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From a literary standpoint, having to change a character name is kind of an hard choice to make. Names, rare or common as they may be, tend to stick to the character. You have gotten used to "Bob ...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T11:56:50Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43125 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T11:11:56Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43125 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
From a literary standpoint, having to change a character name is kind of an hard choice to make. Names, rare or common as they may be, tend to stick to the character. You have gotten used to "Bob Snow", any other thing will seem downright strange. > As testimonied by Taserface in Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2: > > [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DxsNR.gif) I'm not qualified to give you legal advice on the matter - IANAL applies - but the best option would seem ask your friend for permission. You may want to have him give you _written_ permission, e.g. in an email. Also, consider how much the name is uncommon. There are a million of John Smiths, but far fewer Robert Downey Jrs. The more peculiar the name, the more it will be tied to your friend image; the more you may want to change it to be on the safe side. To be fair, even if it seems uncomfortable now, a character name is mostly a matter of habit. Switching from Bob Snow to Jim Snow can seem impossible now, but it will fit with the character, in time. After all, Frodo Baggins was called Bingo Baggins in earlier drafts for Tolkien's _the Lord of the Rings_.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-03-07T11:01:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 18