Exactly so. The character in question is a female tandem jump instructor. In the course of my research, I learned that that's a very rare thing, to the point that the skydiving forum I was doing my research at had a list of all seventy-five of them in the world. One, and only one, of those ladies was named "Lauren", so I figured that I'd best change it rather than give the impression that I was making any sort of reference to her. Kind of like if you were to write a story about a woman running for president of the United States, "Hillary" would probably not be the best choice unless you were deliberately trying to draw comparisons or contrasts to Sec. Clinton. ETA: And I wasn't worrying about libel, just about making a comparison that wasn't intended.
For some reason I had it in my head that you were Dutch. But now that I know you're German, I assume that you are probably well educated, have a poor sense of fashion... and hanging on your bedroom wall, is a poster of David Hasselhoff.
My mind just jumped to Myrddin, as in the Welsh bard/magician Then Myrddin Emrys & Myrddin Ambrosius, then straight Merlin from Arthurian legends I recognize that it's Greek (or maybe I just think it is), but my mind keeps wanting to think of Welsh myths & histories
Not questioning the need or wisdom to change the character name - sounds like a wise decision - BUT I wonder... would it have helped if you made a deliberate reference to the real Lauren early on and emphatically explained how this is NOT her? Not too sure how that would be done - I'm thinking in a similar way as when authors deliberately choose weird or hard-to-pronounce names for their characters and then make it a "thing" in the story, like a character quirk.
Damn, you're so on point! *quickly puts away the wooden clogs and takes out the dirndl* Hey, did you know that I personally led the peaceful revolution? Hasselhoff is just a show-off.
I dunno, injecting a real person whom I know nothing about into my story simply to point out that I'm not talking about her? If I knew her personally or something, but... it seems a hell of a lot simpler and lower risk to change one letter of a character's name. Yes, slightly less satisfying to me, but the reader will never know if her "original" name was Lauren, Laurel, Jennifer, or Katniss.
Didn't look it up and also skipped the whole thread in case someone cheated and I came across the cheat. Myrmidon A few things come to mind for me. The -idon ending immediately makes me think of some kind of dinosaur or mammalian megafauna from the ice ages. Maybe because I have a fascination with the ancestry of elephants. I love platybelodon. The myrmi- part makes me think of murmullo in Spanish, which is a murmur or a soft utterance, like you would do with a baby or a puppy that you love. Myr- sounds exactly like the Russian word for peace and also the name of the planet Earth. I always thought it was rather beautiful that while other languages name our planet a glorified version of the word for dirt, in Russian our planet is called Peace. Taken as a whole - and I am sure my strange take is fully off the mark - I am made to sense a person who is both gentle and profoundly strong. I'm a gay dude so I don't blush at telling you that I imagine the kind of guy whose arms are strong and whose heart is kind. In a storm or terrible times his embrace would be comforting and gentlemanly. ETA: I looked it up after I wrote this. Great example of the fact that you can never know what the reader will bring to the interpretation of things.
I have been inspired to make every MC of mine a Richard. That way when he acts like an asshole it won't feel so bad to call him Dick.
You are always so full of interesting facts! Calling the earth "Peace" is really lovely. In Chinese we just call it "Earth ball" so I guess a ball of dirt!? Those platypus elephants remind me of Aliens... they look a mixture of amusing and terrifying.
Wow, that creature is something! I suppose it's labeled "Attempt No. 17" and stuffed far into the back of god's drawer right next to the circular saw fish. That is really cute. His wife will certainly agree with you, but she is the only one. All the others will either become sick in terror or start to insult that bastard. Or just take his money and try not to think about it too much.
Well, any gamer has certainly heard the word "Myrmidon" before, given that its arguably among the most popular Fire Emblem classes. But, to be fair, it isn't a common word, and I doubt people would be less accepting of "Myrmidon" as a name than other names we've come to accept that are sometimes on-the-nose. So, you shouldn't have a problem.
A unit from an RTS I've played. I think it was Greek? I sorta remember some dude with a spear and shield.
