Is it okay to have a character that has the same first or last name as another famous character
But not like having the same full name but rather same last name like for example having a character named Kevin Snow which has the same last name as Game of Thrones character Jon Snow
Other examples would be having same first name such as having a character named Logen Evans which has the same name as Wolverine's actual first name which is Logen as well
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It depends how distinctive the name is.
If you have a character named "John", well, there are lots of other fictional characters, and real people, named "John" would not bother me at all.
There are plenty of real people named "Snow". I think few people would even notice the similarity, or would only notice it for an instant and promptly move on.
On the other hand if you named a character "Gandalf" or "Sherlock" or "Batman", yeah, lots of readers would notice.
Matching just a first name or just a last name is far more likely to pass unnoticed that matching both.
And no one expects you to study every novel ever written and every movie and TV show ever made to avoid such duplication.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39218. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The problem you're describing actually has an associated TV Trope: the One Mario Limit (obligatory warning, now that I've added a link). Some names become so strongly associated with one character/person, that any other characters/people with the same name will inevitably be compared with them. Mario is a well-known example: the only other famous Mario I can think of right now is Mario Balotelli, who is in fact nicknamed "Super Mario".
I only believe this trope is a problem if:
- There really is only one well-known character/person with that name. Plenty of people are named 'Snow'. I actually have a character myself named 'Snow'. Nobody outside of Game of Thrones (that I know of) is named 'Lannister'.
- The person that name is associated with is not a person you want your character to be associated with (@HvG made a similar point in their answer). You'll notice that nobody these days is named "Adolf", for example.
- Your character isn't distinct enough. If your character 'Logan Evans' is a friendly, outgoing guy who solves his problems with his sharp wits, nobody will notice he shares his name with Wolverine. If he's a loner who solves his problems with his fists, everyone will notice.
Other than that, I would say this isn't worth worrying about, because there are so many famous people and famous works out there that it's almost impossible to come up with a name that hasn't been used by one of them (unless you're writing a fantasy work like GoT and can just make one up). When naming the protagonist of one of my stories, I plucked the name "Samantha Smith" out of thin air - when I found out that was the name of an actual famous person, rather than change it, I simply had another character make a remark about it.
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