Strange question. Oh well. I was thinking about this while trying to ignore the light show (aka, a violent thunderstorm with amazing lightning) and go to sleep (which didn't work, btw). So -

Why do so many of us (myself included) name our characters exotic names? For that matter, why do popular fantasy series (I'm thinking of Eragon at the moment, but there are more) tend to have characters with strange names? (who names their child Eragon? Or Roran? And then there's Brom and Arya and that guy whose name I can never remember let alone spell...) ? Especially when it's an other world story, where a normal child from this world gets into a fantasy one, it seems the child gets a normal name (or normalish) like Aidan (from the Door Within trilogy) but the people in that world get strange names that shouldn't even be pronounceable. (I have no examples here because when I can't pronounce a name from a book, I tend to forget it) This is reflected in our own writing, I can see - *grabs names randomly* Iri, Kimun, Tynx, Ia'-can't-remember-how-to-spell it, and there are others.

I have ideas as to why this is so. But how about ya'll? And do you think maybe we should tone down on the unpronounceable names? I, for one, think so. You may be able to see this in my latest attempt at a novel, where I chose names for their meaning rather than for how cool they looked. (Please don't say Kai's not a real, used, name, btw! My mom knows/knew someone who named one of her children that. )

I know that I don't name my characters strange names to confuse my readers, while that is a perk.

I like to name them strange things because it ensures that hardly anybody else in the world will have the same name. I mean, I don't know about anybody else but when I'm watching a movie or reading something that has a character with the same name as me I'm always thinking "Well, they could have been more creative with the names. " I think the reason we name our characters unpronounceable names is the same reason we don't name them things like... "Bob" We like diversity in our writings; we want to be unique. At least, that's one of my main reasons.

Also, my names aren't typically names...the majority of them are words that I look up in other languages; particularly Hebrew. Anybody who I haven't already told, Hebrew is beautiful. So just for the plain beauty aspect of writing and the "this character's name means this because he did this", I like to choose less-than normal names.

Bethany Faith

First off, I've no idea what a normal name looks like. I've personally never come across one.

Second off, I agree that names should be pronounceable. Tolkien was good at this. Paolini, not so much (may I step out a bit and mention how terrible he is with name-conjuring? I mean, seriously...urgles? Oooooh...now I'm intimidated! It sounds like Paolini stole from the Gollum concept: "urgles are named for the sound they make with their throats." But he does come up with good ones, like Brom, and my personal favorite, Helgrind - which is the perfect name for an evil place. Kudos on that one.).

Third off, I have an entirely unorthodox way of gathering names. Some have meaning (like Eliam, my metaphoric rendition of God - "El" is the Hebrew title for god, and "I am" was God's reply to Moses' inquiry, "Who art thou?" -- So, El-I-am...Eliam), others are drawn from other languages (a monster name Brollyn, which is Dutch for "roar"), others have symbolic names (like a dwarf named Darwik Diggins [form "Darwin"] and Timble Tawkins [from "Dawkins" or "Hawkins" - whichever atheist suits you]), and still other names came while staring out on a stormy day (like yourself) and having a mess of syllables tumble to a page (Professor Agoras Brumwril - master villain whose name has no particular significance).

Fourth off, unique names help us remember the character. If I named my protagonist "Arthur" or "Launcelot," he wouldn't be taken too seriously.

Fifth, you make a strong point. Personally, I'd love to see a "Bob" save the world.

Deo volente,
Pavalini

I read this only after I made my post. How is it we both thought of "Bob" as the normalist of normal names?

....strange.

Plus, I think I've only ever met one "Bob" in my life.

Deo volente,
Pavalini

Maybe it's because we like to use our imaginations, and also because we are just following in the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis.
For another thing, in the fantasy world you're supposed to be speaking a different language, right? So naturally the names would sound a little strange.

For four of my characters (all sisters) I gave them names that could be used in our world, but still sound a bit strange: Pearl, Silver, Emerald, and Opal.

Because I think, for a time, Bob was one of the most common names you could find, not sure though. Not to mention it has been stereotyped as the nost generic, uncreative, boring name you can give to anything. It's common. Everybody has heard it before. Nobody is named it anymore because nobody wants to name something a name that is not respected. And it's very average in the eyes of our culture. I don't know why, though. It just is.

The average Joe. I have only met two Joes?

Anyway; In the door within trilogy Aiden was from the actual Earth so he would have a normal name. I name my characters sometimes average names but in their own languages.
There would really be no reason to have the names Joe or Bob or Tim or Mary or Susan etcetera... because I think most of those were based off off thing such as; Moses meant drawn out of the water in Hebrew. Gabriel means him who is with God. That is where we get most of our names. From other languages meaning of things.

I think that one reason we choose such exotic names is because we don't want fantasy to be the same as real life. Many people choose to read fantasy because it is different. If the names were exactly the same, it wouldn't generate quite as much interest, methinks. If you have a name like, say, "Kirunan", then he becomes instantly more interesting than the much-maligned "Bob".

Also, the surroundings are generally more exotic, or at least the creatures are. Therefore, more interesting names to go with the surroundings.

It's the same reason we have elves and gnomes, and magic and goblins... Because they don't exist! And that makes it exciting!

My Dad's name is Joe! and I've met at least 5 Joe's in my time! Maybe it's a westerner name??

I have pretty average names for the humans in my books (ones I can see people using in real life) like Ana, Zarren, Rosa, Condella (I have actually met a Condella), and Maverick is debatable, but it is in the baby name book!

Whereas, my Elves and dwarfs have kinda different names because they have a different culture. That's pretty much my theory, I think we pick things up when what is in other fantasy books too.
And just to put my two cents in I think John is the most average name, followed shortly by Sarah and Emily.
Ana

Maybe it is a western name? Because I'm all the way east and all the way south in the USA.

Well, you have to consider that these names come from different cultures and languages. Normally one would not find a man in the rainforest named Fred. Our own lands are the same, the name Aiden is normal because:
A. He is from the world
B. He is from America and not a third world country.

However, I believe it is important that readers can at least pronounce a character's name. Not many things are as annoying when you are trying to explain a book to a friend and trying to pronounce Elaphaluminorgiadieyrum.
The great Tolkien used simple names such as Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Legolas and names to that extent. Names you don't have to spend fifteen minutes trying to pronounce. Anyway, stepping off my soapbox. That one struck a petpeeve of mine. When friends come to me with the main character name being longer than the title I can't stand it. If the character needs a nickname to save your writing fingers I think it is time to find a simpler name.

-Aeleknight

I have a cousin named Maverick, Ana. I mean, we call him Mav, mostly, but he's 22, so it is in use.

Actually, (besides "Sarah"), those are names that became so common people quit using them...and thus they became unusual again. (I love the name "Emily". ) Just like "Lucy", or "Amelia". Or even "Jane". I have never met anyone under forty named Jane.

I have read some books where I stumble over the name every time I read it, and in the end I just ignore the name as I am unsure of how to pronounce it. It spoils it for me, as in the end you don't know what the MC is called; I think you should at least be able to pronounce it, or you should use a nickname which the character goes by which one can pronounce.

I can understand using more outlandish names in fantasy, as with another world that seems to fit quite well; I just like them to be pronounceable.

I know quite a few people called Bob/William which they shorten to Bob, but I think that's because there's a lot of farmers here.

I hate this in a story! It drives me crazy!

I know, it's enough to make me put the book down, almost.

To be perfectly honest, E, I never know how to pronounce Iri.

I give my characters names that have fantasy feels to them and yet still pronounceable, I think. I have Anria, Jenimi, Taviolin, Kaios... I think they are easy to pronounce. Taviolin is probably the hardest, but he almost always goes by Tav. It suits him. I like fantasy names that are unusual, but not un-pronounceable and also realistic.

Aha, pretty.

Very smart, E.

Both.

Tolkien did something interesting by translating the names of the characters into more readable names. Most of the characters' "real" names sound completely different from the ones we know them by. (I don't remember what they were, it's in the appendixes.) He even says that names ending in "o," like Frodo, and Bilbo, are feminine to hobbits.
That's sort of similar to what we do with biblical names: Elijah insead of Eliyahu, Jesus instead of Yeshua.
So you could take a name like Vlaasti'v and change it to Blaster or something that's easy to say with an American (or English) accent.

Well... some of my names for my fantasy characters are Keallan, Kasimir, Terran, Ingvar, Alerion, and Ansel. All of those are, in fact, actual names from this world--Ansel is French, and I know that Keallan is Celtic and Ingvar is Nordic.

Well what makes our names normal? I can pull up some seemingly unique names, but they're usually common somewhere, it's all cultural. If you figure on another world having another social evolution from ours, it's only logical that their names should be different. Just look at the differences in name popularity between English speaking nations alone.

Good point, Jazz. My name actually used to be really unusual, till I hit about 12, and suddenly everyone was naming their kids Kaitlyn. Which was sad, because I always liked hearing "Kaitlyn, what an unusual name!".

I had never met anyone called Kaitlyn before I met you, Airi.

I hadn't, either.