There are those who call me... Tim?

[rj_anderson]

It has been suggested to me that I change the name of my young hero from book two of FAERY REBELS (a.k.a. REBEL in the UK). I am told that for most British people, especially of the younger generation, the name "Timothy" is considered fairly radically uncool.

I don't mind Timothy's name being unpopular, because he was born to missionary parents and raised in Uganda, and him not fitting in with the cool kids in England is kind of the point. However, if it's going to make all my young readers in the UK gag and put the book down hastily the moment they see it (as I'd be tempted to do if the hero's name was, say, "Leslie") then I suppose I would be foolish not to take that into account.

So I'm doing a poll. The first question is specifically for UK readers, but for the second I'd be glad to hear from anybody.

[Poll #1398565]

If you're not on LiveJournal, you can still participate by leaving a comment as "Anonymous". Thanks for helping me out on this.

Comments

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

1. I, too, always get the crazy display of your blog (I use IE on a PC). Icons do not stick to posts or comments, but instead appear in a lonely vertical line at the bottom of the page (*far* below the rest of the content and all of the images & backgrounds, accessible only by the window's outer scroll bar).

2. Not a UK-er, but I knew my share of Timothys there, back in the day. I guess the name has acquired the extremely uncool patina in the last couple decades?

3. I don't think Thomas-- though it's a fine name-- substitutes well for what it'd be replacing. It scans all strong and trochaic (presuming you don't intend to shorten it to "Tom"); not particularly retro or outsider-ish. I'd look for another dactyl, like Jeremy (also a "wet" name across the pond??? when did this happen?), Anthony, Jonathan, Adrian, Nicholas, Joshua, Gregory, Gabriel, Christopher, etc. (those aren't all equally good, to my mind, but you get what I mean).

4. P.S. I named my third son (a.k.a. "the mid-life surprise") Harry-- not after Potter, whose adventures I've famously not read, but after my dad. (With two sons already, Hubby and I ran out of Biblical names we liked equally, and my suggestion that we use cricketers' names didn't bowl him over...) I was a bit nervous about Harry, because I natually associated the name with old men, but now I love it. Interestingly, I had thought that the Potter phenomenon might give the boy some company in the schools (he was born the day the first movie was released), but the name does not seem to have made a comeback.

[tree_and_leaf]

NOT ADRIAN. In the context of UK children's lit, it's inextricable from Adrian Mole (and is generally considered a fairly hideous name - worse than Timothy) Jeremy is also not good.

Old fashioned names are back in at the moment, anyway, so I don't think RJ needs to worry (I know a toddler called Harry, and lots of Jacks, neither of which I could have predicted ten years ago).

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

lol @ Adrian Mole. I thought he was a cappuccino-swilling mid-lifer now. :-)

Renaming a character is an awful business.

[owl]

Perhaps it's the circles I move in, but I know two Timothys and a Jeremy who are about my own age. All the little kids in church are very Old Testament, though: Caleb and Isaac and Abigail and Rebekah and Keziah...