It's just that recently, I've seen an increase in the name "Tuesday." Why? It's a day of the week. And usually the characters weren't even born on a Tuesday, because people just pick random dates for their characters names and don't even check if August 12th 1983 was even a Tuesday (it was actually a Friday. XD). But yeah: point? None. I've seen a lot of ridiculous names and it's just like.. NO.

And I've also seen an alternative to the whole first name, middle name, surname pop up more often recently. Instead of first and last, or all three, it's first and last, along with an initial in the middle. It doesn't really annoy me, but I'm just wondering if there's really a point to it..

Tuesday's actually a traditional name. I have a friend named Tuesday. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday I think are common for names because they mean more than 'just a day of the week'. I don't know the exact meaning, but it's surely there otherwise her parents were just high upon naming her. Poor kid.

It doesn't really bother me, actually - names in general don't bother me. There are no laws saying that a name can't be this because it isn't common. *Shrug* Who wants another Jane when you can have a Reaegyn or who wants another family of Markses when you can have an Eschen-Brenner?

I think it's all about creativity and what your character says to you, not what fits in with the world. *Shrug*

I disagree.
I think naming your character unusual names just makes you seem a little... Pretentious?

My personal opinion here, but if your name looks like you let your cat type, i'm probably going to deny you from my site. There is such a thing as over-creativity....

I'm in two minds about 'Tuesday' though. It is a real name, but it is sort of... annoying.

New Zealand disagrees. xD They didn't let a couple name their family 4Real. So they named it Superman instead. And I remember reading about an Asian couple who wanted to call their daughter "@." New Zealand have also stopped couples several times from naming their children "Satan" and "Adolf Hitler." .. xD

But the main reason I dislike "Tuesday" is because it's pretty annoying, and it's becoming increasingly frequent on forums.

Hmm..

see, I find that treading on creative license. It's my character, who are you to tell me what I can and cannot name them? If people take me as pretentious, then they take me as pretentious, but ultimately it's what I like in a character name and denying me any right to it... well, that's kind of snobbish all on its own, I think.

No offence, really, I'm just saying... I would hate to be told that I can't name my character something because it's 'uncommon and "overly creative"'. ^_^

:lol: well, yes. I agree there, but I mean... symbols and controversial names aside... there are no laws RP-wise or in the writing universe that say you cannot name your character a certain name. :p Naming your kid after a symbol is kind of taking it a bit far... but I could see someone named 'At.' *shrugs*

I don't agree. Your character's name should fall in line with the world that the character exists in. If your character lives in a future, sci-fi world, then by all means please name him Xexorn Ta'mjrtd. If he lives in America, please do not. It does not make sense and is out of context. Setting should always been taken into consideration when creating a character, and that includes choosing a name. Amorentia Morgan probably makes a good name for a pure-blooded Harry Potter character. It does not make sense for a muggle-born or for anyone outside of the Harry Potter universe.

If your character absolutely must have a ridiculous name, there needs to be a very good reason. For instance, I once had a friend named Abra. As in "Abra Kadabra." Her parents were actual hippies at the time of her birth and both were quite young. Several years later, after growing up a little and a bit of a departure from the hippy culture, they had another daughter and gave her the perfectly normal name of "Carrie." Most people only give their children extreme names for extreme reasons.

I give my character's names based on their nationality. Of course, using Utada Hikaru as a PB for my character Hikari is kinda bad. >> Hikaru and Hikari are the same word in Japanese. xD

Oh. It annoys me when people don't even bother to think of a name. D= Not all of the time, if it's just similar, but not exact. But I saw someone using Beyonce as a play-by: so they named their character Beyonce. It's like.. think of a name for once. There are bazillions.

Totally agree about how people see uncommon names as pretentious. Well, it's one thing to have an uncommon name that is still clearly a name. Like, say, Callum or Adelaide. Those names are actual names but they're not that common (at least in most countries), but they're acceptable because they really are names. Now, if you give a character a name that is actually a word... like Remember Davis... or Jupiter Jones... or Autumn Strawberry Fields... then that is something I would probably wonder about. A name is just as important to a character as their personality or history, so IMO it's a completely acceptable to question a player's decision for their character's name, just like it's acceptable to ask them to change a part of their history or personality that doesn't make sense. It's all relative, though. Wizards from wizarding families in HP will have strange names; but on the other hand, Muggle-born wizards will probably have very common, typical names.

It also kind of annoys me when all modern-day high school RPs have characters with unique names. Where are the Jameses and Jessicas? I actually find normal names to be a lot more creative than unique ones, simply because everyone tries so hard to make their character to stand out with a contrived "original" name.

I created Hikari before I gave her a PB, so I am SNEAKY SNEAKY! AHAHAH! >>

But I had a friend use Sarah Michelle Gellar for a PB and the characters name? BUFFY SUMMERS!

I wanted to effing cry.

I think I did. x.x

See, now that's fine. ^-^

-explodes-

That'd be fine if it was a Buffy forum. << But I'm assuming it's not, from the whole wanting to cry thing. xD

It wasn't. x.x It was for a High School RPG I had for a bit. I literally just cried. I shouldn't have accepted it. x.x

Alright, I am normally all about creative license because, hey, we can't all be named Janey Sue or Madeline, Mary, Brianna, Charlotte... but I think there's a limit too. While Tuesday is a legitimate name, Teuysiday (pronounced Tuesday) just seems kind of silly if you're role playing in, say, a modern setting.

I do like a little creativity, though. It seems like on most boards all you get is a bunch of Anglo-Saxon names for characters who might not even come from America or Great Britain or anything. I don't think many people realize that most baby name sites online have all sorts of lists of names that are popular in other countries-- and most of them sound pretty cool, too.

That's just my pet peeve, though, I get bored of just seeing Chucks (short for Charlotte), Samanthas, and Jennas. Variety is. after all, the spice of life, right? Although I guess if everyone is using Tuesday now, that' annoying in its own way.

As someone who knows as Cassiopeia, knew a Cosmo and a Mars (I'm not making any of this up :B), and has a job where I go out to high schools and pull name cards for a photography company...

Uhhhh, odd names are NOT as uncommon as people in this thread seem to think. O_o

For instance, on my last outing I met a Xhesica.

For the record, it's pronounced "Jessica."

I can basically reach into my little name card box at random, pull out a card, and the number of times I'll pull out a bizarre name is pretty darned good. xD Maybe it's just my location, San Diego and all, but...*shrug*

Point is, it's not really uncommon anymore.

I think names should fit the setting, though, so I would pull a "O__o" if anyone tried for any of those names in, say, a Victorian setting. P: But in modern times? Pffft, people can pretty much name their kid whatever they want for whatever reason. Recently, a kid was even named "Sephiroth". *snicker* So I wouldn't protest anyone joining a character to a modern-day game with a weird name.

But I would also hope they'd be prepared for my characters making fun of them for it. Because a lot of them would. >D

I create characters with weird names a lot, myself. In my case it makes sense I suppose since I play in high fantasy and sci-fi fantasy settings. Strangely, though, it's the sci-fi fantasy game that makes me wanna use common names. O_o I've got a Gabriel and a Rachel for instance, and I love it.

But I've also got an Arrow Archer and I did that intentionally. Her name has a backstory and everything! And she gets made fun of for her name like whoa--which was exactly what I wanted. xP She wants to change it when she's old enough to. *grin*

i am in agreement with what seems to be the moajoirty of people here. i think that while yes original names are nice they don't have to be wild to be original and they should always make sense.

if you have a character going to highschool in the US with an incredibly foreign name but give no explanation as to why they have that name then it can be a bit ridiculous.
I also hate names that should be normal but are mispelled to make them "unique" like Jayk Dayve or something else equally silly.

My biggest pet peeve is people who spend all this time thinking of crazy names that don't fit the characters at all. it's annoying. as for people who take normal words and make them names (tuesday,rain,blue) it can be annoying to a certain extent. i personally don't see anything wrong with tuesday but i've also never come across it in a RP. rain or raine or however people spell it annoys me to no end, i was once on an RP where three people were names rain but with different spellings which is another thing i hate i think that it should be one person with the name per forum no Caleb and Kaleb or Sarah and Sara it only confuses people.

It's a name, who cares? They want to be Raechil and not Rachel? Well, who cares? So long as its consistent with their history (ion the appropriate setting, time, and with quirky parents) then let them have that name. You can always refer to them using a nickname.

i wouldn't really care if people had reasons for the names they give their characters but most of the time they honestly don't. it's more of an "i think this name sounds cool" or "i want to be different so i'll purposely misspell this name and make it unique" i've had characters with unusual names before but i've also had reasons for it(they're foreign for example) it just bugs me when people think of these ridiculous names but have no reason for it

I really hate the whole "His/Her parents were hippies so s/he has a weird name." .... Not everyone had kids in the 60s, people. :| Be more creative. Of course, there are some parents who name their kids uniquely just because they want their kids to stand out. But ehh. I know uncommon names are out there, but it gets annoying when there are NO common names on a forum based on a high school or something.

yea that bugs me as well. i dont think people realize when they're creating teen aged characters that if their parents were hippies then they would be in their thirties my parents were both born in the sixties and they don't have unusual names. they also didn't give any of their children unusual names in homage to their hippie parents. it's really quite silly to be honest

Rayne, Rain, Raine, and Rane... are all names I've come across in real life. :p so it's a pretty common name.

I think the whole one name per forum thing though... is just wrong. I was one a forum with that rule, and it practically forces you to come up with an out there name for a character.

For instance, there's a 'Wynd' pronounced 'Wind.'
There's also a 'Sita' (see-tah) a 'Harmony' and a 'Melody.'
A Noalan and a Pyro (yeah that's his name).

Of course, this is all in HP universe... but my point is... if we were allowed to do duplicate names with different spellings, things would be so much easier.

Anyway, the whole 'world' thing: I was talking about what's accepted IRL...not in the RP universe. Of course the name should fit within the RP universe.... I wouldn't dare put a girl named Reaegyn Juniper Eschen-Brenner in any RL RP (she was on my HP RP and she was pureblooded...with rather whimsical parents). But at the same time, if I wanted to put someone of the sort there... she would be aware of her odd name and probably hate it.

I'm just saying that as admins, I really don't think we have the right to tell people they can't have certain names... sure, it would be nice if they somehow made the history behind their name plausible, but usually there isn't any good reason for a name to be given.

My middle name: Danelle, was a spelling mistake by my mom after she gave birth to me. (It's missing the I)... and I like it, however, there was no specific reason behind it...

I dunno..it would just bother me if someone told me I couldn't have my characters name be something because it was spelt too extravagantly or didn't have good enough reason behind it. So, I wouldn't ever ask someone else to change their character's name.

To me, a character forms itself in my mind...and the name pops out at me... I don't go looking for one (unless it's something foreign and I don't know the language)... so it is difficult to imagine them as anything else. *shrug*

Bwaha. See, there's a plausible reason. [= And it's a name that actually sounds realistic, and like something that someone could call their child (Pyro = what the hell? XD).

Plausible reasons are great. Like in To Kill A Mockingbird; X Billups. His name's only X because his parents couldn't write, so they signed his birth certificate with an X. xD

I like to give my character's odd names... or, well, ones you don't see normally... Mackenzie, Yoshi (he's from Japan, so shoot me), Scout, and Cecilia (who is a boy who had a really religious mother. He was born a long time ago, so it fits).

But Tuesday is not that weird of a name. I do agree that you kind of want to tell people to come up with less used, but you can't completely say 'no original names' either. Because people like me would take that the wrong way and say 'you think we named OUR CHARACTERS wrong?!' When we did not. We just named them differently (or, in my case, most of my characters ask for their name and often refuse to go by anything else and I know you might say 'no, you can go against them there, can't you?' No, tried it. Only makes them vanish out of thin air.)

I feel ya there. I have the same issue. :B My characters often pop into my head with their name--and if I tried to call them anything else, they simply wouldn't be the same character, at all, but a completely different one...

I don't tend to go for really weird names, but I have had a boy called Alice...most I tend to be very aware of the situation and time that my characters are in.

However there is no such thing as too much creativity. Never.

I think there should be restrictions in the real world, because someone called Sex Fruit (a real name) will be bullied probably their entire life. I think restrictions on people naming their children horrible things should be a death sentence for the parents -_-

In the RP world, though, I see no reason why a girl in a Victorian setting couldn't be called Zaffid. I'd expect people to explain that her mother died and her father was an opium addict or that her parents were geniuses hundreds of years ahead of their time or were actually from the future, but as long as the name had an explanation that fit my setting (and I would accept all of those explanations) then it'd be totally fine with me.

Unless I was making a character and I wanted her/him to be common, I would never give a character of mine a name I thought was boring. I wouldn't accept it. It would be a waste of a name and it would upset me to think that I was that boring.

Amen.

I <3 you.

End of story.

OK, I play a Richard, a John, a George, a Gabriel and a Harry. This is a historical RPG, after all.

Until recently there was a girl at work whose name was Racheal - not Rachel or Rachael, as you'd expect. My name is Keren (rhymes with 'heron'), but I got pretty darn sick of being called 'Karen' or 'Kieran'. This is what people with 'normal' names don't understand: having a name that is slightly different IRL can be a real pain' I'm forever having to spell my name for people.

In an RPG, as has already been said, names should fit with the theme and genre. Have a character called Laura in your high-school game; there was three in my lass at secondary school! Where are the Michelles, Jameses, Marks? You never know - having a 'normal# name might make your character different enough on your RPG that he, or she, will be interesting!

Meh. .___. Being "Sean" - I've had bazillions of birthday and christmas cards and stuff saying "Shaun" and "Shawn." And even people pronouncing my name as "Seen." Meh. But I don't mind that much. but when your friend does it for five years, it's pretty annoying. xD

My sympathies Seanu. My name has experienced mispronouncing several times too and I can't understand why. It's a simple name! It is an international name and there have been famous actors called that but for some reason English speakers have trouble with the name whereas people in my country doesn't have such issue. They just wonder is they have to pronounce the vowels in the middle of it short or long.

...and some people I have known for over 10 years and they still can't spell my name. Even mu uncles have trouble with it. And it's such a simple name! :angry: My teachers constantly get confused with it though I think I've trained few of them to know how to spell it.

I like uncommon names. The site that I run is littered with them, but then that is probably because it is fantasy based. I am somewhat of the other ilk, I don't like it when you get a character that is, for example, an elf and they are called 'James' or something that does not fit at all with their culture.

I am going to say on this one though that it should be based on individual persons and as long as it fits the rule of the site, ie having a first name and last name displaying - or whatever the site requests, it really is not my place as an Admin to tell the otherwise.

As long as a name fits the culture of their character, the history of their character, the rules of the board and the setting of the story, I am happy with whatever their name is.

My best friend has an RP charrie called James, she gets it from being a Harry POtter fan though, as she adores -both- James Potters... just not Harry xD

I don't think my charries names are too odd, or too common, I have a Feliicty and a Callie (Callidora originally, but she was a Harry Potter charrie XD) that I always seem to use, as well as an occasional Amelia.

But I have a really common real name; Hannah. And tbh, I -hate- it.

>_< I get tired of this because I know they all stole it from the character Chuck Charles on the TV show Pushing Daisies.

Anyway. I like names that fit character's histories and the setting. You can be unique, within reason, if you can explain why in the history, but there's a point where it just gets unbelievable and makes me cringe, so I think balance is key.

I don't think I've ever had an unfittingly weird name. I mean, I had a Dymphna, a Lucallyne and a Loriella, but those were for HP boards. Loriella evolved from another character, Lori Nikole, who probably had the most pretentious name of any of my characters, but her parents were pretentious, so it worked in her case. And I don't think I overblew it and made it so unusual it really stuck out. XD I have a Birgitta, but she's Swedish, so she's got a Swedish name.

For normal names with a little bit of added flavor, I had a Charlotte who always went by Charlie (note this was also before Pushing Daisies came out), and a Claire who hated her name because her mom named her that after Molly Ringwald's character on The Breakfast Club. (:lol:)

I think for fantasy or Harry Potter, yes, you can have unusual names, because unusual names fit with those genres. Generally, names should fit with the genre, and the type of character played. A muggle-born witch or wizard on a Harry Potter board should have a relatively muggle-sounding name, but a pureblood could have a weird-sounding name. But then, Ron Weasley is the son of a witch and a wizard, and 'Ron' is a pretty muggle-sounding name, to me. So it doesn't always work.

And having strange names isn't a modern phenomenon. The Victorians had some pretty strange names: Water, Emerald, Diamond, Buttercup, Garnet. And Evelyn Waugh was a male author. Even the name Vivian was unisex, historically.

So I guess it all comes down to you, the character and the board/genre. I know that if I were to play on a board where most of the characters had unusual names, I'd buck the trend and go with something slightly more usual. But that's just me!

Ah yes, but with Ron, his Dad is obsessed with all things muggle related. It is very probably that his passion for the muggle culture has influenced the choice of names for his children, most of them are pretty muggle-like.

Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny.

^ Well many wizards/witches have very common names... James Potter is common, and he and Lily named their son Harry which is as common as you get. And Mr. Weasley's name is Arthur while I think his father's name was Septimus or something. :p So it goes both ways, I suppose!

There are restrictions in the real world. You can't give your child a name that contains vulgar words.

[randomly jumps in -- I'm new ^.^]

As for names, I do actually like the unique ones. I don't like the random pulled out of someone's rear for no apparent reason other than TO be unique names. I don't mind well thought out ones even if there isn't some big reason behind it. Honestly, I think if you're creative enough to come up with a unique name that fits your character and the setting, there doesn't need to be a story behind it. Your parents didn't have to be hippies, your mom didn't have to be crazy or you dad a drug addict. You don't have to have a kid sister named Rocket just like the pet dog either. There are plenty of families that have one child with a unique name and others with everyday more common ones.

Personally, I have a million different names for my characters.

--Axton Ryder Tripp (Nickname Ax for short)--
--Gage Alexander Mason (Nickname Mase)-- His brother's name? Ryan.
--Aidan James Voltaire (Nickname AJ)--
--Orion Benjamin Voltaire (Nickname Ryan)--
--Ariel Christine Nebrich--
--Maddox Taylor-- (yeah, he's a wealthy dude)
--Ian Layton--
--Helen Prince--
--Riley Summers--
--Evelyn McCarthy (Nickname Evie)--
--Ian Parker Isaacs--
--Cain Murdoch--
--Emily O'Hara--
--Tyler Gage--
--Misty Gage--

I'm not sure if that's the whole list or not. Do I have stories behind them? A few. Most of them I just chose because they fit my character. Notice they aren't all Eziekiel's or Rakelle's or whatever the newest obsession with Rain and apparently Tuesday is. I do have regular run of the mill names in there too. It depends on the character and how they were brought up. More than likely, a wealthy kid isn't going to be a John. A wealthy kid is going to have parents who are snobby and want their kid to be a one of a kind. Hence Axton. I'm not saying all wealthy people are snobby, don't get me wrong please. Just an example.

As for limiting the creation of names? Definitely not an option. Number one: it limits creativity. Every RPer deserves their right to be creative with their character. They choose where the person grew up, who they are, what they like and don't like; why shouldn't they get to choose the name that fits all that? As for not allowing more than one character to have the same name because of confusion? How many of you went to a school where not one person had the same name as anyone else? Probably none of you. Personally, in my graduating glass of only one hundred thirty six people, there were at least four Amanda's, four or five Brittany's (a few spelled differently), a TON of Ashley's, a BUNCH of Daniel's, probably six or seven John's. I mean, you can't believe that no one else in the school will have the same name, especially if it's Rachael (el, whatever). We also had a few of those. I also wasn't the only Tiffany, if that counts for anything.

Really, when it comes down to it, a name isn't something that should be monitored. I think it's based on the character and it's something that the person creating the character has a right to create him or herself.

Ginny was short for Ginevra. Not a very common name.

Anyway, I think that if it fits the character and the setting, it shouldn't matter too much. For example, some of my character names:

Rianna Xi
San (Miyo Aomori)
Rylis Tavel
Ellothiel Merenel
Emaleth Morel
Yin-Mei (goes by Mei)
Holly Maes
Elisabeth 'Liss' Marden
Ineia Velia

Random list, right? Well, Rianna, Rylis, and Ineia are all from the Star Wars universe (Rianna a former Jedi, Rylis a bounty hunter, and Ineia a corrupt politician). Ellothiel is an elf from the Lord of the Rings setting. Emaleth is a runaway noblewoman/pilot from a futuristic sci-fi RP. San is my Matrix RP character; her blue-pill name was Miyo and she was born in and grew up in Japan. Mei is a Chinese Mage. Holly is a random character I use to combat boredom with a friend and Liss is my Vampire: The Masquerade character I've been bouncing around.

So for most of my games? 'Normal' names would not fit well. But the ones I did choose fit very well for the character and the setting. It always seems to me that the character chooses the name, anyway. I tend to go through lists of names, thinking up ideas, and suddenly one will just click.

I don't exactly have a common name myself, either, being named Alana. I'm forever having to tell people how to pronounce it properly or spell it.

(also, I always find it fascinating to see what sort of naming patterns someone favors...)

I'm afraid it would be a trend. I have seen a "whole week" in the past two weeks. "Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday, Monday, Yesterday... etc"
There was a site that I was an admin, and there were three characters that their name was "Summer", "Autumn", and "Winter". Wow, how cool is that? I was like "We just need a Spring, and then my board would have four seasons..."

I would say, names like Autumn Strawberry Fields are not "uncommon" names, they are "crazy" names.
Btw, what would you do as an admin if a member applied as Apply Muffin, Lemon Jello? Could I ask him/her to change it? =/ Just in case I have the chance to meet one...

You could ask them to change it. Usually, it seems fairly obvious to me when someone chooses a crazy name just to be crazy or pretentious. I usually don't demand people change their weird character names, I just ask that they consider it because it doesn't fit the setting, it seems strange given their background, etc.