accidentally stealing ideas (again)

[JohnDurvin]

So after shelving my sci-fi novel after realizing I'd made the wrong character the protagonist, I'm working on an idea that got a lot of positive feedback: a fantasy novel based on American folklore instead of American. It's going pretty well, aside from the fact that I think I might need to make it a series instead of a single novel, but I'll figure that out when I come to it. Right now, the problem is that I've accidentally been naming my characters after famous fantasy novel people--usually with the same personalities: a smart-ass pickpocket named Mouse ("Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser"), and a bad-ass female mercenary named Valeria (Conan the Barbarian's girlfriend). Finally, my chief antagonist is Colonel Halcyon Dougham, whose surname is an awful lot like that of Thulsa Doom, Conan's enemy, but that one's staying no matter what.
So, what, should I change them? Keep the allusion but rename the other characters to fantasy allusions like Tolkien and Moorcock? I'm really not a big fan of fantasy--I've never read (or even watched) Conan, and I'd never even heard of Fafhrd & Co. until I saw a reference on tvtropes--standard fantasy just makes me gag. Somehow these names just fit the archetypes and came out of nowhere.
Also, the remaining two heroes are Boxcar Johnny Mandeville and Trevor Hawkins--anybody know of either of these showing up?

[washingtonwriter1968]

I've done similar things but only when my characters are really young in my mind. As I get to know my characters and flesh them out a bit, they lose there paper dol mask and become there own person. let me explain.

When I started my WIP I had my main character looking and acting like the character Bella from the Twilight Movie. The Main love was Edward! But as my Characters fleshed out they began to take on new characteristics, both physically and mentally and every other way. Only then did I change the names. I used the old names more as a reference point for myself.

My point here is to suggest that you might choose to do a few exercises to flesh out these characters a bit more;make them more your own.
One generally use is to begin writing a bio on my character, or have them write me a letter of introduction.

I hope this helps! :

[dios4vida]

The names that are very recognizable and/or exact I think should probably be altered - Mouse certainly, Valeria maybe, the Colonel I think is fine (totally my opinion). If I came across a character with a name I recognized, especially if it was the same trope, I'd be very put off. You can keep the basic vowel/consonant sounds, beat, and mood of the name with just a few letter changes. That way you'd have a similar name but not exact. (What I like to do in this situation is get out a game of Scrabble or Bananagrams, pull out the letters for your character's name, and then start shifting them around. Add some, delete others, and generally play around until you find something that works for you.)

I don't recognize the other names from any fantasy I've read, though I tend to stick with the more modern stuff.

Fantasy from American folklore - I'd be very interested in that one, just FYI.