British/American Names

[Gawian]

So there I was, watching an episode of Castle while not writing my damned story and all of a sudden, a character says something that strikes a chord with me.

"Derek Storm. Nicki Heat. Jameson Rook. Would it kill you to name a character Gonzales once in a while."

That's totally me. I tend to stick with mostly British/American names. Maybe fictional like Kale (I say fictional because I don't think I've ever met or even heard of a real person called Kale), but still, that strikes me as a British/American name.

Does anyone else tend to do that, or do you all manage to write a multi-ethnic cast??

 

[hopewrites]

Idk, Gonzalez sounds American to me. In the town I grew up in the Gonzalez's out numbered the Smith's, and we had no Jones's at all. My early crushes were Mark and Pedro...

I tend to pull my name's from a baby naming website I found that sorts by meaning, so I can look up all the names meaning "strong leader" and pick the one that sounds most like my strong leader. Or I pull them out of my head. Amy, Jack and Chester are pretty Anglican, I guess. But they fit with these guys.

 

[Gawian]

Idk, Gonzalez sounds American to me. In the town I grew up in the Gonzalez's out numbered the Smith's, and we had no Jones's at all. My early crushed were Mark and Pedro...

I thought it was Mexican or Spanish?

Maybe I should've specified this would be a VERY... Painfully... stereotypical post.

 

[hopewrites]

It is
Where I grew up in the States was more than half Latino, where I'm at now is equally Asian, Latino, Anglican, and Hindi.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The only "real" American names are the Indigenous folk. Most others are European* (Most Hispanic/Latino/Mexican names are just DIFFERENT European), with some smaller numbers of Middle Eastern, African, Asian etc...


[* Technically British names are just as European as the Portuguese Sousa or German Schmitt]

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I try to throw in a few non UK/US for variety but so far have written mostly western-centric characters. I don't tie myself in knots about this. To do a different culture I'd need to know and understand it - so, until I do that research I wouldn't presume to show a different culture.

Also, check out Ian McDonald - he does sf in all sorts of diverse cultures.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I don't tie myself in knots about this. To do a different culture I'd need to know and understand it

Apart from actual Aliens, actual fantasy species and Worlds etc I write based on places I've been and people I've met.

 

[hopewrites]

Maybe I should've specified this would be a VERY... Painfully... stereotypical post.

Ok so Ray made me think here. "Write what you know." is something we all hear all the time. And back before the internet and the possibility of small international communities (like this one) where people can met and get to know other cultures Stereotypes were quick reference guides to other places.

With the advent of the idea that stereotypical type casting is racist AND bigoted, the use of stereotypes is dropping. Does this also mean people are increasingly isolated in the cultural diversity they are aware of? I mean, I was 16 before I met someone who didn't look Caucasian or Latino, and in my early 20's before I met someone who wasn't culturally pretty much the same as me.

Granted humans rarely fit in the cookie cutter boxes that are stereotypes, but in broad strokes or faint outlines they do give the idea of a shape someone might take.

 

[Nick B]

Liberator has a hugely multi-ethnic cast. And deliberately so. We have a Japanese descended family corporation whose name is Nixon. The planet the story starts on was originally founded by south east asian corporations but ended up with an extremely strong hispanic culture. Ship names from Khurshid to Arianne. Post humans with names that (hopefully) are either very alien or strange to the ear.
Basically it is a melting pot of ethnicities, where you can't make assumptions about someone by their name at all.

 

[NbDawn]

Sometimes I use a common American/British name, such as Robert. Sometimes I alter the name, such as Tomis or Rik instead of Thomas or Rick. Sometimes I use names from ancient history and mythology of different cultures, such as Mitas, Helga, or Dana. Sometimes I take those ancient names and alter them, such as Ashara, Minfeng, Thorolf, and others. But most of the time I just make up names, such as Jori or Terk.

For me, using names that sound like they are from different cultures really helps separate the characters. Since my fantasy and sci-fi stories both consist of different colliding cultures, it is doubly important for me to use non-traditional names. Depending on your story, you may not need to.

 

[ratsy]

My book has some seriously American names, but the characters are from the US. I also have a Magnus, and a Natalia who are Scandinavian and Russian...so classic

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have McDowells and Eamons and Aishlings and lots of weird NI names. Do I pass go?

 

[The Big Peat]

So there I was, watching an episode of Castle while not writing my damned story and all of a sudden, a character says something that strikes a chord with me.

"Derek Storm. Nicki Heat. Jameson Rook. Would it kill you to name a character Gonzales once in a while."

That's totally me. I tend to stick with mostly British/American names. Maybe fictional like Kale (I say fictional because I don't think I've ever met or even heard of a real person called Kale), but still, that strikes me as a British/American name.

Does anyone else tend to do that, or do you all manage to write a multi-ethnic cast??

There was a lad called Kale Clague in the NHL entry draft this year. So add that to the real person list!

When writing sci-fi I try to be multi-ethnic. But I'm multi-ethnic like an UN peace keeping force, not multi-ethnic like the states, where people make up names and borrow names and end up with names from two different cultures and all that all the time.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I think characters should never be named to fill a diversity quotient. What is the cultural capital of your characters? That will inform their names. Diversity for the sake of diversity horrifies me. (And obfuscates a real-world issue.)

pH

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think characters should never be named to fill a diversity quotient. What is the cultural capital of your characters? That will inform their names. Diversity for the sake of diversity horrifies me. (And obfuscates a real-world issue.)

pH

Amen. Cease discussion.

 

[Wiglaf]

The names should match your time and location. There has to be a lot of Spanish surnames and a few Asian as well if you are writing about modern day Southern California. But perhaps more Norse and Germanic surnames in a story set in AD 600 Sweden.

 

[Alex The G and T]

On a curious note, that sounds like a non-sequeter but may not be. The current Prime Minister of Japan is named, "Abe."

Otherwise, I'm going with the consensus between Phyrebrat, Jo and Wiglaf.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

"Write what you know." is something we all hear all the time. ... stereotypes ... Does this also mean people are increasingly isolated in the cultural diversity they are aware of?

Not all stereotypes are evil. Many always were

"Write what you know."
Yes, though we can do research and learn more. Decent research, learn about other places. People HAVE done it well.

Inspector Ghote - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
H. R. F. Keating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keating did not visit India until ten years after he started writing about it.[3]

Several 1950s to 1970s Authors used income from writing for world travel to research places and peoples for their novels. Used sensibly, Wikipedia and Internet do help. Real time Text chat, email and even voice is now basically "free" (included) if you have broadband Internet. Since 2005 I now have contacts in USA, Slovakia, India, Germany, Switzerland, France that I keep up with on email and occasionally on Skype (never on FaceTwitLink as they are not private). A programmer got to know via embedded CPU project since inherited his families Cinema and palm oil factory in India.

In earlier eras keeping in touch with people when you changed job or travelled was more limited to close friends you made, in any case easy to lose the written addresses. My email accounts & data have been copied from computer to computer and program to program since 1996 and I make backups. I have email contacts for anyone on Skype and if I want to keep in touch with people on a forum I always exchange email addresses.

 

[Ursa major]

Do I pass go?

Not unless you have a monopoly on the use of those names, which seems unlikely.

As Quellist strongly implied above, there's a difference between names and ethnicities (and nationality). (In four semi-finals in the next couple of days there, three of them are going to feature someone called Williams, but I'd hesitate to suggest, either in terms of nationality or ethnicity, that Wales was on the ascendant in both football (soccer) and tennis....) So while having a cast of characters whose names are appropriate to the setting is good, it's no substitute for having a variety of ethnicities and nationalities**. You'll probably need both (or all three).



** - In terms of realism, nationality is, obviously, the most problematic, particularly as the setting moves further into the future: who knows what countries are going to exist (in a meaningful way, or as a strong memory) in the future? A thousand years from now, will a character being described as American mean that they even know much about a country called the USA? Who knows? I don't recall any future humans being described as being Ottomans but have read about plenty of "Soviet" characters. People would likely assume an alternate history lay behind the described future if they'd read about the former. The latter will already seem just as strange to many.

 

[Droflet]

I have a mix. Okuma, Kaspowitz, Waugh, Foss, Redpath etc.