Do you get annoyed by characters' names in books?

[UnquietDad]

I'm trying to read Tim Pears' "Blenheim Orchard" at the moment and I'm getting exceedingly annoyed by the fact that the parents are called Ezra and Sheena and the children are called Blaise (a girl) and Hector and Louie. had me tutting in exasperation before the thing even gets going. Irrational?

totalchaos I agree re Ruth Rendell.

I recently read The Rotweiller, and so many of the names had me wincing.

Zuluetta, Keefer, Julitta, Mr Phibling , Algy.

The name in the Iain Banks has gone out of my head,begins with an A ? I keep thinking of Amstell as in the beer....I think senility is kicking in -

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!!!!

Classic

BoM - . Glad I don't look a total loon now!! My favourite film of all time.

oh princess bride is fab
the book is brilliant too

Inigo is a great name!

I just don't get The Princess Bride. I watched it recently after raves from people at work and didn't really enjoy it. Don't mind the name Inigo though.

Names in the Boyd book were Henderson Dores, Freeborn, Shanda etc etc. There didn't seem to be one normal name.

Ruth Rendell names are odd because she has no idea what young people are like or what their names are (IMO) so you get young people called Sheila and Norman (or stuff like that)

Just reading Notes From An Exhibition and have no idea how to prononce Morwenna, but realise thats my fault.

Is it More-wen-a or More-wee-na ?

I love Princess Bride. It's so tongue in cheek, and nonsensical, brilliant.
I LOVE Billy Crystal as Miracle Max.

"Do you think it'll work?"
"It'd take a miracle."

What's not to get??

In fact they should make more stuff like it.

I got annoyed with Paul Auster when in some of his early stories he wrote about a character called Paul Auster. Its all very post modern and all that, but I just thought its like having an imaginary friend who is in fact, you: egocentric to the nth degree and frankly, unnecessary.

Incontheevable!

I don't think that word means what you think it means

Best line in the Princess Bride is when Inigo says to Vizzini after he uses the word "inconceivable" once again -

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Why that line cracks me up I don't know but it does.

Anyway, the reason I don't read many sci-fi books is because if I see a name that looks deliberately hatched then that is the end, I just can't concentrate on the story. There is a certain theme to sci-fi names.

Outlandish names in ordinary books also bother me but not to the extent of sci-fi.

The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. It's set in the 17th century, and the characters are either:

a: French, which I can't pronounce

b: Members of the aristocracy, who can be referred to by name or by title (so Roger Comstock, the Marquis of Ravenscar, or just Ravenscar all refer to the same person)

c: Both.

Loved it nonetheless, but had to keep referring to the dramatis personae to keep track of the minor characters.

I do find it irritating when the names are all "interesting" rather than normal. You just don't find that many interesting names in one group of people and it always signifies to me that the author is trying too hard. It reminds me of the book Anne of the Island (L.M.Montgomery) when she wrote a story with an Averil and a Percival Dalrymple - the fact that I can still remember those ridiculous names just shows.

And have you noticed that no two people in books ever have the same first name? (well, I haven't found any books where this is not the case) Of course I can see why but again, it's not very true to life, is it?

Msdemeanor is so right about Ruth Rendall names, and PD James is even worse. Most names in novels are horribly poncey - viz Ian McEwan's Paul Berowne (or was it Perowne?) and several other in Saturday - I guess to be memorable. But I like it when there is a list of characters, then I can refer to it whenever necessary instead of racking my brains or trying to find previous references to whoever.

i used to pronounce it hay-grid too!

I wish sometimes that the Irish authors would put a list of how to pronounce some of the names they include - some I know but others (Aoife and Grainne for e.g.) have me running to the internet to work out how they are pronounced, cos it don't half bugger about with the voices in my head if I don't know how to pronounce a character's name!

I went right off Patricia Cornwell when I got fed up with none of her characters having a proper first name.

That, and her writing speech for British characters with "bloody" in each sentence about 6 times.

How did you pronounce Scarpetta?

I've always thought Scarpetta now I'm thinking perhaps it's Scarpetta

i thought Scarpetta as well; as it's an Italian name, that is most likely

I hated Ian McEwan's "Saturday" for many reasons, one of which was that the main character was called Henry Perowne - it just sounded like such a stupid, obviously made-up name.

Agree re: Patricia Cornwell. Also, did anyone notice how her books used to be a first person narrator, and then suddenly switched to third person, which made them sound really odd and portentous? As well as being a bit crap plot-wise? Surely not a coincidence...

I just make up the names when I am reading, and as I'm not reading aloud it's not really problem. But I do read a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy and there is no way I'm going to spend time looking at the detailed pronunciation guides "helpfully" provided - especially if the character is just about to be bumped off . The worst name I have come across was a main character called "Gar".

More of a problem when I read aloud to the children!

I stopped reading Patricia Cornwell at that point. I didn't like the way everything was written in the present tense either.