Many people in my book have nicknames and I am slightly unsure how to treat them. In the case of Barry 'the hat' should all words be capital and should the end bit be surrounded in quotes? 'Big' Al the weightlifter is another one. If the nickname is stand alone it becomes a bona fide name like Weasel, but the mixed ones I don't know the rules.
no and no... if he's being called by his actual full name-nickname, the correct way is to just do this: if only referring to his nickname, you'd write: here, it's not his nickname, only his profession... so it'd be done like this: [note that i'm using the american double quotes, since they're more the norm everywhere these days, even somewhat in GB]
Ok, obviously 'the weightlifter' wasn't part of his name, the adjective big is his nickname. So that should be capitalised without quote marks I see. If the nickname proceeds the name it shouldn't have quote marks? As for Barry "The Hat" it makes sense to write it like that. I don't see many examples of these kind of names in any of the books I read and I haven't seen any guides on this matter. I'm on unsteady ground with this one.
Well think of it this way, do they all HAVE to have nicknames? Unless they're in some form of gang or mafia... then I don't think it's really necessary. It gets confusing.
I agree with JessaNova. It would be fine for one (possibly two) characters to have a nickname. It does make it unnecessarily confusing with so many nicknames. If you want to have a cast of not so common names, try to give your characters different variations of their given names. Go to any babyname website or online etymologies. They are very enlightening.
I agree with Tessie; only have a few characters with nicknames. In my script, only the two brothers, Thomas and Lisle have nicknames, and the rest of their comrades are called by their first names.
He wasn't christened "Big," in the case of Big Al and you presented the big without quote marks. Anyway it seems this must be a grey area with no particular guidance online that I could find. I will look at books like "Inside the Krays" and see how they presented these sorts of names and follow suit. As much as I'd love to change their names these are all real life people and they are called what they are called. The question wasn't really about should I change names it was about how do I present the names correctly, the answer to a problem is not always to run away from it anyway.
Big Al is the name he uses professionally, as does Hulk Hogan and as did Gorgeous George, so it gets no " "... if you're writing about real people, do you have releases from them all?... if not, you'd best consult a literary attorney before submitting the ms, if you don't want to find yourself in serious legal trouble for invasion of privacy at the very least...
Big is not his proffessional name its his nick name, there were two Al's so we tagged the big on to differenciate between them. Looking at books like "Inside the firm" they refer to characters like Jack The Hat with no quotation marks. I think I will probably be doing it that way. You think that Tony Lambriano got a release from the Kray twins? I don't think he did, in fact they wanted to take his kneecaps off when they found he had written that book. In the case of mine I don't think its really an issue, I am not libeling anybody and refer to people only with christian and nick names, no surnames. Besides that everyday newspapers distribute reports about people without getting releases, it is my right to be able to issue my opinions of people and things that they have done in the public domain if the things they did are legal, provable and not slanderous. In the case of the crimes that took place in my book I didn't ask the perpatrators their names, so convieniently wont be using their names. As for the other stuff I am sure that any would be publisher would have their lawyer look the book over to check that it is all above board, I am confident it will be. No releases needed.
