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I started to foul up on my originals … now I’m bit more aware. A substantial number had “J” as the first initial, became worse when a number started with “Ja” and you’d have to go to THREE letters in to get them any different. Too late to correct all of them, however, I’ve been trying to introduce nicknames for secondary characters. Too similar and the names blend together in the readers minds.

Oh, name duplication does happen in real life. Got a number of alter egos if I do a goggle search on my own name, a lawyer, a director of a food company, a firefighter? etc. Even an occasional issue at work where there’s duplicates in the global org-wide email address list, if people don’t realize that my real legal first name *is* the short version, not the customary long version (an assumption that’s valid 85% ofthe time, but I’m not in that 85% group). Issue comes to writing a story, if you had a story full of John Smiths, how do you distinguish them to the reader? In a movie, it’s less problematic, because unless the actors looked the same, the viewer would get the drift. Another J example is that I have “Joe” as a major character (short for Joseph). His mother “Josephine”, those two, role wise are easier. However, a side character coming in was Joey, see where the confusion can come in? Especially if I fat finger the name while writing? You typically don’t want to (unintentionally) confuse the reader more than you have to. Of course, having a duplicate name might be a good plot point too, but you still need some distinction for the reader. Now, in my main potter fanfic, the perpetrator is making heavy use of Polyjuice (or an equivalent), impersonating Harry while doing nefarious deeds. However, makes it challenging because as the narrator, I don’t want to call the doppelganger “Harry”, so I’ll go “raven haired boy” or similar descriptions. It still comes to the same philosophy of not wanting to confuse the reader to what’s happening (aside from deliberate misdirection).

That can happen if the breadth and or the depth of your universe of named important characters gets large. That also happens in real life, too. And sometimes, the most “generic” name a society has to offer can ultimately name great heroes, great villains, and people of major achievement that while not evil aren’t valorous either. “John Smith” is considered a very generic name. Yet this name was borne by a colonial governor of what became Virginia, a modern television actor, and a furniture merchant with a fondness for the letter “y” who sold his goods on credit to the citizens of Chicago immediately after they were all burned-out (literally) in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The eponymous furniture store that merchant created, John M. Smyth, remained in business for just over 140 years. You will also find that certain ages in certain societies will have given names become so popular that they are overused in one generation and fall almost completely out of use in the next. “Adolph” was once a moderately popular given name. For some strange reason, that name became very unpopular after the mid 1940s. While not likely in real life, it is in fact possible to have two people with the same exact name, who not only can’t trace back to a common ancestor closer than 500 years, but who are diametrically opposed to, and loathe each other. Or, with a different switch flipped, they can be closer than actual brothers, or in these modern times even become spouses to each other. Thanks.

Re: “The Red Day” From JamesRyder on April 06, 2022 Thank you! That’s an important reason why I wrote this chapter from multiple perspectives instead of just one, like the previous three chapters. Including the male perspective also explains why the story is titled “The Red Day.” Well, the next chapter is the last, so if you’re going to find out at all, you’ll find out soon.