...huh...

[spurious_sanity]

I love finding cool and rare names from various languages and such to use on my characters, even if I do try to keep the craziness down low in contemporary stories. But I've never really thought all that much about how those names would seem for those who are of the culture I've snatched the name from. Until today

Comments

[tygati]

Heh. When I'm dealing with fantasy worlds, I don't worry about my bizarre naming schemes too much. Hell, I named a character Penis in Arabic once. *beam* But I do try a little harder when I'm dealing with a more realistic setting. That's about the point where I start poking overseas friends. ^^;;

[spurious_sanity]

Ahaha, a character named Penis (albeit in a different language)! That's awesome. XD That's one of the reasons I like writing fantasy; I can go every bit as nuts with the pretty and/or fun names as I want. Well, to a certain extent Xch'hgteap or something like that is kinda going overboard.

It was just... totally not a name I'd ever expect to see, not to mention it's just culturally very icky for me. It would be... kinda like a German character named Hitler, or something like that, it was that jarring.

[tygati]

Ahh, gotcha. Yeah, the most I've ever gotten was "... that's a word, but not exactly a name..." sort of reactions. I'll now be glad I've never accidentally offended someone. >.>;

[spurious_sanity]

*snicker* hey, nouns make perfectly good names, right? Just look at English names. Quite a few noun names there!

I like to believe I'm fairly laidback, so I wouldn't really say I was offended, but it wasn't pleasant. And I think I know a few people who WOULD be offended... ^^;;

[spurious_sanity]

I'm not sure I should disclose the name, cause I don't want to hang out the author, but ah, what the heck. The name was Vidkun. As in Vidkun Quisling. He was, at least, internationally renouned, to the extent that "a quistling" and "to quistle" are now English words... But I guess his first name isn't that well known outside of Norway/Scandinavia...? for more info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling

Ahaha, ouch. Luckily, Scandinavian names are so obscure that they aren't used too often, so I don't see a lot of that. But yeah, Adolf would be bad. I wasn't so sure at first whether Germans would find the name Adolf as bad as the name Hitler, didn't want to assume, y'know? But yeah, I can see how that would be the same as Vidkun. Only worse. Much worse.

[spurious_sanity]

^___^ Well, Scandinavia isn't really a very exciting part of the world. I think most non-Scandinavians just tend to... forget we exist, most of the time. XD We don't show up a lot in stories or movies or whatever.

[mee_eep]

This exactly why my stories take place in storyland I never assign them a nationality or specify where the story takes place. I've stumbled on too many british characters that make me go O.O really? to want to jarr others.

Name wize, I do sometimes use name-meanings to find them ie catburglar - cat - Namir. Never thought much on it :S

Does the person not give an email link? Author should be told!

[spurious_sanity]

Storyland makes everything so much easier. XD

I also like using name meanings when writing. I've literally spent hours naming a character, trying to find the right name. Pity no-one will ever get the name hints and stuff. It's ridiculous, really, how much time I put into stuff that readers will never, ever pick up on... Ah well, as long as it amuses me, I suppose.

I gave in and registered at the site :/ Apparently, you can only comment on a story when registered. Stupid site.

[mee_eep]

Yep storyland is safer and lazier :)

Now you're going to have to post some fic so I can google the names =D
nmin characters can be a pain, some names don't feel right and I don't like using names of people I know because then I see that person...

Hope the name gets changed - let us know.