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I don’t follow Riverdale… but yeah, given the author set on this website, especially as most of my stories have the underage warnings on them, “minor characters” has dual meanings. Suppose even primary & secondary could in a school setting. Suppose a good hint for names is “love interest” vs “sex object”. If it’s simply another hole (or dick), then names are less urgent. If it’s in the name of romance, then a name would be more important.

Feeling a bit… old when somebody review comments that they were born eight days before I first published the story.

Context is everything here. If it’s a long scene with only that other character, you might get away with “naval officer” and use “he” or “she” pronouns; M/F being easier at than over, say M/M or F/F. And your main character not remembering the name the next day. Going down a line? Maybe a name, maybe not. If I’m portraying the opening run of football players within cheerleaders? Describe the paint job, the similarity, or even one or two differences as you’re going down that line. If you’re bouncing between characters, back and forth, well, names are likely more critical. (ps. trying to retire “minor” from this conversation unless you’re wanting it to be under-18.)

Hi, Deadman and all. This isn’t necessarily a problem, per se. If for example you are trying to stress how generous your main character is with their physical affections, you might actually stress the genericness or anonymity of their paramours. “Just sayin’” Cheers!

Hi, Desiderius Price and all. Perhaps the terms “Primary and Secondary Characters” is more fitting here. The “classic Riverdale” cohort are all juniors in High School from what I remember, and I’m far from the only author here with more “curiously age-challenged” characters. “Going down the line” was what I was referring to. Lots of people go “railfanning.” Very few want to read the manifest in the lead locomotive that was pulling the train… ...Off topic, but I can’t resist. Most women prefer sailing and yachting over railfanning, when given only those two choices for a recreational activity. I’m told the reason is that no woman has ever had her reputation destroyed for pulling a boat. Ducking and running...

Yeah, I’m more concerned about the ability of readers to distinguish rather than creating a full character workup. This is because the main focus of the minor character is having sex with the main character. However, what I noticed is that in many of my stories, I either use a canon character who already has a name or if I create an OC, I used to give them names but have kinda stopped doing this. In the examples I give of “naval officer” or “personal trainer” I will refer to “naval officer on the left” or “naval officer I first spoke to”. Which technically does give people a sense of the different characters but maybe I should just say “John” or “Frank”.

Another passing of Dumbledore, the second actor Michael Gambon 1940-2023.