Hi, so I am having a bit of a problem with the name of one of my characters. In my story one of the main characters is a phoenix, in my world a phoenix has a human form and an animal form (you probably get the idea) and they can change between forms at will. My problem comes with my phoenix character's name. I have always liked Ember as a name, I was thinking that would be the name of my phoenix character. However the character is a boy, and I have only ever seen or heard Ember as a girls name. Well I don't have a problem with having a male character named Ember; I am concerned that readers will have trouble telling that Ember is a boy, partly because of the clothing the phoenix characters where, and because the body type/build of male and female phoenix pretty muchidentical. So basically I am unsure if my readers will be able to clearly tell that a character named Ember is a boy. Because there is little gender distinction in his race; and said character is likely to ware jewelry people and other characters might consider to be 'girly' as well as makeup. Also, the book is a medieval themed fantasy, so the expectations of what people where and do are different.
Call him Ember. If, as you say, there is little gender distinction in his race, then does anybody care (even the readers) whether he's a boy or a girl? Does it matter? Also, if other characters assume he's a girl, it might be a useful plot bunny when they find out he isn't.
Regardless of gender, I can't help thinking that Ember would come across as comedic for a creature which arises from the ashes of its dead self? It would seem more like a nickname.
You really need gender cues in clothing or body type. The pronouns you use will be the thing the audience remembers. You could have Ember in a dress, with long hair and an obsession for make up and pink and accessories and they'd still know it's a boy via the pronouns.
I think, Ember is just fine as a name. It sounds like you are having an issue with how to write this character. Maybe not, but that's the feeling. Readers will see him as portrayed. Do the work and they will come. Meaning, follow your initial instinct on the name, sounds great to me and if there is some kind of sexuality issue... just write it into the story and follow your initial path of inspiration.
That is partly the idea. It is a bit hard to explain with out giving away to much. But part of the reason I was thinking of Ember for the character was because of the irony of the name. Which is not so ironic once you meet the character.
If you've ever read/watched "The Seven Deadly Sins", then one of the main characters named "Gowther" is pretty much like what you describe: he's very androgynous, with a feminine face and clothing choices, and a slender male body. If you want to describe your character, let's say, while he's inspecting his face in the mirror, you could give clues as to what gender he is with either physical descriptions or with pronouns (depends on if you use third person or first person), because if you use "I" often, then it'll be a somewhat easy way to use his personal descriptions to kind of slowly paint the picture in the reader's head that the character has feminine qualities, but he would be expected to take part in masculine roles had he been born in any other culture.
Ember sounds fine to me and I'm sure there might be a time in your novel when you'll refer to it's genders.
