A lot of the characters I write have strange, unique names that are unusual for America. Such as Ileana, Andrei, Ema, Luyu, Wyn, and Suzu. I also use names like Negru and Lahabiel, but that has to do with their species. I recently showed the character pages to a friend of mine who doesn't write and she said the names were too strange, that they're hard to remember and won't stick in an audience's mind. Anyone else ever received advice like this? It's kind of making me doubt these names even though I look for names that have specific meanings for my characters.
I've had the same struggle
I think of you want very complicated names the characters have to be very well developed, they have to mean something to the reader. But those two or three syllable you have are perfectly fine honestly. Your names are honestly not too complicated. I had an Amasthiel once and it took some getting used to for my beta reader but then it was fine because became much more in depth
They're not bad. They're really nice for main characters and fantasy characters especially when you want the character's first impression to be out of the ordinary. It might take your audience a bit more time to remember the names, but at the same time the uniqueness of the names might make it easier for some people to recognize who is who.
I do agree with Amber though. If your friend claims to have a hard time remembering your character's names, sometimes all it takes is a little more general fleshing out of the character to make them as a whole memorable. The name should then follow.
If there's one thing i would advise, it would be to add a few more familiar names in your story if you're working with a familiar setting. At least for a couple supporting/background characters.
Well, they are strange but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. They're easy enough to pronounce which in my opinion at least, is the more important thing.
Well, they're still easier to remember than RWBY's character names (Phyrra Nikos, Jaune Arc, Yang Xiao-Long, etc.) and the only one I had any trouble pronouncing was Andrei.
Some of those are Romanian names :0 (Ileana, Andrei)
they're cool tho :0
@Kohaku Yes, they are Romanian names. Their mother is Romanian in origin and wanted them to have pieces of her heritage.
I feel so damn proud lmao qwq Like, i've never heard of romanian characters in any story i've read
smol proud romanian over here qwq/
