Annoying/ridiculous character names

[Tracey Allen]

Great topic, can't wait to see what people include here. ..

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

Personally I won't read anything where the main character is called Beau, Logan, Race, Bryson (especially when it is a girl), Brody, Jaxon or any other similar name:)

[Sarah]

Phrynne wrote: "Personally I won't read anything where the main character is called Beau, Logan, Race, Bryson (especially when it is a girl), Brody, Jaxon or any other similar name:)"

OMG, I practically fell out of my chair from laughing. I might roll my eyes out of something like Christmas Livingstone but I've never actually banned a name. Do you have a particular reason?

[Marianne]

The one person who does ridiculous names well is Jasper Fforde. I remember one of Thursday Next's bosses was Colonel Braxton-Hicks. Others: Jack Schitt and his brother Brik Schitt-Howse.
Only thought of this because one of the kids in the Christmas Livingstone book is named Braxton.

[Jülie ☼♄ ]

Marianne wrote: "The one person who does ridiculous names well is Jasper Fforde. I remember one of Thursday Next's bosses was Colonel Braxton-Hicks. Others: Jack Schitt and his brother Brik Schitt-How..."

Lol! :)

[Dale]

Michael wrote: "Have you come across any character names in the books you have read that have left you shaking your head in disbelief?

If you can think of any please post them here with the book the character is ..."

I'm with Michael on this one.

[Sarah]

Jack Schitt and Braxton-Hicks did crack me up. They're both so in keeping of the spirit of those books. Well, and her name was Thursday Next, which is also kind of weird.

I think genre matters too. What are the odds that I'm going to pick up a romantic suspense book that has the protagonists names as Fred and Betty. Keep in mind that I'm in the U.S. and these are uncommon names around here.

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

Sarah wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "Personally I won't read anything where the main character is called Beau, Logan, Race, Bryson (especially when it is a girl), Brody, Jaxon or any other similar name:)"

OMG, I pract..."

Just one of my personal foibles Sarah:) I know it doesn't bother other people so much.

As for Jasper Fforde his weird character names are intentional and clever. Terry Pratchett was good at that too.

[Sarah]

I do get tired of very trendy names, which is what I thought of when I saw Logan. Like you'll see a babe that 30 something mothers want to name their children and it's suddenly popping up in adult books.

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

Yeah I guess Logan isn't really that bad, just overused.
Just thought of some fairly silly names used in books I really liked .
Cormoran Strike and Myron Bolitar.

[Marianne]

Phrynne wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "Personally I won't read anything where the main character is called Beau, Logan, Race, Bryson (especially when it is a girl), Brody, Jaxon or any other similar name:)"
As for Jasper Fforde his weird character names are intentional and clever. Terry Pratchett was good at that too. ..."


Oh, yes, Phrynne, I agree. That was what I meant by doing ridiculous names well.

[Tracey Allen]

These are really funny, keep them coming. I can't think of any right now, it's like I've gone completely blank. Have to admit though, I don't mind Logan at all, and it's usually the girls names that annoy me more than boys names. Don't know why, not a fan of 'cutesy' names.

[Sarah]

Ohhhh... I should probably check the thread but when they end in i? Or have some wacko spelling. Like they're going to thank their parents the 10,000th time they have to spell it (if they were real).

[Tracey Allen]

Oh yeah, it's the spelling of names like Beeyanka that really get me going, grrr!

[Odette]

I find the same names of the two main character in two different books to be annoying.

Jamie and Clare both feature in the Outlander series and also in the Nightingale by Fiona McIntosh.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Marianne wrote: "The one person who does ridiculous names well is Jasper Fforde. I remember one of Thursday Next's bosses was Colonel Braxton-Hicks. Others: Jack Schitt and his brother Brik Schitt-How..."

That's hilarious Marianne!!!

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Great topic Michael:)

[Ryan]

Well I've just added The Eyre Affair to my to-read shelf.

[Stef]

Thanks a lot Jasper Fforde people for swelling my to read list ;)

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

Jasper Fforde writes great books just not enough of them:)

[Sarah]

You'll love it Ryan! It's loads of fun.

[Ace]

Ryan wrote: "Well I've just added The Eyre Affair to my to-read shelf."

Me too!!

[Leonie]

I annoyed myself by making up two very similar names in my first book... Adlan and Allad!

Having said that, I always struggle with completely unpronounceable names, or ones with too many apostrophes.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Leonie wrote: "I annoyed myself by making up two very similar names in my first book... Adlan and Allad!

Having said that, I always struggle with completely unpronounceable names, or ones with too many apostrophes."

LOL!!!

[Marina]

Ooh, yes, hate the ones full of apostrophes -- particularly if they're also lacking in the vowel department. This used to be a terrible blight in sci fi and fantasy, but the trend seems to have died off now, thank goodness.

[Sally906]

Its not so much a bad name - but I struggled with Hermione in the Harry Potter series - my mind refused to find a pronunciation it was happy with so it always tripped me up in the flow of the story. In the end I just saw the word as a shape and didn't try and pronounce it any more.

Even hearing it in the movies doesnt help - it just seems wrong - but I can't say what is right

[Ace]

Sally906 wrote: "Its not so much a bad name - but I struggled with Hermione in the Harry Potter series - my mind refused to find a pronunciation it was happy with so it always triped me up. In the end I just saw t..."

Sally, I could never pronounce her name either, but I only read book 1, so it wasn't too much of an issue.

The worst one for me has been "Athelflaed" and "Aethelred" in the entire series of the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell. I just skip over them generally!!

Good topic Michael...

[Marianne]

some of those Irish names, I've actually Googled for pronunciation. Recently, a main character from Instructions for a Heatwave, Aoife, said EE-FA, would you believe? I couldn't go on reading until I knew I was saying it right in my head.
Never would I have guessed Eoin or Siobhan without someone telling me. And as a naive little Dutch immigrant, the first time I saw Sean, well of course you know what I said!

[Marianne]

Sorry, Michael, we sort of hijacked your thread with other things....

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

RitaSkeeter wrote: "I was reminded of an awesome character name in a training session today: Slartibartfast. It always cracks me up."

I've seen that somewhere before???

[FrenzieMcKenzie]

Not any names in particular but I get annoyed when authors use very similar names for their main characters. Just recently I read Lisa Jackson's Renegade Son which was a horrible book for other reasons, but the 3 male leads were named Cody, Chase and Caleb. Son, new boyfriend and evil farmer next door respectively.

Did she open the name book at C and stop there? There are lots of other letters to chose from. Differentiate the characters please!

It happens more than you'd think.

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

RitaSkeeter wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "RitaSkeeter wrote: "I was reminded of an awesome character name in a training session today: Slartibartfast. It always cracks me up."

I've seen that somewhere before???"


He's in..."

I should have guessed that:)

[Sally906]

Frances wrote: "the 3 male leads were named Cody, Chase and Caleb. Son, new boyfriend and evil farmer next door respectively.

Did she open the name book at C and stop there? There are lots of other letters to chose from. Differentiate the characters please!..."


LOL - I would understand if they were brothers - but 3 totally unrelated characters is a bit of a push :)

[FrenzieMcKenzie]

Sally906 wrote: "Frances wrote: "the 3 male leads were named Cody, Chase and Caleb. Son, new boyfriend and evil farmer next door respectively.

Did she open the name book at C and stop there? There are lots of othe..."

Oh I didn't think of that, you're right brothers would make more sense :)

[Marianne]

the hero's given name in my current bedside read is Powers

ugh

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

Marianne wrote: "the hero's given name in my current bedside read is Powers

ugh"

Exactly. Ugh!

[Sarah]

Like Powers Boothe! I love him in Tombstone.

[Veronica ⭐️]

Not an annoying name because I love it, it gave me a laugh. The main character in Season of Shadow and Light is Paige Turner. Love it!

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Yes that's clever isn't it Veronica:) She was sick of the constant jokes about it!

[Alice]

Isabella Swan, Anastasia Rose Steele, Primrose Everdeen, Eva Trammel and Hazel Grace are all over-the-top and certainly don't sound like real names. Antagonists whose name tells us their evil like "Mr Snow."

Not ones who changed their name to something bad when they went rogue like in Harry Potter or Phantom of the Opera but those who''d have us believe they somehow just happened to be born with a name that suited their cold heart/wickedness its so contrived.

[Sarah]

I just started reading Catch-22 and it has some weird ones. Milo Minderbinder, Scheisskopf, Major Major Major Major, Mudd... Sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's a bit much.

[Sarah]

Alice wrote: "Isabella Swan, Anastasia Rose Steele, Primrose Everdeen, Eva Trammel and Hazel Grace are all over-the-top and certainly don't sound like real names. Antagonists whose name tells us their evil like..."

Who are Eva Trammell and Hazel Grace?

[Alice]

Their the heroines from two former bestseller romances( one is a coping with teen cancer story as well). "The books are the Fault in our stars" by John Green and "Bared to you" by Sylvia Day I think. They came out a few years ago bared to you was a rip-off of fifty shades of gray.

[Sarah]

Ah. I haven't gotten around to the John Green one and I haven't heard of Day's book. I can see where if I were writing a book I would want to name my character something fun. But there's fun and there's ridiculous, I think.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Alice wrote: "Their the heroines from two former bestseller romances( one is a coping with teen cancer story as well). "The books are the Fault in our stars" by John Green and "Bared to you" by Sylvia Day I thi..."

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Bared to You by Sylvia Day

There we go:)

[Neko]

This thread has given me a great chuckle!

I have a hard time reading character names when i know someone personally with that name...I'll go and place THAT person in my head...Yea, a real buzz killer at times...lol

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Greg wrote: "Winnie the Pooh."

Extremely popular and very well known Greg:)

[Phrynne, Series Queen!]

Alice wrote: "Their the heroines from two former bestseller romances( one is a coping with teen cancer story as well). "The books are the Fault in our stars" by John Green and "Bared to you" by Sylvia Day I thi..."

Grace isn't her surname though. She was called Hazel Grace Lancaster. Her boyfriends name was worse - Augustus.

[Deb]

At the moment you can pick a book, any book from the steampunk genera and you are practically guaranteed some ridiculous names:


Had the main characters of Eliza Braun and Wellington Books. Yes, Braun was the Brawn and Books was the librarian.

I recently finished
where the main character called Sophronia, and it is brimming with vewy vewy names. I gather it is a feature of the author.

[Sally906]

Deborah wrote: "At the moment you can pick a book, any book from the steampunk genera and you are practically guaranteed some ridiculous names:


Had the main characters of Eliza ..."

I absolutely LOVE the Gail Carriger series - one has such spiffinginly umptious names! LOL! I am currently reading the first book in her new series Prudence. Loving it and have pre-ordered the next one already :)

I think steampunk generally is over the top - including names :)