It's a fantasy book of course, i've always wanted to use the name Vivienne in it's male form, but now i'm having second thoughts. What do you think? does it sound too much like your aunt/mother/doctor LOL.
Honestly, I like that name. Just because it's fantasy world doesn't mean you have to have people with unpronounceable names. But then again if everyone else has unpronounceable names, then this one will be strange one. But in the end, I really like name, so I see nothing wrong with it
Vivian is the male form it is pronounced slightly differently. I don't hugely like it but nor would I stop reading a story about a man called Vivian and it may grown on me I really like the masculine names with a slight feminine ring to them makes them sound more manly somehow lol (Like Adrian, Julian, Gabriel, Raphael etc) Fantasy doesn't mean you have to use difficult names - mine have names like Angus, Alexander, Jack etc
I agree -- my fantasy character names are Icelandic so they're a little weird, but not obnoxiously weird, long, unpronounceable etc. Vivienne/Vivian is cool as far as the name itself, but I think it might seem too feminine for my taste - not that I've got anything against feminine men, but it seems more like a female character's name.
There's nothing wrong with the name Vivienne/Vivian But if you do use it for a male character you'll have the added job of having to let your readers no that you are referring to a male otherwise it could be confusing for them.
You could use it, but if I was reading the story/novel/whatever it is, I'd assume that you were talking about a female. Be careful to make it very clear immediately that it's male.
John Waynes real name was Marion, so... I think the name is very daring, but it may not be the best for marketing. If someone in our boringly challenging world is looking for an exciting adventure and sees that Vivy and his band of stalwarts are headed to The Black Mountains or whatever, they may not finish reading the back cover. However, I don't believe in caring too much about that stuff and if the story is great then Vivienne will be great.
I think you should stop worrying about Vivienne's name and start worrying about Vivienne. Basically, very few people will care if the MC is named Vivienne or Jack or Socrates or Amun' Arak or Clowneater as long as he's interesting. Example-You won't find the names Anakin and Frodo anywhere in a book of names, but who the heck cares. They were bestsellers anyway.
Hm, unless you spin it into a joke (like, he's always hated that people thought he was a girl), I wouldn't do it. An unusual name can be the doom of your story - I remember a fantasy author decided to call his MC "Pug". Considering pugs are a breed of dog - a rather ridiculous-looking, flat-faced type at that - I couldn't take his story seriously. And when Ashen-Shugar attacked Pug whilst Garden and Longbow stood by the side with Macro... I rather laughed hysterically, and that's really not the sorta reaction you want. Oh and did I mention Tititikala, or however the name was spelt?
I know a guy called Vivian. He's a bit (read: Very) effeminate though, and to be perfectly honest I do blame it somewhat on the name.