Should first names and surnames match?

[BeStrongLittleRodney]

I am really discombobulated by a character name in a book I am reading.

I just cannot imagine parents calling a child Simeon McTavish!

to me he would have been Angus, or Jamie. Simon at a push, but not Simeon!

Do you think names should be more matching than this?

I went to school with a David Davidson...can't get more matching than that.

I guess one person's idea of matching names is not another's.

I sometimes change characters' names in my head if they're like that. I agree it's a bit weird.

Perfect matches are like Magnus Magnusson or my favourite:

Donald Donaldson

Then you have:

Sir Richard Dick

Mixed names can reflect a mixed background. It's also a bit restrictive if you have a surname with a very specific vibe, to have to pick a name with the same vibe.

I get what you mean, though. My children are dual citizens but their whole names are very much from DP's culture (though on the international side so that everyone can pronounce them) because it didn't seem right somehow to mix and match. But then my side of their heritage isn't reflected in their names at all, which is a bit sad really.

I knew a Robert Roberts!

Lots here in scotland! Donald MacDonald, Innes McInnes etc 🤣

I don’t get it, are you suggesting that a Scottish surname needs to have a ‘matching’ Scottish first name? Sounds a bit mad and programmatic, and what do you do about children of mixed heritages? DS’s school is full of children with, say, a Biblical first name plus a double-barrelled surname of Nigerian or Polish or French and Irish extraction

I knew a Morgan Morgan

That’s a fair point - but there’s no hint I. This book about dual heritage, it’s just a very unusual combo in my opinion. That’s the joy of writing a book I suppose, you can go wild!

Boaty McBoatface?

But Simeon is a pretty classic Biblical name, like Nathaniel, Benjamin et al — it doesn’t seem to me to be any kind of culture clash. I know kids with that kind of Biblical name whose surnames could be English, Irish, Scottish, West African, Asian…