Worst Character names in YA?

[Cathy]

personally I don't particularly like the name Patch and have read other books with weird names...what do you think are the worst? ...also which name do you prefer - Gabriel or Alistair?

[Miriam]

Hmmm, well I recently re-read The Selection and the name of the protagonist, 'America Singer' was a bit off-putting to me. I loved the book though.

And there was also that one book which had 'Saffadine' as the name of the main heroine. I don't know what it was called but the name was very distracting. It made me think of silk and fabric all the time I was reading.

I love both those names. Gabriel and Alistair are two of my favourites. It's hard to choose XD

[Raevyn]

Peeta and Gale (obviously on a guy) are both awful names, and I also don't like names that have been done before in famous novels. (Danny). And once (this is embarrassing) I named all my characters very similar names: Leander, Lee, Leith, Lemuel...yeah.

I think I like Alistair more.

[Brittany]

Might not be a specific name, but I hate it when authors use really weird spellings for common names. I loved Throne of Glass, but would it have been so hard to spell "Celaena" Selana or Selena? I dunno, just kinda annoying...

[Brittany]

Rajat wrote: "Catch this one, Grnllll from paranormalacy."

*Gigglefit* Wow, that one is pretty bad... XD

[Jessica (Goldenfurpro)]

I read a book once where there was a character named Dank...

[Miriam]

Was that Existence by Abbi Glines?

[Jessica (Goldenfurpro)]

Yeps

[Sarah]

Brittany wrote: "Might not be a specific name, but I hate it when authors use really weird spellings for common names. I loved Throne of Glass, but would it have been so hard to spell "Celaena" Selana or Selena? I ..."

They're not really common names ... I mean, Seh-lay-nah? Nuh-hee-mee-ah? Doesn't sound like any names I've ever heard of. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, though.

I'm going to second The Selection's pseudo-feminist heroine "America Singer" as one of the worst names ever. (She is also one of the worst characters I've ever come across; I wrote a whole angry, heavily-worded review about how much I hated The Selection.) Oh, and I think Maxon Schreave is a pretty stupid name too. Which is from, wait for it ... The Selection, as well. Guess that book is just full of terrible names.

(And terrible writing and world-building and character development. Overall it was just terrible, just saying.)

[Phedra]

FIRST OF ALL PATCH IS A GREAT NAME and the worst names I've read was Dabria (girl) and Asthley (boy)

[Cathy]

"And there was also that one book which had 'Saffadine' as the name of the main heroine..."

I agree, this name is definitely distracting. Reminds me of sardines lol

[Miriam]

Well, now 'Saffadine' is going to remind me of silk and fabric and sardines now. I was planning for a re-read but I can guess that I'm just going to end up laughing my way through it :)

[Cathy]

Oh - and decided to save the name Alistair for another book...Using Gabriel for this one (it suits him better) :)

[shrish]

I like Gabriel. :) But oh, just wanted to say, I might read your book someday, and that'll only happen if you don't nickname your character 'Gab' because . . . Gah.

[shrish]

Names from good books that I don't like- Peeta (Seriously what in the world, was wrong with Peter?!), Tobias (It's sounds weird, reminds me of a toddler sucking on his thumb), Piper (That just reminds me of pipes, no surprise there.), Carter (I honestly thought that Carter was a girl all through the first chapter, then when I realized, I had to read the chapter again to make sense of it.), Cormoran (That reminds me of, uhh, corn. Corn, it reminds me of corn. When I was read that book, sometimes when I didn't want to read the whole name, I'd just read corn.)

[F.F.]

well, you can't please everyone with your name choices as a writer... I have received reviews of my book saying the names were weird or inconsistent. They made sense to me I guess.

To weigh in though, Katniss is a dumb name. Everdeen is a cool surname. But the spelling of Katniss just drives me crazy. When I first heard it said I thought it was spelled Cadnes. And I thought it was kinda cool after a while, but... not anymore, even though the character is awesome.

[Jennifer]

PEETA. Hands down, that is the lamest name ever. It's a freakin' bread, woman! Do you hear me Suzanne? IT'S A MOTHERFLIPPING BREAD! One that I like fried and dunked in spinach dip!

Besides that, Gale is a girls name.

And you don't even wanna know what the name "Katniss" reminds me of...

[Carina]

Oh, my first thought was America Singer - I hated the name. And I second on Peeta (which is too much like pita bread mentioned above). And dare I guess, does Katniss make you think of cat piss too? The whole book, every time I saw her name, I kept thinking she needed to use a litter box.

[shrish]

Katniss was okay. Katniss was okay. BUT HONESTLY. PEETA.

[Jennifer]

Carina wrote: "Oh, my first thought was America Singer - I hated the name. And I second on Peeta (which is too much like pita bread mentioned above). And dare I guess, does Katniss make you think of cat piss to..."

YES. Every time. Catpiss Everdeen this, Catpiss Everdeen that. Got on my nerves.

[Miriam]

Actually, I somewhat liked the name, Katniss. I have no idea why, it sounded so unique. But in the The Hunger Games, the names that threw me of the most were Glimmer, which just reminded me of glitter all the time, and the names of the presidents, Coin and Snow.

[Alice]

I once read a book with Spencer as a girls name - it was annoying.

[Miriam]

Pretty Little Liars?

[shrish]

That's what I thought, but Spencer is cool!!

[[deleted user]]

The worst name I ever read was Greasy Sae. Like who the heck would name their kid Greasy? It's just a no for me.

[Sarah]

I'm pretty sure Greasy was part of her nickname? Like her real name was just Sae, and they tacked Greasy onto it because she was ... well, frequently greasy, I guess.

[[deleted user]]

Sarah wrote: "I'm pretty sure Greasy was part of her nickname? Like her real name was just Sae, and they tacked Greasy onto it because she was ... well, frequently greasy, I guess."

Yeah, I mean i understand the nickname part and I guessed at that myself, but still, for everyone to call her that, and her not to mind it, just didn't sit well to me.

[Jessica (Goldenfurpro)]

In The Summer I Turned Pretty, the main character has the nickname "Belly".
Not the best nickname...

[Jennifer]

Jessica (Goldenfurpro) wrote: "In The Summer I Turned Pretty, the main character has the nickname "Belly".
Not the best nickname..."

Lol I read a book and the girl's nickname was "Nasty"

[Miriam]

I read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies and there was a character named Baboo Nob Kissin. I couldn't stop giggling for days.

[Ida Haig]

Peeta..not crazy about the name but I get that she was trying to give UNIQUE names to all the characters. So, it worked for me. Although, yeah Peter would be what I am used to also.

[-RininTa-]

For me, the annoying name when I read Graceling. The male protagonist named Po. Well, though this is a very good book, I almost called him "Puh" like Winnie the Pooh.

[[deleted user]]

When I read Graceling I couldn't stop thinking about Po from Kung Fu Panda

[Rosie]

Sloane from Hush by Micalea Smeltzer. This is a female love interest. I personally have only heard that name in a book called Eragon and Sloane in that one was a male mean-spirited butcher.

[Miriam]

There's a guy named Pyrrhus (which just reminds me of a cross between a pirahna and fungus) in An Arrow's Flight.

[-RininTa-]

Athena wrote: "When I read Graceling I couldn't stop thinking about Po from Kung Fu Panda"

Hahah...that's also happen to me :D

[Kyra]

A girl name Jubly in Fuse . I thought it was a very odd name.

[Stefanie]

Male characters "Rand" & "Sinjin" from the H.P Mallory Jolie Wilkins Series, love the books, i just wish the names were a bit more attractive lolWitchful Thinking

[shrish]

Oh my Rowling, guys, I'm laughing SO HARD!!!!!! Like, literally laughing, how am I ever gonna be able to read all these books you're naming!!!! Oh my god, this is the most hilarious topic in this group!!

[shrish]

Does anyone else think one syllable names are a little dull?? I was looking at Little Women on my shelf, and I thought that 'Jo,' 'Meg,' 'Beth,' and 'Amy,' were pretty dull names.

Another one- For 4 years of my life, I thought that 'Kim,' from Rudyard Kipling's Kim is a girl. But hey, guess what. KIM'S A BOY. TA-DA.

I just scanned all the books in my bookshelf, and WHOA. SO MANY AWFUL NAMES. WHAT HAVE I BEEN READING.

[Jennifer]

~Shrishti~ wrote: "Does anyone else think one syllable names are a little dull?? I was looking at Little Women on my shelf, and I thought that 'Jo,' 'Meg,' 'Beth,' and 'Amy,' were pretty dull names.

Another one- Fo..."

Yeah they are kinda dull, but maybe the authors give them more names so readers can focus more on their personalities.

Well that's disturbing. Kim is definitely a girl name.

Ikr? I have a book with a girl named "Janie" She's like 18! Just "Jane" woulda been alot better.

[shrish]

Huckleberry Finn. Need I say more?! Mark Twain is a really good writer, but HUCKLEBERRY.

[Ida Haig]

~Shrishti~ wrote: "Huckleberry Finn. Need I say more?! Mark Twain is a really good writer, but HUCKLEBERRY."

LOL...OUT LOUD!

[shrish]

Miriam wrote: "I read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies and there was a character named Baboo Nob Kissin. I couldn't stop giggling for days."

I just burst with fits.

[Beatrice]

Cathy wrote: "personally I don't particularly like the name Patch and have read other books with weird names...what do you think are the worst? ...also which name do you prefer - Gabriel or Alistair?"

Patch is a good name. I prefer 'Patch' than 'Jev' :)

[Beatrice]

I don't like the name Peeta. (Though I like him.. it's just the name.) When the name is combined with Katniss... it's just ugly.

[shrish]

^^ Yup, agreed. There are a lot of 'Peeta' haters here. Btw, I was going through the cast for Catching Fire and I recalled a few characters . . . who are Gloss and Cashmere???

[shrish]

I mean, I do remember them . . . faintly, but the freaking names, man!

[Brittany]

~Shrishti~ wrote: "^^ Yup, agreed. There are a lot of 'Peeta' haters here. Btw, I was going through the cast for Catching Fire and I recalled a few characters . . . who are Gloss and Cashmere???"

Lol, they died. Obviously Suzanne didn't care much about their name. XD

[Somya]

Brittany wrote: "~Shrishti~ wrote: "^^ Yup, agreed. There are a lot of 'Peeta' haters here. Btw, I was going through the cast for Catching Fire and I recalled a few characters . . . who are Gloss and Cashmere???"

..."

I think that Gloss and Cashmere as well as Marvel and Glimmer were aptly named because District 1 is known for its luxury items industry. They were kind of snobbish too! :)