But lately, I've been writing Contemporary Romantic Suspense and Hockey Romances, and I can have more freedom. Hello Jaxxon! But one thing I've noticed is that in many contemporary romances, the hero is in his thirties and his name is Aidan, Ryder, Stryker, or Jaxxon (yep, even I got caught up!), or some other name that on Twitter we've dubbed "Romance Hero Names." I love all of those names, but I teach kindergarten in my day-job, and when I have a 5 year old in my class who has the same name as my hero, it pulls me out of the story. The age feels wrong.
I tried really hard to make all the heroes in their thirties have names that I remember from high school. In fact, I had two Kyles! Oops! But I wanted a 38 year old hero to have a name that would have been popular in 1981, not 2020.
So where are all the Chrises, the Jasons, the Scotts? Where are the Tiffanys and Brittanys?
So now I turn it over to you? Do you have a favorite Romance Hero Name? Do you even notice if a name feels too trendy for a thirty-something year old?
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And in the spirit of hero names, check out my latest book Dark Past with a hero named Kyle and a heroine named Kate.
The small town was supposed to be safe...
Kate Landry is tired of running. Thinking she's safe, she settles in the small logging town of Chester, California to manage a cafe. She may be keeping a low profile, but she's hoping to return to a normal life.
When FBI agent Kyle Donovan visits to Chester to stay with a friend, and to recover from his latest case, he never expects to meet sexy barista Kate.
But someone is following Kate...
Kyle worries he brought trouble to her door, while Kate worries her dark past is coming after her.
With danger lurking around every corner, her safe haven isn't as safe as she'd thought. Kate will finally have to trust someone enough to tell him her secrets. Secrets that may just get them killed...
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Believe it or not, one of my favorite hero names is Jack. I've used it twice, accidentally, and it's jumped in as a "member of the cast" more times than I'm probably comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteJack is a cool name. Old fashioned and yet hitting a modern trend!
DeleteMy favorite hero names are ones that are classic, like John, Jack, Owen, Caleb, James, etc. Or Irish/Scottish names. I'm not a fan of anything that sounds trendy because that pulls me out of the story. It makes me think of the actual trend. I definitely understand not wanting to name your characters after people you know. That makes it harder, but, for me, if I do end up using a name of someone I know, as long as the character is completely different from the real person, I'm good. Enjoyed the post!
ReplyDeleteI love Irish and Scottish names! :) Thanks!
DeleteHaha! Yes, I do notice if a name isn't true to the time period. I also taught Kindergarten for 20 years and then 3rd grade for another ten. And I do the same thing by making the name something that isn't too modern for the times. And my first few books were Chris, Jack, and Scott!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing Jack a lot here today lol-I like it because it's both great for Historicals and great for modern Contemporaries.
DeleteOh my gosh! I thought I was the only one! I have two Makala's and a couple of Sam's LOL I've written 40 something books--what can I say? To be fair, hubby gave me the second Makala so I blame that one on him. My favorite hero name is Mason, though. Feel free to use it in one of your books. I hope I won't be using it again! Happy Easter
ReplyDeleteLOL so I'm in good company then.
DeleteHappy Easter too :)
When I write stories, it seems like the names find me. I pluck them out of the air and that's who they are. Sometimes, I use names of people I know and sometimes I go to my handy-dandy baby name website for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteBaby name websites are the best!
DeleteI have sometimes Googled popular names for ____ the year the character would have been born. Since I mostly write books set from 1865=1890 I tend to use names from my family genealogy to insure they are correct for the time period. We have some weird named in our past--Vitura (female), Telytha, Parmelia, and more. I hate when I see an anachronistic name. My favorite male names are Zach, Nich, and Joel but I've used them. I enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteUsing your own genealogy? That's a neat idea!
DeleteI use a book called "you are your first name", based on numerology, to make sure the charcter traits match my character.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting!
DeleteI like the classic names but lately I've been using popular names list. I thought it just made my books more modern. Who knows? Someday the name may make them outdated!
ReplyDeleteI think we have a wider variety of names to choose from nowadays. It'll be interesting to see if any of our books feel dated years down the road.
DeleteI like all the classic, timeless, names too. Give me an Edward, William etc any time.
ReplyDeleteI love the name William!
DeleteI love the names Sebastian and Rafael!
ReplyDeleteThose are both excellent Romance Hero names!
DeleteI like the more common names. I don't really like names that are only popular for a short time.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part for me is that I really do love the trendy names, but I try to make myself use more age appropriate names lol
DeleteI keep a master list of names in an Excel file after using the same surname in two different unrelated books. Uh oh. As to names appropriate for ethnicity and time, I have a couple of very good name books I use as well as checking genealogical records online. My 2 fave books are: THE GUINNESS BOOK OF NAMES which gives the most popular names in the USA and UK from 1900 to 1990 as well as interesting historical info about the names and THE WRITER'S DIGEST CHARACTER NAMING SOURCEBOOK that has more than 20K first and last names from around the world. I think I'll review both of these on my blog this week.
ReplyDeleteI have an old book called "Beyond Jennifer and Jason" that breaks down names by decade and some other categories. When I first started writing romance people weren't using ordinary names, but somewhat weird made-up names. I have "Character Naming Sourcebook" from Writer's Digest for last names. A lot of the time I combine the first name of someone I know with the last name of someone else, by categories. EG one book will have names from my nieces and nephews while another will have co-workers, etc.
ReplyDelete