Hi, Is Jeannie too young or innocent-sounding for the name of my female protagonist in a fantasy novel I'm writing? She is 16, but I want her to be a very mature sixteen-year-old. Oh, and I wanted a name that starts with J. Thanks
Any name might be young and innocent when talking about a 16 year old girl. Well, Ethel, Doris, and a few others can be exceptions. I don't think Jeannie is too young or innocent sounding but if you're looking for something a bit more mature try Jacqueline. This way, you could make certain scenarios in your book pop up when they refer to her as Jacky and she gets mad because it sounds too kiddish or something of that nature.
Well, looking at it realistically.. When you're born, your parents don't name you by who you are, because you're just a baby. They mostly you on how they want you to be or what they think you'll grow into. The sound of her name isn't going to show her maturity...it's the things she does in your story that will ;D Personally, I think it sounds fine.
If you're really stuck you could try going onto baby names websites, click on all girls names starting with J and they usually have a summary of what the name actually means so you can choose one which fits with her personality or perhaps gives away a little bit of what her 'destiny' is. For example in one of my books my main character was called Esperanza (Ran or Espy for short) which means 'Hope' because part of her role as a character was to bring Hope to a community. You can also do this with other characters if you need to put hidden messages in. A character I have is called Elias Corvus but he uses Raven as his surname when he first meets a character because Corvus is a constellation and also a genus for Ravens and Crows. You can be quite inventive or you could make a name up!
Names are names, people have them from birth to death. Now if your asking if the name is associated with modern society, then I believe Jeannie is fairly new. Within the last century or two. If looking for old names then search for names of eras. something like "popular Names; circa 1200" or more specific "popular names Germany circa 1200" Baby name websights and books will give names popular today, most names are modern(with ties to older names) Severin is a German name popular from 800-1500's, made popular by the Saint Severinus.
Yes, the Jeannie could be an alternative only used by close friends/family to the frustration of the protag, while most know her as Jacqueline. I have a construct like this in a few short stories.
One of my best friend's names was Jeanie. Oddly enough she was like 16 or 15. Me and her (I was like 11 or 10) dreamt of making this treehouse city though, so I don't know how mature she was lol. She was a kid just like me, but much older then me, and that's why we got along so well. I guess she was pretty mature though. Maybe a little shy, which made her seem mature.
If you're looking for a name that begins with a J, I personally like the name Jacey over Jeanie. I think Jeanie sounds like a nickname for a child whose name is Jean. Hope it helps!
How about "Scarlet" for a vampire novel? Is that too.........I hate to say this but...is it too Cliche?
Okay, out of curiosity, where did the vampire thing come from? Where does anyone mention vampires? Did I skip this post by accident? On a sidenote, yes, it is far too cliche. I think I'd put down a book with a vampire character with the name of Scarlet. Then again, I don't go near vampire books, but that's just me being bias. As for Jeannie, that sounds like something I'd name my dog (actually, my friend has a dog named Jeannie!) As coreylellison had mentioned earlier, Jeannie should probably be a nickname and, as she gets older, she insists people drop the nickname and call her "Jean". Because, you know, she's a "mature" sixteen year old.
No one mentioned vampires. However the thread is about character names and the poster asked about the name of her vampire character. And yeah, Scarlett is pretty cliche for a vampire name. There's nothing wrong with it, Scarlett is still a viable name. But you're going to draw fire from the "Oh that is so cliche" so unless she's a southern belle you may want to change it.
