampire under the King of New York and she goes by Cheyanne. Another, born Eunice, changed her name to Janet... and then the Brady Bunch was a hit and she' ready for another change, thank you. One of the mighty Eldest, an Olmec named He Offers Countless Hearts, now mostly goes by The Olmec or just Miguel. And Lucrezia Borgia, vampire queen, now answers to Louise. Sometimes Lou.