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So I have a character I want to name Norbert Casgrill. I'm having an issue however, and would love your opinions. Through most of my story he is called Lord Casgrill, but I have a flashback where he is 16 and called Norbert. My issue is that at 16 the name Norbert doesn't really fit his character, however it fits his grown up character so well i don't want to ditch it completely. I don't know how to fix, any idea's? Posts: 1201 | Registered: Jan 2008
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Depends on who's doing the calling. If it's his parents, then they will either call him Norbert (and it should sound normal, since they're the ones who hung it on him when he was a baby), or they will call him some dear diminuative, like No-No. If it's his friends/siblings, why not a nickname... Norby, Norb the Orb... He might be royalty now, but every 16-year-old I've listened to in the last year is both more wise and more cruel than I could ever imagine.
Good luck.
[This message has been edited by Igwiz (edited February 19, 2008).]
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I second the nickname idea. The nickname doesn't even have to have anything to do with his real name. It can be derived from his name, or from something that he does, or just be something totally unrelated. For example, C.S. Lewis was known to his family as "Jack" (a self-proclaimed nickname, when he got tired of being called "baby")
Posts: 80 | Registered: Feb 2008
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The PoV is from a girl that he is rescuing, I'm leaning towards Nor. Maybe. I'm still stewing, I don't think I would want to change the name completly such as for clive staples(my favorite writer btw). I want the reader to know who he is pretty instananiously, and not pull a hat trick. I think that I would probably lose some people. My story is confusing enough.
Any more ideas on how to make Norbert a hero name?
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Honestly, I think you should call him Norbert. It may not sounds as impressive as LORD but nothing will. In fact, that distinction between the two may help highlight his youth in the flashback.
Keep in mind that you may have come up with the name for your story, but in that world (and you want that world to come to life) his PARENTS came up with that name and probably called him that. Yes, some parents give their kids a formal name and a nickname, but Norbert isn't a name prone to that. Norb, Nor, Orb, etc. all sound silly to me. Bert is the best I can come up with and it really doesn't sound any better than Norbert.
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Unless you lenghten the name, so that his real name is actually Norberticus Maximus-father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife...Posts: 2995 | Registered: Oct 2007
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He could have a nickname completely unrelated to his real name, but because of a trait or a quirk of his. "Chuckles", for instance.
Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007
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I associate "Norbert" with an ex-boss who bore that name, so it doesn't thrill me...however, the name seems more appropriate in these later days for a character in a heavy-humor story (or maybe lighter humor). If the story's dead serious with only some occasional leavening humor, I'd drop the name altogether.
(You get that sometimes. In Gone With the Wind, "Scarlett" O'Hara was originally named "Pansy"---and, in the thirties, that meant to most people what you should know it meant---so her editors persuaded her to rename her "Katherine Scarlett," Scarlett being a name-in-the-family that was already there in the submitted draft.)
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Sorry, to me, "Norbert" will always be the dragon Hagrid hatched from an egg . . . If that's the name you want for your hero, then his nickname should be something strong and/or funny, IMO. Bert or Jughead or whatever suits you.
Is there a reason you chose "Norbert" for your hero's name? It's Germanic/Polish in origin and means "bright north" or "famous north" according to some name reference stuff I have. Is that significant to your story?
I try to choose names based on both their sound and their meaning, but that's just me. And when my characters are kids, if they have a nickname, it isn't related to their names. For instance, "Jake" in my novel, "Star Sons - Dawn of the Two" is nicknamed "Squirt" by his family (and his real name is "Jacob" so "Jake" is a nickname as well).
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Lynda: I feel the same way about Norbert the Norwegian Rideback! I hated to say so because I absolutely hate overdone Potter-associations...they can get so annoying. I once had a critique group member tell another member (not me) that she couldn't use "Bloody Hell" because Ron said that. As if millions of British people haven't been saying that for years! Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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Thanks everybody, I think I will be ditching Norbert. As per usual your advice is spectacular! ~Sheena
Posts: 1201 | Registered: Jan 2008
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This is an odd question to me. The name doesn't fit his character? How many people have names that fit their character? What does it tell you about my character that my name is Dave? The name doesn't have to fit his character, it just has to be a name that his parents liked when he was born. Your name says more about your parents than it says about you.
And if you are married to the idea of name fitting character (whatever that even means), then why does it matter so much that the name Norbert fits him as an adult when he goes by Lord Whatever, anyway?
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If that's the name you want for your hero, then his nickname should be something strong and/or funny, IMO. Bert or Jughead or whatever suits you.
