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In every country, some names are particularly common: 'John' in the UK, 'Juan' in Spain, 'Ivan' in Russia. Those names are common almost to the point of being stereotypical (consider 'John Doe'). ...
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-12T21:57:38Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44023 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T11:30:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44023 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
In every country, some names are particularly common: 'John' in the UK, 'Juan' in Spain, 'Ivan' in Russia. Those names are common almost to the point of being stereotypical (consider 'John Doe'). If I have no more than one or two characters from a particular place, **is it bad form to use those extremely common names?** On the one hand, those names are common, that's real life. It is quite realistic to have a character from that location carry that name. On the other hand, it feels almost lazy to have a guy from Spain named Juan, and his sister is of course Maria. Like I couldn't be bothered to do the research and find some other names, and went with the most stereotypical ones instead. **Is there a way to strike a balance between conveying a strong sense of location with the names, and not being "too stereotypical"?** (My particular situation is a setting in space with people from all over.)
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-03-25T20:30:01Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 10