On Names

[lenora_rose]

Urgh.

Characters *do* insist on doing this to me.

I have the following in this story:

James D. (always James)
James K. (aka Jim)
Timmy/Tim D.
Tommy W. (really Adom*, but he has a Thing about this.)

The two Jameses are not the problem; it's a plot point that they have the same first name, though I had to tapdance a little to break a rule that flagrantly - one of them letting me call him Jim helps.)

The problem is Timmy/Tim. Right between Jim and Tommy. Not using "Jim" makes the two Jameses more complicated, and Tommy recurred in other stories, which locks him into his name. Timmy's such a minor character it should be easy to change.

The problem is they're all fully viable names for the time and place (the early 1990s, mid-prairie Canada), and each was derived with more careful thought than it seems: the thought was just not based on sound or spelling. Also, they've carried the names long enough toimprint on them, which maes it a lot harder to change.Thus, because of the derivation, Timmy is fighting a name change.

And this after I had to change a Mike *and* a Jeff, not for sounding like other characters in the book, but due to certain real people to whom they bore no resemblance. (While the last names made a lot of difference to the feel of the name, I still didn't want my brother razzing me for using his name where I did...)

At least the girls are more cooperative. (Anna, Jen, Deirdre, Selina). And my main character (Finno) gets to be the odd one out.
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Colin finally got the paperwork in for our legal name change for the wedding. About on our first anniversary. So soon I'll be Lenora Rose Patrick, not Lenora Rose Heikkinen, for real at last.
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Not long ago I had a dream in which (among other things***) someone was trying to figure out who my husband was so he could send us a Christmas card, and I woke about the time I was insisting, "No, not Greg** and Gwen. Colin and Gwen!"

Heee.

Colin's been saying "You know. Gwen. Short for Lenora." for a while now. And with friends who use Gwen more often, I've been known to leave answering machine messages saying, "Hi, it's... whoever I am today."
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*the O is not a typo. Depending on derivation, it's both a Hebrew and an Ghanan name; in this case the former.

** Even more surreal: Tao_of_Erec was standing beside me in the dream, but the person thought I was married to *zandoria*'s Himself. A mistake I assure you I wouldn't make...

*** Gist of the plot: Freaky-looking Aliens lived among us. But, you know, like neighbours; runnign the neighbourhood shop, going to PTA meetings, having backdoor barbeques. Except someone was using first propaganda, then an outright mind-control ray to make people start thinking the aliens were evil and to send them off to work camps. Our group was trying to find the source of the mind control ray to shut it off. Just the mission you'd want Tao_of Erec along for, I have to say. It was coherent enough for me to think story idea, except I can't see a way to write it that doesn't make it read like it's about some kind of real-world Prejudice, and one of the longtime complaints is that SF writers spend too much time writing about Prejudice by using aliens and not by using real races, cultures, and classes.

How does someone asking about a Christmas card fit into the plot? er...

Comments

Patrick?

[senekal.livejournal.com]

Are you both changing your last names?

(And really - you can use Mike if you like, it wouldn't bother me. It's a common name after all) Unless you were thinking of a different Mike.

Re: Patrick?

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

Yes; Colin is flipping his middle and last name. The way he described it to be, he was traditional enough to want to share a last name with his wife, but not so traditional it had to be *his* last name. I didn't want to be a Stobbe.

Actually, for the character in question, since the full name is Mikhail Vyrubov, Mick made more sense anyway. Unlike the "Jeff", that really was my main motive for changing it.