Hello Dear Forum Members, I need your professional advice, I'm creating own graphic novels, recently, I picked first name and last name for my story character. I pricked them separately first first name then separately last name (the ones which I liked the most) But when I checked that name on Google and Facebook results showed me that there are some people with such names... My question is it alright if I'm gonna use that full name or should I have to search name which no one holds it? How to deal with this issue maybe someone knows? I will be very gratefull for your answers. My question can be also like Can I use other people’s names for my stories?
Of course you can! You might get into trouble if you wrote a story about a famous singer who got hooked on crack and killed a bunch of babies and called her Beyoncé Knowles, or if you created a cartoon rodent and called him Mickey Mouse, but if your character is called Sarah Jones and isn't based on a real Sarah Jones, none of the Sarah Joneses in the world will have cause to complain. Even if you create a new name for your work, you'll end up with people sharing it. See Wendy and Ayla.
I second what @Tenderiser said. It’s going to be very hard to come up with a name that no one else has, especially when we’re talking about normal people names. I’ve went on Instagram and google and searched up my characters’ names and several people came up for them, probably because they all have rather common last names. I don’t think you have to worry too much so long as you’re not basing the character off someone.
Definitely - so long as its not actual people being included recognisably then there's no issue (e.g if you have a crush on your bosses wife and insert her as the MCs love interest you are asking for trouble. if you just use a her name no real problems) I know a guy called jack reacher - he tends to call himself john these days, and I was at school with a kid called Harrison ford (not the famous one)
I've never tried Googling my characters's names before, but apparently they all belong to people who currently exist. I would have never guessed there were so many Zachary Kasuns and Kelan Pratts out there!
Yup, one time I came up with a name I thought was super creative, turns out it's just a normal name that some people have.
If your name actually exists, it just means it's realistic. You could make it a point of character development, or even a plot point. I remember reading a history of a German Army division, and one regiment had at least a dozen soldiers named "Martin Luther" none of whom were related to the religious figure. The episode of Seinfeld where George buys a car that belonged to John Voight is a great example of using similar names as a plot device. George thought it was the actor Jon Voight but it turned out to be a dentist John Voight who owned the car.
This reminds me of the character in Office Space named Michael Bolton - he has one of my favorite lines in the movie: "Why should I have to change my name? He's the one that sucks!"
Why not I discovered my real name is being used as a vampire slayer. Plus I once met a couple who'd named their son Garfield -- the look on my face said it all because they kinda frowned and said -- it was before the cat. Adds a little interest in my opinion. There's no avoiding duplicates -- at least ordinary ones.
You can use anyone's name, you just can't use their likeness. You can have a character named Donald Trump if he's not recognizable as Donald J Trump the 45th president of the USA. You can also use the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_penis_rule to protect yourself from libel. There are 300 million americans, take any first and last name and put them together, there is probably an american with that name.
Absolutely. Names can't be copyrighted, you can use any name you want and nobody can do anything about it.
With the exception of if its a trademark - if you write a cartoon about a mouse called mickey you can expect to hear from Disney's lawyers even if he isn't an exact likeness
But that's not talking about a name, that's talking about copying an existing character. Disney can't do a thng about Mickey. Or Pluto. I mean they stole that one from a planet.
I have googled names that real people have. Not typically last names, but you can't just make up names for everything. Unless you want to get stuck with same set of names for everything. So yeah go for it. My IRL name is part of a Gay M/M Romance Title. So yeah it is perfectly normal to see and use names that exist in the real world.
If I have a name that I feel is original, i'm usually afraid to google it because Google spies and steals.
The name James Bond was taken from a real-life ornithologist; Ian Fleming wanted the most boring name he could find. I wonder how many books that idea lasted for? ETA: The X Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen flipped the idea on its head when they discovered a company owned by a "James Bond" who they were convinced was fictitious. It turned out that the guy was a complete doofus who went by "Jimmy".
Even if the mouse in your cartoon is completely different you'll still be violating their trademark They can't do a thing if it doesn't relate to cartoon mice (as with Alex Garland's the Beach where there were characters named (in fact named after) daffy and bugs
