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]

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Comments

[lferion]

Not from the UK, and personally I quite like the name Timothy.

My concern is *changing an already established character's name*

If it changes in the context of the story -- goes from Timothy to Tim, say, as a choice he makes or is made for him somehow -- that can be cool and work well. Even if he decides he wants to be called Thomas instead of Timothy, that can be an interesting story element. But it needs to be part of the story somehow.

Just changing it -- having the reader open the book and discover that the person they thought they knew isn't named the same thing -- is, for me, a horrible & throw-me-right-out-of-the-story thing, and will badly effect my reading of the book, sometimes to the point of not reading further than the second time it comes up.

I still haven't entirely forgiven Susan Matthews for changing Garol's name to Karol in the fifth book, even with her note of explanation about how to her it always should have been Karol & the publisher had her use something else. I spent the whole book being unpleasantly startled every time I saw the name, because *to me* he had always been named Garol.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Changing a character's name mid-series would be horrible, indeed -- but this is a new character who isn't even mentioned in the first book, so that's not a problem.

(He did appear in early drafts of the first book, though, which means he's been Timothy in my head since 1994... and it's awfully hard to change the name of somebody you've known for fifteen years.)

[myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com]

My main concern was whether the character had been introduced in books that have been released. However, reading these last two comments that isn't the case so its easier to change the name if you feel it necessary.

But, if you don't like the idea of it being changed, then I wouldn't do so.

Harry was never a particularly popular name here in the UK in recent years even with Prince Harry sporting it with a handle. But, it became very popular after Harry Potter!

Anyway, I'm from the UK and don't mind the name at all. But then, my 22 year old cousin is a Timothy.