The Grand Illusion
Back almost thirty years ago, after The Soprano Sorceress was published, a small number of readers, and my then editor, the esteemed David Hartwell, thought that the name of one of the characters [Jimbob] was totally inappropriate. For the first three books of the series, Jimbob is a comparatively minor character, but in the fourth book he becomes the ruler of Defalk,
David insisted that Jimbob’s name change, and I did have Jimbob make the change, out of vanity, which certainly fit with Jimbob’s character. My wife, however, thought that the change was totally unnecessary, because of her family background in the mountains of Kentucky, where names such as Billy Joe and Billy Bob, Bobbi Jo are not uncommon. Also, where every farm animal (at least on her grandparents’ farm) has the salutation “ole,” as in Ole Barney (mule), Ole Jers (cow), Ole Butch (dog).
There’s also a personal connection, if attenuated, and a certain irony with David’s dislike of “Jimbob” (which actually exists as a given name in the U.S.). David’s full name is David Geddes Hartwell, which made him a second cousin of Alice Geddes Lloyd, the founder of Alice Lloyd College (given her name after her death) in Kentucky, an institution which provided a college education to my wife’s mother and many others who have double first names and who could not have attended college otherwise. By the way, my wife also has a double first name.
And history is certainly not without odd names, such as Robert Curthose (aka facetiously “Bobby Shortsocks”) who could have been king of England instead of Henry I; Astrolabe Abelard; Victory Birdseye; Styles Bridges; Bob Goodlatte; and many, many others.
Of course, for authors, odd-sounding names tend to fall into a category that might be termed “true but implausible,” where something that actually occurred is rejected by editors and readers as too implausible to be believable. At the same time, David’s objections notwithstanding, how can anyone who’s ever spent any time in the American South find a name such as Jimbob implausible (especially for a narcissistic ruler)?
Names in fiction send a message to readers, and the author always has to take care not to send an unwanted one.
If everyone in the novel is named Rick, Jeanie, Michael, and so on, minorities might well feel excluded.
If anyone is named Osama or Adolf, that sends a message too.
As to Jimbob, I’ve spent time in the south, but for whatever reason I haven’t known any double-first name people, so I always wonder when I see one like that in a novel if the author is trying to say something about hillbillies, or rednecks, or whatever other southern stereotype anyone wants to apply.
But that’s just me.
Perception is always tricky and very subjective. Is a character’s name important or is it just a tag? A lot of times main character’s names are important but most others are just a tag and often add a bit of flavor to the world or are an inside joke. Some authors even auction the naming rights for charity. What is improbable in English to English speakers would be accepted on face value by people from other cultures. How often do you look up Germanic names in a novel to get their meaning.
The best contraction I have seen was William Robert’s barbeque west of Atlanta, GA. It was contracted to BilBo. I always wanted to stop in and ask where is Frodo.