Names, do they make or break your love of a character…
22 October 2013
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Character names: love or hate, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish is back this week and the theme is names of characters. Ones you love, hate, can’t pronounce or are simply indifferent to. My picks:
- The boy with no name – The Ocean at the end of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, the young boy’s name is never revealed? I almost read the whole book without even realising that fact.
- The Woman with no name – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier – ditto the above!
- The name that is also an ‘object’ – Door, from Neverwhere – also by Neil Gaiman.
- Jean Tannen – a fantastic name (or do I just have a massive book crush) from Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastard series.
- A name you don’t want to mess with – Jorg from the Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Really, if you’d like your head to stay where it currently sits, don’t mess with him! I’m just saying. Also I spent the whole series reading this as Jorg with a ‘J’ – I understand it’s actually Jorg but spoken as a ‘G” but I’m sorry I’ve got used to that name now and it’s stuck!
- Seth – one of the Sithe (and a bit of mind candy if anyone is interested in that type of thing) from Firebrand – the rebel angel series written by Gillian Philip which is a totally excellent series that I adore.
- Hobbit names – they all sound sort of cute don’t they? Bilbo, Frodo, Merry and Pippin (don’t forget Samwise Gamgee!)
- The brilliance of Harry – after all we have Harry Potter (JK Rowling) and Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)
- Iuda – who is the very embodiment of evil (pronounced Juda) – this guy is evil, dirty, smelly, bad breath, nasty, no remorse, no pity, you name it – what a great villain from Jasper Kent’s Danilov Quintet
- A name that makes you smile – Sunshine from Robin McKinley’s book of the same name. What a lovely name for a character!
Obviously can’t do this meme without a famous quote:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name, would smell as sweet.”
Books and travelling with Lynn 
Door is a great name–it’s what she opens. Does the story ever mention the names of her family? I vaguely remember something about Portico…
Oh drat – now I’m going to have to go and find the book and look through it! Otherwise it will bug me. I think all the names were to do with openings??
Lynn 😀
I think they were, but Portico was all I could remember. And I got it from the library, so I can’t go back and check.
How did I miss out Sunshine!!!?
It’s a great name isn’t it!
Lynn 😀
I think J.K. Rowling created some really interesting names even Harry Potter although rather plain sounds extraordinary.
She did actually. I mean I used Harry because he’s the focus of the series and also I like Harry Dresden. But she’s got such a lot of good names in the books, Dumbledore, for example!
Lynn 😀
Hobbit names are all pretty awesome, yet again so are the elf names… and the dwarf names… and the human names… Ok, all names from Lord of the Rings are awesome!
Roxy @ Story Envy
I think I detect a LoTR fan here! Which is of course no wonder because that book is so much awesomeness!
Lynn 😀
I still need to read The Ocean at the end of the Lane
It’s such a good book – I think I actually might read it again soon, even though I’ve not got the time for rereads. (well, not exactly true as I will be rereading RoT)
Lynn 😀
Samwise Gamgee is a brilliant name 😛
I know, I’m always quoting Sam in work – in a funny voice – ‘I aint been dropping no eaves Mr Gandalf’.
Lynn 😀
“please Mr Gandalf don’t turn me into anything…unnatural…” I just love him I’d quite like my own Samwise Gamgee 🙂
haha, Sam was definitely a character! I love quoting from that film – don’t get me started though – it is folly!
Lynn 😀
I’ll stop now because I’m pretty bad once I get going too lol
That is my favourite film to drop quotes from and, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) I work with a guy who also loves it – so we do have a LOT of fun. The other people in the office just sort of roll their eyes and look indulgent. Today was a perfect example. There was a meeting going on (that was quite confidential) and there were some people sat outside waiting to go out. Then one of the people came out and said (jokingly I hope!) ‘you haven’t been listening to us’? Of course you know what I had to say (on their behalf) “we ain’t been dropping no eaves’ – it was perfect!! (sorry I went on a geek fest there for a moment).
Lynn 😀
😀
Huh, I always call him Jorg with a hard “J” sound too. I just finished reading The Neverending Story the other day, two of my favorite character names – Bastian and Atreyu. *sigh*
long names often trip me up. what syllable does the emphasis go on? am I pronouncing it right?
Well of course it’s not unknown for me to be wrong so it could really be a ‘J’. I kind of like it now, it wouldn’t feel different to call him a name that was really ‘George’ – it just doesn’t have the right feel.
I want to read The Neverending Story too – I had it on order at the library along with The Once and Future King but I didn’t get chance to read it and somebody else had it reserved so I couldn’t renew. I don’t know, some people are so damned selfish!!! I will get it again though. I think it’s one of those books that I’d love.
Long names and other difficult names to pronounce I always just cheat and shorten them in my head! How bad is that. The author probably spends ages coming up with some long elaborate name and I just change it to Ged/Jon/Ren/Lyn, etc. Then when I write a review I can’t remember who the hell anyone is. I think probably even more annoying is when a lot of the characters have similar sounding names. I seem to remember the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo being a bit like that.
Lynn 😀
Lynn 😀
Ah, the second Mrs. de Winter…whose father apparently had very creative taste in names, only Maxim neglects to actually SAY it! I quite like Maxim’s name too, now that I think about it…
Max or Maxim is one of my favourite names! I love it. Maybe because this book is an old favourite.
Lynn 😀
I love that you chose Hobbit names. That’s awesome. : ) They are cute, you’re right.
They are cute and almost meaningful in terms of characters – like Samwise, and Pippin (sounds like a round juicy apple) or Merry – who was always clowning.
Lynn 😀