Favourite characters' names?

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Cookie
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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Cookie » January 6th, 2011, 10:11 pm

Sleeping Beauty wrote:Remember, we're all pronouncing Voldemort wrong. J.K.R never has pronounced the 't'. So maybe it some instances, it doesn't matter what the author says about pronunciation. I too said Hermione wrong until the first film came out - I said it like "Hermy-own."

I've always loved Merry from Lord of the Rings, and Silkie from The Faraway Tree. Such gentle names!

I like Merry too. I also like Phillipe du Plessis-Beliere from the Angelique series by Anne Golon. Even though he was a sadistic sociopath, he has a very poetic name. I like the way it rolls of your tongue.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Watcher55 » January 6th, 2011, 10:54 pm

The Three Musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and of course, d'Artagnon.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Emily J » January 6th, 2011, 11:05 pm

Speaking of unpronounceable names, I always loved Patricia McKillip's Riddle Master trilogy. One of her characters was a powerful wizard called Iff of the Unpronounceable Name. Of course that wasn't his full name, no one could say his full name because it was ridiculously long what not. And Iff of the Unpronounceable Name would bind all his spell books with his name, since no one could say it. That always cracked me up.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Sommer Leigh » January 7th, 2011, 8:11 am

Evelyn wrote:
Cookie wrote:Lol. I mumble the names.
Hee hee hee. How about Hermione in Harry Potter? I found out that I'd been reading it (and mentally pronouncing) it wrong for years. Or maybe those other people are wrong? I believe I've heard it pronounced several different ways!

...I wonder if JK got any grief from her beta readers about it?

Evelyn (whose main characters are named: Elaine, Marc, and Adam.)
OH! For the first three HP books I was deeply irritated by Hermione's name. I couldn't pronounce it and like I said earlier, I sort of "read" the book out loud in my head as I'm reading and when I can't pronounce a name it pulls me out of the story every time. It took me three books before I heard someone use the name in a different context that I realized how to pronounce it. I'm very surprised I made it through the three books before figuring it out.
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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Cookie » January 7th, 2011, 8:47 am

Emily J wrote:Speaking of unpronounceable names, I always loved Patricia McKillip's Riddle Master trilogy. One of her characters was a powerful wizard called Iff of the Unpronounceable Name. Of course that wasn't his full name, no one could say his full name because it was ridiculously long what not. And Iff of the Unpronounceable Name would bind all his spell books with his name, since no one could say it. That always cracked me up.

That is awesome. I am going to have to read those books now.

Edmond Dantes is also a great name. Also, how could I forget, Howl.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by J. T. SHEA » January 7th, 2011, 12:17 pm

Sommer and Cookie, what's strange about Figgy and Lorp? I know lots of people called that.

Margo, you make blue in the face! (Literally, it's the woad.) You may take away our lives, but you'll never take away our weird pronunciation! It's English that should be pronounced like Gaelic, not the other way around. If only we'd won the Battle of Kinsale in 1603...

My favorite character's name is from a movie rather than a book. Biggus Dickus from MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BWIAN. Though most people laugh at it for some reason...

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Guardian » January 7th, 2011, 12:58 pm

Alberik, Ulrik, Ludovik, Princess Zerbina, Princess Blandina and the evil Gotfried (These are the Hungarian versions. The originals are similar, but spelled on a different way in French, such as Albéric, Zerbine and Ottfried.). All these character names are from Contes des Cataplasmes by Vercors (Jean Bruller). They are my favorite fairy tale characters and I always loved their names. They sounds so simple, yet so good in that great tale.
Last edited by Guardian on January 7th, 2011, 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Cookie » January 7th, 2011, 1:08 pm

J. T. SHEA wrote:Sommer and Cookie, what's strange about Figgy and Lorp? I know lots of people called that.

Margo, you make blue in the face! (Literally, it's the woad.) You may take away our lives, but you'll never take away our weird pronunciation! It's English that should be pronounced like Gaelic, not the other way around. If only we'd won the Battle of Kinsale in 1603...

My favorite character's name is from a movie rather than a book. Biggus Dickus from MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BWIAN. Though most people laugh at it for some reason...

I prefer his wife's name, Incontinentia Buttocks.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by steve » January 7th, 2011, 1:47 pm

Mike Fallopian (from THE CRYING OF LOT 49), J.A.K. Gladney (from WHITE NOISE) and Cthulhu (from HPL of course) are great, stupid names.
Read one of the best stories by Borges.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Moni12 » January 7th, 2011, 2:42 pm

Katniss Everdeen from HUNGER GAMES and Aravis from THE HORSE AND HIS BOY. I actually love a lot of the names from The Chronicles of Narnia, including Jadis even though she is an antagonist. Those are probably my top two...for now.

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by bcomet » January 7th, 2011, 3:48 pm

I love me some Snidley Whiplash, Boris Badenov, and Natasha Fatale!

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Margo » January 7th, 2011, 4:16 pm

J. T. SHEA wrote:Margo, you make blue in the face! (Literally, it's the woad.) You may take away our lives, but you'll never take away our weird pronunciation! It's English that should be pronounced like Gaelic, not the other way around. If only we'd won the Battle of Kinsale in 1603...
Hey now, J.T., put down the weapon. We can talk about this. I'm Irish, too, ya know, and consider Cromwell a thorough villain. Fault me only for my weakness of principle, cowing to the English-centric audience that gets upset when confronted with unfamiliar pairings of vowels and puzzling uses of 'gh'. I've never loved another of my own characters as much as I loved Donough, who lived in eighth century Ireland. I never anglicized his name, critiques be damned.

Moni12 wrote:Katniss Everdeen from HUNGER GAMES...
That has quite the ring to it.

steve wrote:...and Cthulhu (from HPL of course) are great, stupid names.
Ack! Stupid?!? I would warn you that the great elder god will DEVOUR YOUR SOUL, but I'm pretty sure he'd go after Trey Parker and Matt Stone first and they are still alive (so far as I know). Maybe he's on vacation.
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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Cookie » January 7th, 2011, 4:29 pm

Margo wrote:
J. T. SHEA wrote:Margo, you make blue in the face! (Literally, it's the woad.) You may take away our lives, but you'll never take away our weird pronunciation! It's English that should be pronounced like Gaelic, not the other way around. If only we'd won the Battle of Kinsale in 1603...
Hey now, J.T., put down the weapon. We can talk about this. I'm Irish, too, ya know, and consider Cromwell a thorough villain. Fault me only for my weakness of principle, cowing to the English-centric audience that gets upset when confronted with unfamiliar pairings of vowels and puzzling uses of 'gh'. I've never loved another of my own characters as much as I loved Donough, who lived in eighth century Ireland. I never anglicized his name, critiques be damned.

I feel that way about my real name. Everyone spells it wrong. of course, there are five hundred different spellings to my name (that might be a slight exaggeration). In my opinion, there is only one, the right (gaelic) way. Everything else is cutesy-hipster crap.

Of course, no one can spell my Scottish last name right either...or pronounce it....

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Margo » January 7th, 2011, 5:01 pm

I have determined in private consultation that Cookie has the longest, most gawd-awful, unpronounceable Scottish name ever. In fact, I don't even think it's Scottish. It's alien. :P
Urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and hot Norse elves. http://margolerwill.blogspot.com/

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Re: Favourite characters' names?

Post by Cookie » January 7th, 2011, 5:08 pm

Margo wrote:I have determined in private consultation that Cookie has the longest, most gawd-awful, unpronounceable Scottish name ever. In fact, I don't even think it's Scottish. It's alien. :P
Lol. Am I that obviously alien? I thought I was doing quite a good job at fitting in.

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