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Help[Opinions] Thoughts on mixed origin names in fiction?
I made a few polls on character names and it’s got me thinking about this topic. I tend to rely very heavily on mixed origin names and so make a lot of mixed nationality characters, because I pick names for their meanings rather than sound and language.
Anyway so that means that for this story I’m writing, out of 6 characters 4 of them have mixed names:
Lani Sansone (Hawaiian/Italian)
Zahir ad-Din Madoc (Arabic/Welsh)
Jinsaem Mahala (Korean/Tumbuka)
Shion Guillot (Japanese/French)
With one fully English name, Madeline Elsegood, and one fully Spanish name, Rio Belmonte Salcedo.
So, in your opinion, does this matter? Is it overkill or not an issue? (Should this have gone in the writing board instead? XD)
______________________________________________
Aspiring writer—I like odd names too much (◡‿◡✿)
Anyway so that means that for this story I’m writing, out of 6 characters 4 of them have mixed names:
Lani Sansone (Hawaiian/Italian)
Zahir ad-Din Madoc (Arabic/Welsh)
Jinsaem Mahala (Korean/Tumbuka)
Shion Guillot (Japanese/French)
With one fully English name, Madeline Elsegood, and one fully Spanish name, Rio Belmonte Salcedo.
So, in your opinion, does this matter? Is it overkill or not an issue? (Should this have gone in the writing board instead? XD)
______________________________________________
Aspiring writer—I like odd names too much (◡‿◡✿)
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Replies
Is it justified by their background? Is this a world where everyone has very diverse mixed backgrounds for some reason? If not, it feels very random and forced.
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That was my concern as well, that it would just feel awkward—I’ll have to give it some thought about if that’s how I want to build the setting 🤔
Thank you for your input :D
Thank you for your input :D
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I think it can be fine, and can be really interesting in terms of leaving clues about who the characters are. But I think it's important to not act as though a name like Zahir ad-Din Maroc is interchangeable with a name like John Smith, or whatever. Give your readers some credit for recognizing that this is not a "typical" name, if it's not typical for the setting or period. I hate when writers use very cool, edgy, unexpected names for their characters just because they can, but then don't explain it or even mention it in any way. It takes me out of the story completely and all I become aware of is the overexcited author and how pleased they are with their own cleverness.
Sometimes, the setting or genre offers a built-in explanation: like the sci Fi "The Expanse" and its unique mix of cultural names - easily understood as being a result of generations of different nationalities working together and inter-marrying. That's fine, and makes sense. But if you're going to craft an obviously highly unique name and put it in a setting that usually doesn't feature that sort of thing, there should be a reason for it. Otherwise it comes across as childishly cringey.
Sometimes, the setting or genre offers a built-in explanation: like the sci Fi "The Expanse" and its unique mix of cultural names - easily understood as being a result of generations of different nationalities working together and inter-marrying. That's fine, and makes sense. But if you're going to craft an obviously highly unique name and put it in a setting that usually doesn't feature that sort of thing, there should be a reason for it. Otherwise it comes across as childishly cringey.
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The setting is more typical contemporary, though it is also a magical girl setting, so I definitely do want to do that! (For instance, Lani has two MNs, Leialoha Hazel, because she has a single mother who really wanted to make Lani feel special and connected with her heritage.) Because that really irritates me as well, whole books populated with people named Anastasia Wolf and Cash Steele or something; it’s just too much and it’s never remarked on, it’s just cool (at least to the author lmao).
Though I keep going back and forth because even with if I give reasons for these names, does it just feel like I’m making up explanations to have ‘super special’ names? On the other hand, am I feeling a need to explain these names just because they’re not western european? I wouldn’t feel the need if it was a character named Baptiste Parker (not a good name but that’s an aside), yet still these names are very uncommon anyway.
Anyhow, you can tell I’m an overthinker XD thank you very much for the input! That’s an excellent point :D
Though I keep going back and forth because even with if I give reasons for these names, does it just feel like I’m making up explanations to have ‘super special’ names? On the other hand, am I feeling a need to explain these names just because they’re not western european? I wouldn’t feel the need if it was a character named Baptiste Parker (not a good name but that’s an aside), yet still these names are very uncommon anyway.
Anyhow, you can tell I’m an overthinker XD thank you very much for the input! That’s an excellent point :D
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Lani Sansone works all right; Lani/Loni/Lonnie is common enough in sound across cultures.
However, the others seem to be overkill and not very believable. It feels like kind of an amateur thing when every or at least most every character has this special meaningful name and all the ethnicities of their family are equally represented without regard for how everything sounds together.
However, the others seem to be overkill and not very believable. It feels like kind of an amateur thing when every or at least most every character has this special meaningful name and all the ethnicities of their family are equally represented without regard for how everything sounds together.
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Yeah honestly I do that a lot XD I like having every name be meaningful and symbolic—names whose meanings form sentences or things like that—so I end up with a lot of really weird combos lmao
I definitely want to keep doing that, but your point about ‘all ethnicities [being] equally represented’ in the name was something I was concerned about, since most mixed race/nationality families don’t do that, and will just have their last name with the given names of the kids match the dominant culture of the country they’re living in, maybe with a MN or alternate name to pay respect to their original culture, so these names might feel unrealistic and hokey, and overly simplifies that experience 🤔
Anyway thank you for the input!
I definitely want to keep doing that, but your point about ‘all ethnicities [being] equally represented’ in the name was something I was concerned about, since most mixed race/nationality families don’t do that, and will just have their last name with the given names of the kids match the dominant culture of the country they’re living in, maybe with a MN or alternate name to pay respect to their original culture, so these names might feel unrealistic and hokey, and overly simplifies that experience 🤔
Anyway thank you for the input!
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I think it's fine as long as I can imagine all the names working in the same accent and they all seem to use similar spelling rules (assuming they're meant to have the same origin in the first place.)
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It wouldn’t bother me. I would assume they had mixed heritage. My brother in law’s mum had the last name Rivière before she married and good friends of mine had the last names Kaftzik, Accarino and Dallari. It means children of these marriages may have first and last names that show the different heritage of the parents and the mixed heritage of the children.
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