I'm creeping ever closer to getting my first novel into publication and thinking ahead to later books I hope to write in the same series. I've saddled my male main character with a difficult father. The father is a first-generation American, born in 1910 to a German (Prussian) father and a Danish mother. A civil engineer turned Lutheran pastor turned domestic missionary/absentee parent turned rootless drifter, six years before the date of the first book (1981-1982), he walked out of my MMC's life and has been neither seen nor heard from since. But give him three or four years in Book Time and he'll reappear, hauling his baggage with him. So. At the moment, the father's name is Norbert Baumann, or, more precisely, the Rev. Norbert E. Baumann. (I hated how mean he was to my hero growing up and punished him with an annoying name.) The full given name comes up only once in the first novel; his wife (who suffers from Alzheimer's) calls him "Norrie,"; and his sons got used to calling him Poppa growing up, and still do. It's not a big deal what he's called in the first book. But in book three or four it'll matter a lot, especially if I give him a POV and make him more sympathetic. And somehow, trying to get readers to take someone called Norbert seriously seems . . . difficult. Is that just my imagination? Is the name Norbert all right for a POV character? Or should I think of something else? If I'm going to change it, I have to do it now, before the first in the series goes to press.
I dunno? I mean I guess if it really was a problem, a publisher would outright tell you "Norbert is a dumb name, let's change that", and a publisher's opinion on the matter would really be the only one that matters. Unless you're self-publishing? At any rate I'd doubt a name like Norbert is much of a problem. It doesn't sound like too 'silly' of a name to me that I wouldn't be able to take someone with it seriously. It actually sounds like a kind of old-fashion conservative type name to me, actually.
It's a perfectly good name of Germanic origin, which sounds like it fits your character. It seems common enough in non-English-speaking countries. It might sound out of place or old-fashioned in the USA or the UK, though. If you make the name a feature, in that you explain the origin in some way ...maybe the character reflects that the name means something good? ...I'm sure it will work just fine. I wouldn't worry about it. But then that's me.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert
I think it's all right. I will say, though, that if you think it'll inhibit your own ability to take (and thus write) the character seriously / sympathetically, that's a good reason to change it.
Norbert sounds like a good name to me. It is flexible, if he is hardnosed, mean and just unlikable use Norbert. If you change his personality to be kind and good use Norrie. You could also use Bert. I do like the name and think it is appropriate .
It makes me think of Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback dragon from Harry Potter. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
I had the misfortune to work with a thoroughly disorganized and utterly incompetent Norbert once, and he's the only person of that name whom I've ever met, so I'm biased against it, but that's a sample of one.
I agree with @TheRealStegblob. The name fits the personality of the father character and sort of feels out of place narrative-wise. Good name.
It seems like a pretty good name choice to me. I don't get a solid picture of who they'd be since it's a name I don't see very often, and maybe that's an advantage. On one hand, I used one of my favorite common names for my antagonist because despite the things they do that the MC finds morally corrupt, they're both motivated by the same thing. In fact their relationship can be open to the, "we're not so different" trope, but unlike in most cases, it's accurate. So I would not want to create bias against my antagonist because of the moral ambiguity I plan to weave into the story by choosing a name that automatically triggers negative thoughts. On the other hand, for a character both of my PoV main characters despise because in every interaction with him, he's harassing them, I chose a name I associate with a negative personality type. Maybe I put too much into it... but I think naming them like that was solely for myself. If naming the character Norbert gives you an easy way to remember the person he is and stay true to his character while writing, go for it. I doubt anyone else will feel exactly the same about Norbert as you do just because he's Norbert. (Also, if anyone named Norbert comes across this thread, please tell me how it felt to read through.)
Thanks, everyone, for the input. I'm leaning now towards keeping it, especially since what you've said has made me think about this character's background and what made him the person he turned out to be. As a result, I've come up with a whole backstory for him, and the name Norbert is a big part of that. (Now to go make note of it before I forget it.)
