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Post by j2starshine on Mar 27, 2012 15:23:43 GMT -5
Hey yall, Awhile ago I was reading a discussion on Facebook (i think) about how the title of their book happened to be associated with something along the lines of erotica. So I thought I would do a search on my new WIP... And I discovered that the exact name of my ship & title of my book is the name of a porn star! I don't want to change the name because it ties into the story so much and I like it. The ship is the namesake of my female protagonist, her father doing the naming. Perhaps there are porn stars named just about anything, I don't have much...knowledge in that arena... Should that be something we take into consideration? Its not like I'm naming my character Harry Potter or Frodo or titling my book similar to that of other books (that I know of) and trying to jump on their success, but some have thought it might be confusing to readers when they are looking for that book they might come across the porn star first??? Anyways, I thought I'd throw that out there and see what you all thought. Thanks! j2
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Post by myrthman on Mar 27, 2012 17:02:35 GMT -5
I hadn't considered this exact possibility before. It brings up a lot of concerns for which I don't have a ready answer. I guess, pray and see what God would have you do. It may be that someone looking for *porn star* may find your book and eventually turn to Christ. Wouldn't that be awesome!
I did a Google search on my own titles and main characters. I only found one: the villain in my space opera shares a first and last name with a consultant at an internet customer service company. It made me think that The Fourth Wall had been broken somewhere and my evil space pirate was on his way to find me. I mean, who names their kid Taurus?! Kind of alarming, yet a great idea for a speculative story. Hmm...
I have found several of my minor characters on fantasy MUDs or forums, but those don't worry me too much. The porn star problem is one I don't have to deal with at this time, but I am curious how it would affect marketability. Let us know how you decide to handle the issue.
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Post by Kessie on Mar 27, 2012 22:12:20 GMT -5
LOL! Same name as a porn star! What in the world is your ship's name, then? :-D
I wouldn't worry too much about it. In a few years, by the time you get published, that person will have fallen off the radar. People in that industry don't keep their looks very long and get discarded pretty quickly. It's sad that I've noticed this.
My hubby made up most of his characters' names via the Rinkworks Fantasy Name Generator, so his characters' names turn up as either corporations or abbreviations for odd things. I'm not too worried about them. Weird names for the win!
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Post by tjcliff on Mar 28, 2012 11:05:55 GMT -5
I wanted to know the same thing Kessie - what could he possibly have named that ship!?
I've noticed the same thing with ideas that I've had - especially names. I think my problem is the fact that I haven't buckled down and written the story out, and so names and places and setting ideas go unwritten and uncredited to me. My story sits on the shelf while every couple of years a show or movie will come along and have something that very closely resembles something I had planned. It's my own fault, because I lack the courage to actually attempt the story.
As far as character names, the way I see it is - There are six BILLION people in the world today, so I think it is a statisical probability that one of your characters is going to share a name with at least one of those six billion. The odds are in your favor at least in terms of not sharing a name with someone famous, but this is the situation your character is in. You have the justification that you're writing fiction, and any resemblance to other persons, fictional or real, is coincidence. So in the end - I don't think it will matter.
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Post by fluke on Mar 28, 2012 15:32:57 GMT -5
I had a character whose code name was the name of a B-movie (might even have been pornographic, didn't dig that far). Changed the spelling and was good.
In high school, a friend wrote sci-fi and had a random name generator (finger in a phonebook, first flip gives last name, second flip gives first name. Worked for humans.). He wound up with Timothy McVeigh as chief engineer of his ship. This was in '92 or '93 he wrote it. April '95 rolls around, and he decides to change the name.
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Post by firestorm78583 on Mar 28, 2012 20:24:25 GMT -5
This reminds me of an incident years ago, back in the day when schools and churches had to order reel to reel movies. A youth director was ordering a film for his youth group. The name of the film was called Love, God.
The movie that arrived was Lovegod... a porno.
As far as ship names are concerned, in my story, the ship is called the Dewey Brunnel. He wrote the song, A Horse With No Name.
One tool I used to have when coming up with a name was a baby name book. I would try to associate the name's meaning with the character's personality.
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Post by j2starshine on Mar 28, 2012 22:47:14 GMT -5
Ha, you guys, Kessie & rjcliff are funny. The name of the ship is Dragon Lily and that is the name of the book. (which titles tend to change anyways when they are published) Its not a pirate ship but more of a family, explorer ship and so the father named it either after his daughter or he named his daughter after the ship...not sure which came first. From what I understand porn stars have stage names... fluke: Wow, that is incredible. What's the likelihood of that ever happening and then boom. It happens... Firestorm: I love the song: A Horse With No Name, but I didn't know who recorded or wrote it. I love looking up baby names. I wish there was some software that would be a name book for the author's delight. I have 100,001+ The Complete Book of Baby Names. I've also scored the web for baby names sites, but found that the meanings of names don't always add up. Lovegod: I cannot imagine the look on their faces when they realized it was not what they ordered.
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Post by firestorm78583 on Mar 28, 2012 23:55:59 GMT -5
Well I started googling the names of my characters and found some people and some law firms that had the same names. Back to the old drawing board. Good thing Word has search and replace. That'll make renaming the characters that much easier.
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Post by Kessie on Mar 29, 2012 13:33:23 GMT -5
Well gee, I don't think you guys need to worry about those names. I think the icky people will fall by the wayside and your books will outlast them. Actually, I applaud you for using easily-pronounceable names. My feelings on names are summed up by the Tough Guide to Fantasyland on Apostrophes: Few NAMES in Fantasyland are considered complete unless they are interrupted by an apostrophe somewhere in the middle (as in Gna'ash). The only names usually except from apostrophes, apart from those of most WIZARDS, heroes, and COMPANIONS on the Tour, are those of some COUNTRIES. No one knows the reasons for this. Nor does anyone really know how an apostrophe should be pronounced, though there are theories: 1. You ignore the apostrophe and simply pronounce the word. (Here Gna'ash=Gnash.)
2. You leave a gap or lacuna where the apostrophe occurs. (Here Gna'ash=Gna-ash.)
3. You make some kind of clicking-sound to stand for the apostrophe. (Here Gna'ash=gnaglunkash.) Persons with insecurely mounted tonsils should adhere to one of the other two theories.
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Post by j2starshine on Mar 29, 2012 14:42:23 GMT -5
My people names are easy enough, its when we get into my created languages. In the beginning, I've used the apostrophes because I was leaving out letters that were supposed to be there when combing words to create a new name... but we shall see what happens. perhaps that is a mark of an amateur.
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eph612
New Member
Fight the good fight of faith... 1 Tim 6:12
Posts: 18
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Post by eph612 on Mar 30, 2012 19:34:12 GMT -5
I myself have found that names I use already exist. The title of my series (if I ever finish it) is Solar Saint. I found on a google search that there is a character in an MMORPG that is called Solar Saint. But since I use it as a title, and not a character, it doesn't bother me. I did google 'Dragon Lily' and was a little shocked by what came up. BTW, thanks for reminding me to reset the filter on my searches! I can understand the concern you may have. But I recommend you keep your title, stand your ground, and make your Dragon Lily a positive experience for the world.
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Post by Kristen on Mar 30, 2012 20:52:32 GMT -5
I agree, eph. If this were a trademark case, the fact that the two "marks" are in different industries is likely to prevent consumer confusion. j2, it's not software, but try www.behindthename.com/ andhttp://surnames.behindthename.com/ -- they're my favorite name sources.
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Post by j2starshine on Mar 30, 2012 22:58:54 GMT -5
i had to chuckle, eph612... yes. I think I will keep it. I guess it only goes to show there is nothing new under the sun. Kristen thanks for the links! Very cool. Will have to bookmark them.
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Post by firestorm78583 on Mar 31, 2012 12:53:49 GMT -5
Ok, after I Googled the names of my characters (and variations thereof), I came to the realization that 90% are the names of real people. A couple of them showed up on the sex offender database and one variation on a name was a porn star.
I thought I had come up with some fairly unique names, but I am reminded of a tradition in our family. Almost every generation has a William in it, maybe not in a direct family line, but in the family in general. Given this, it doesn't surprise me that when I googled a character's name, there were at least three people with that name that showed up.
So, I guess I will rename the sex offenders and let the others stand pat. As the saying goes, "nothing new under the sun".
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Post by beckyminor on Apr 3, 2012 12:29:30 GMT -5
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it) titles and names are not copyright-able, and very few people go to the trouble end expense of trademarking, so legally, name overlap isn't a big issue.
What I would worry about, however, is how well someone or something else using the name you want to use has optimized its web presence. If you google your protagonist's name, and the whole first page you get back is one usage of the name appearing over and over, I would say, yeah, you want to come up with a new name. If you're running across a single google result that shows that name (even if it is a porn star) you are probably pretty likely to eclipse that one instance if you get published. Especially if you are doing your due diligence and saturating the webisphere with your character names, titles, and byline.
I have run into this issue within the last couple of months, because someone self pulished a book in January with the series title Windriders Saga, despite the fact that my series was already established at the end of 2011 and I had done reasonably well in Search Engine Optimization with the name. I can only guess the person googled it and just said, "Whatever. I want to keep the name anyway." So we'll duke it out for google results for a while, but if I can be prolific enough and keep selling copies, my Windrider Saga will eclipse the other author's. It sounds a little insensitive and cutthroat, I guess, but sometimes business is like that. Sigh.
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