I'm a good ways into plotting out my new WIP, and it just occurred to me that the two main characters' names might be too similar. One is Faye, and the other is Xavier, but everyone calls him Zave. So, both names are four letters long and the second and fourth letters are A and E. Should I change one of them?
To me they seem different enough. I think consonants are more important than the vowels—especially the first and last letters, and they have a different number of syllables.
I'll go along with Earp; the names are too similar. I have a friend whose stage name is Questar. Everyone just calls him Q. Without knowing anything about the story or the character(s), perhaps they could just call him "X." I don't know if you could go so far as to call him X-Man; it's probably just a little too Marvel. Or maybe "Z," as that's how the X in Xavier is pronounced. Not all nicknames are from the actual name of the person. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner is not a great name for a rock star. Hmmm... How about Sting? Given to him for his striped sweater, which some said made him look like a bee.
I'm with @Xoic here, not similar at all. Initials count the most, Faye and Zave are less similar than James and Jack.
I think you're fine. The visual constructions of words are much more confusing than they're actual sounds. We might sound out the words in our head to some extent as we read them, but we're drawing from the visual cues first. Like James and Jack, as @Lazaares said. I work with a Jamie and a Jaime. Their names--Jay-me and Hi-may--sound sort of similar but never to the point where I would mispronounce them or hear one and think the other. But when I have to call or text one of them and pick the right name from my contacts? Nope. I've fucked it up so many times that I've conducted entire text threads thinking I was talking to one and not the other.
I suppose it would be influenced by how one pronounces "Xavier". Being so close to Mexico and New Mexico, I lean to something like "hah-vi-ay", so "ha-vay" is not an issue for me. For that matter, "hah-vi-ay" would be more likely to me.
I vote for change. We have no control over how a reader will pronounce a name they see in print. My late wife was Latina, and our adopted daughter's name is Javiera (which is another way of spelling Xaviera) -- pronounced with an 'H.' But I'm American -- the university Xavier is pronounced with a 'Z." IMHO, ideally you would look for names that will be sufficiently different to all readers.
I somehow didn't realize you were going with Zave, I thought it was Xavier. I think that would be different enough, but Zave is too close to Faye. The V even looks like a cockeyed Y. I retract my earlier vote.
I agree with @Homer Potvin, while I might sound out a name phonetically, when reading I index them in my head visually. Thus sometimes I have a hard time distinguishing between Robert and Robin, when reading. But give me Sherry and Cherie and I will never confuse them. So the above names would not confuse me in the least.
They're a bit too similar. I think Xavier's short form could be better. I tried saying it out loud: "hey Zave, budda boom, how's it goin'?" and it doesn't roll. 'Zav' mentioned above works. Zee, Zed, Vie, Vi, Avi, Zavi are options too.
I have a story where two kids become step siblings when their parents marry: Jessie and Jesse. I also have a character named Stephen Steven Stevens. He hates it. Faye and Zave, not similar at all.
No. Though they share letters and are equally short, they sound nothing alike. Only by really trying (intentionally) could someone mistake one for the other. I'd say you were good.
I think names of two characters in ones writing can be somewhat alike, it happens among people in any one general place in real life often enough. It would not mean being just the same but for one letter, though. Giving enough difference will have readers remembering how they are distinct characters. I'm my own writing I have written of a character I have being named planning him to be someone I had referred to elsewhere, but later on deciding it could not be that other one, I gave this one another name slightly alike but very distinct. Something like that happened more than once. In some of my favorite writing that I want to get more organized, that I might publish what I would then have, I had written of a male character from the first person perspective, identifying with the character completely that I was first thinking it could be me in very different circumstances. It is a character based on that but another person from me still, I see myself now as someone no one else anywhere could be so much alike. The woman he meets, bonds with in circumstances, and comes to love, has a name with the first letter of the name of that character I based on myself and only refer to with the first person perspective in that original writing but is then named in a spinoff story I write now from another character's perspective. That first letter of the names of both that first main character and the woman he comes to love is F, I keep it that way and think it works.
Real life: I worked with 6 Michelles (1 Machele, 3 Michele, 2 Michelle) all at one time, all on the same team.
I had a friend in school whose full name was Thomas Xavier [_redacted _]. Everyone just called him X.