buyjupiter
Maester
As I was writing merrily away yesterday, I realized that this short story is the first piece in a very long time that had used "normal" English names. I didn't realize that I normally use either completely made up names with a kind of vague feel of a culture to them, or I used more obscure ethnic names.
For example: I have a character that is part of a world that draws quite a lot from Czech references/culture. His name, Dusan, is not immediately familiar to the English reader (I presume) and the pronunciation is a bit tricky (du-shan, but I dropped the diacritical mark that gives a hint that it's not "du-san").
The thing is...I've listened to several people make a big deal out of "weird" character names and how they'll throw books across the room, etc etc.
If I'm doing it as a "this word is the essence of the character" and not as a funny name like Spanglebottom Bumpkin III of High and Mighty Steel Fortress, is it the same thing (for those of you who object to odd character names)?
Is it objectionable if it's a cultural thing, to give an additional flavor to the world building? If I'm intentionally drawing upon Czech culture, you'd kind of expect to see Czech names right? Do they have to be "common" names, that have parallels to English names for them not to be objectionable (like Jan/John)?
Names are really, really important to me and I'd rather pick a name that is the essence of the character I'm writing about when I can, than pick something neutral like Peter (or the cultural equivalent of Peter).
TL;DR: In other words, if I'm pulling from ethnic sources, how weird can the names be and still be acceptable to the average reader?
For example: I have a character that is part of a world that draws quite a lot from Czech references/culture. His name, Dusan, is not immediately familiar to the English reader (I presume) and the pronunciation is a bit tricky (du-shan, but I dropped the diacritical mark that gives a hint that it's not "du-san").
The thing is...I've listened to several people make a big deal out of "weird" character names and how they'll throw books across the room, etc etc.
If I'm doing it as a "this word is the essence of the character" and not as a funny name like Spanglebottom Bumpkin III of High and Mighty Steel Fortress, is it the same thing (for those of you who object to odd character names)?
Is it objectionable if it's a cultural thing, to give an additional flavor to the world building? If I'm intentionally drawing upon Czech culture, you'd kind of expect to see Czech names right? Do they have to be "common" names, that have parallels to English names for them not to be objectionable (like Jan/John)?
Names are really, really important to me and I'd rather pick a name that is the essence of the character I'm writing about when I can, than pick something neutral like Peter (or the cultural equivalent of Peter).
TL;DR: In other words, if I'm pulling from ethnic sources, how weird can the names be and still be acceptable to the average reader?