forum Do you ever regret naming a character something and if you do, do you ever rename a whole character?

Started June 16, 2018 by @flora.books

tune

Pretty much what the title says

Yeah, I get that sometimes. Sometimes I would spend whole days trying to find a better name for them XD

my main character was created in like middle school so i named him smth weird ofc n now i kinda regret it :/ i just refer to him as a nickname now

Not very often, but yes I do. I've renamed a few characters, and there's a few that I'd still like to rename. But I think the two that I regret the most (and am still actively using) are Andor and Ara.

I actually really like these two names, but the problem that I have with them is that I didn't really do a lot of research when I was trying to name them and I'm sort of under the impression that these two names aren't exactly common in their respective nationalities.

With Ara, I was able to sort of fix it by finding a longer name (Arakel) and making Ara his nickname. Andor's just stuck with an obscure name though, I guess. Normally when I rename a character it's because I don't really like the name anymore, and that it makes it easier to replace the name. But with these two I still really like their names, and I can't find anything that I like enough to replace them. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to be more careful next time.

I think I've changed my main character's name at least 10 times. All my other characters feel so solid in their names, but for her, I just want something else, something more suited for her. I have definitely changed her name fully a couple of times, landed back on the original name, and then decided against that again. I know she has to have a name the starts with "D", it just fits for some reason. So if you feel like you're regretting it don't worry! But also my story is in a very rough draft so changing it doesn't affect much of anything yet.

If anyone needs good names to name their characters this website should help https://www.behindthename.com/random/

I do that all the time! But then I’m lazy and I don’t want to go back and edit the whole thing so it ends up staying the same…

^^I'd be careful with that one though. In my previous post where I talked about giving my characters names that aren't very common in their respective countries that was the site where I found their names.

It is a good site for finding names, but if you're naming characters from a country or culture that you don't belong to, or don't know much about, then I would do some follow up research.

yes! my main character was Hailey Gilbert for the longest time! and then Christine Gilbert. Now she's been Erin Robbie for the past few years.

I've renamed a couple characters but it wasn't really because I didn't like their names. I've changed some last names and full names because the characters country of origin changed or because I didn't like how they were spelled or sounded. If I regret one name it's that of my favorite character, Berlin. I like the name, I think it fits her, but I can't roleplay with her without getting sent a million jokes about Berlin, Germany or people who want to argue and say that it isn't a "real name" because they've never heard it.

I’ve renamed some characters whose jobs change. One started off as a minor ‘friend’ character who was like a dorky older brother, but as the story evolved he became a serious and reserved general, so his name changed.

If I regret one name it's that of my favorite character, Berlin. I like the name, I think it fits her, but I can't roleplay with her without getting sent a million jokes about Berlin, Germany or people who want to argue and say that it isn't a "real name" because they've never heard it.

@Garbage, have you considered something simple like changing the i to y (just for when you role play)? I know a comic artist who has a character named Berlyne, and to be honest I have never made the connection between that character and the capital of Germany, and nor have any of her readers that I have noticed.

I’m not sure if using ‘Berlyn’ would stop all the people saying it isn’t a real name though. But in my opinion someone who wants to argue about a name because it ‘isn’t real’ is being rather petty.

I've never entirely renamed a character, but I did change one of my character's last name from Solace to Solis for symbolism in my story so really just a diff spelling. I'm gonna write it in as best as I can lol. I'm thinking that since they sound the same, everyone assumes it's Solace (bc it's more common), but then when they find out it's SOLIS then things will fall into place

plus then his name is still Chris Solis, which sounds like chrysalis which I also plan to use symbolically.

Do that to everyone I had once, to make it sound more fantasy-like. During the transition, referred to their old names, or [xxxx]'s brother. Right now they are all unpronounceable ;)

I had a story where people's names were just regular English words connected to their personality - backwards. Yeah, it was mostly awful. You can probably guess how talkative Rettahc-ia was.

(Her new name, after many, many revisions, is Wren.)