Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

Over the course of my love affair with the PNR genre, I have to say that if one more author Christens their character with the name Luke, Lucas, Lucca, Luc or any other variation of I might go insane. Will is also a popular one, but not as bad as Lucas. The same can be said for Lucy, Luce, Lucinda. Anyone else feel any names are way overdone?

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are some way awesome names that pop up every once in a while as well. Some of my favorites are Pierce, Pagan, Ariadne, V'lane, Jericho, Alina, Orion, Helen and Elder just to name a few.

I love Jace, Ash, Patch, Simon, Sean, Cole

Agree about the Lukes.

I was trying to think of others I like and my mind went blank - wow, I have trouble remembering the character's names after I've read a book unless I have read it over a few times.

Most of Jayne Ann Krentz's heroes and heroines have more or less popular names, and some I haven't seen a lot of elsewhere. Off hand I can think of Irene, Sierra, Cleopatra, Prudence, Matilda and Harriet; Thaddeus, Gideon, Caleb, Oliver, Hugh, and Gabriel. All common enough names, but not used and used and used.

I wonder if authors use those names for the association with the meaning of "light"? That could be very symbolic, especially in a dark paranormal world. It's funny that it's used so often, though!

Authors try to give their characters names that are a) significant somehow, either through their meaning or a reference to some figure in myth and history, b) appropriate to the character, and c) memorable. Depending on how much time you have to research names, this can be tricky, and so old standbys are common. Look through 20th-century popular fiction sometimes and see how many German bad guys were named Kurtz. Or, look through Japanese ninja fiction and count the number of Sasukes you find. (Before Naruto more or less owned that one, anyway.)

I've noticed that Lucas shows up a lot in werewolf books, probably due to authors thinking it's derived from the Greek "Lykos", meaning wolf. (I think it's actually from the Latin "Lucania", a region of south Italy.) "Lucy" I haven't noticed showing up as often, but the soft c suggests a connection to Lucifer, whom I think we've all heard of. Alternatively, it could be an overt reference to Lucy Westenra of Dracula fame.

The one I've noticed lately is "Wilson", used as the surname of a cold-blooded killer. Off the top of my head, there's Slade Wilson from D.C. Comics, the killer from the I Know What You Did Last Summer films, and the bad guy from the first Raised by Wolves book.

Lol. I just named a character 'Lucien'...I guess I'll have to rethink that!

For some reason, I find guy names especially difficult to come up with.

I gotta say, I think any author that touches the name Jericho is an idiot. Everyone knows that Jericho is Barrons' first name and. There. Is. No. Competing. With Barrons.

Jennifer wrote: "I gotta say, I think any author that touches the name Jericho is an idiot. Everyone knows that Jericho is Barrons' first name and. There. Is. No. Competing. With Barrons."

I agree!

Barrons! *sigh*

S.J. wrote: "Authors try to give their characters names that are a) significant somehow, either through their meaning or a reference to some figure in myth and history, b) appropriate to the character, and c) m..."

Me too, though he's not a lead... in fact he's been dead for 3 centuries! I look at some of the name websites online when I'm stuck. There's one called 2000names.com or something like that that also gives you meanings alphabetically by name, or in categories, like "light," or "love," etc

I can spend hours looking up names for characters. I try not to fall back on overused names, but some of them sound so strong that it is so tempting. :p

I give names appropriate to birthdate and suggestive of class and ethnicity. And it sort of has to fit the character themselves. There are 1-2 names that appear in every of my books.

I was thinking about this topic the other day....both in our books and in real life....For once I would love to hear someone named Robert...when is the last time you heard that name used?

Found it strange was going to ask if Lucian was okay its my great nephew's name and I love it

Lucian is a GREAT name....that is why our favorite authors use it so often in their PNR novels....it is manly, stoic, warm and solid.

I like easy names.
"Cleopatra" e.g would most likely ruin a book for me, just doesn't sound right. (except she is called Cleo, that would be totally okay).
What I really don't like is if females have male names or a name that can be used for both.
It is hard for me as a non-native English speaker to understand that "Dylan" is a female name.
And names that no one knows how to pronounce correctly are horrible: Hermione - Her-my-o-nee (Harry Potter). Mircea Basarab - no idea.. (Cassandra Palmer Series).

I'm reading right now, and I *hate* the names!! The guy is Theseus Cassio and the girl is Carmel. (Not Caramel...but Carmel). I like the book well enough, but I just can't get past those names. :(