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I'm an avid reader (hence I know the above expression, lol) but I am SO SICK of fiction novels using the name Jake, or Jack for the main male character. Did this start with Jack Reacher?
And invariably they are Special Forces, Army Rangers or Navy Seals, and are now in special security work or PI biz.
Do authors just copycat successful novels? I wish for some originality! Maybe back to lawyers, something!
In the late 1980s or so, I hung out on most of the sf forums and knew many of the currently popular authors well. I finally blew up and founded the There Are Too Many Characters Named Jake in Science Fiction League and ran my rant around in circles for quite a while. I got a lot of agreement from the fans and readers, and the authors reacted in various ways.
A couple formally joined the TATMCNJSFL.
One published a story with two characters named Jake.
One used my name for a character and killed him off in an absurd manner two pages later. Maybe even at the hands of, or due to the actions of, a Jake.
There's just something about the name, I think, that sits at the intersection of the Venn diagram for likable, masculine, sensitive, intelligent, trustworthy and believable characters.
That there are still too many of them means I failed. Failed, I tell you. Anyway, I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter and wish you success...
It seems to have come with the re-emerging of the name as popular.
My grandfather, born in 1905, was named Jacob/Jake, as was my uncle, born in the 1930s. When the name suddenly became popular again in the 1980s and 1990s, we thought it was amusing that all these people were naming their babies this "old man name".
My late Uncle Jake now has a teenage grandson with the same name.
My ex had a theory - largely supported by data - that there are really only about 12 men's names. In doing some recent genealogy work, I found an almost unbroken string of John/Jonathans, only to realize I had the wrong starting brother. The correct one's descendants, to me, were long strings of Williams.
The only good thing was that papa of both had one of the most unusual names in English heritage. Almost unique.
My ex had a theory - largely supported by data - that there are really only about 12 men's names. In doing some recent genealogy work, I found an almost unbroken string of John/Jonathans, only to realize I had the wrong starting brother. The correct one's descendants, to me, were long strings of Williams.
The only good thing was that papa of both had one of the most unusual names in English heritage. Almost unique.
Some unusual names in the English tradition are probably best laid peacefully at rest.
Oliver Cromwell, the great military and civil leader of the British Puritan reformation, had a couple of generals in his army whose last name was Barebone.
One's full name was Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior Barebone, and the other was named Praise God Barebone.
It is said that Praise God's baptismal name, which is usually the name a person goes by for life, was Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone.
I think that's an old excess that doesn't bear repeating through the generations. I can't help but wonder what their nicknames were.
Their last name was eventually shortened to Barbon, and the family still exists under it.
Jack/Jake are short manly names. It evokes a certain image--you wouldn't expect a cowboy named Nigel. It kind of like how in books and movies cute girls are usually named something like Kate or Annie or Lucy.
My ex had a theory - largely supported by data - that there are really only about 12 men's names. In doing some recent genealogy work, I found an almost unbroken string of John/Jonathans, only to realize I had the wrong starting brother. The correct one's descendants, to me, were long strings of Williams.
The only good thing was that papa of both had one of the most unusual names in English heritage. Almost unique.
I have two brothers-in-law named Bill, and my niece's husband is also a Bill.
Never dated one, but back when I was doing the match.com thing, I met Bob after Bob after Bob. It got to be funny after a while. Ended up for a while with a Rob.
In the first novel I wrote (unpublished), I named my protagonist Jack Anderson. I did so because I wanted to emphasize his everyman status amid an exceptional situation. Jack is a very generic American forename, and I chose it for that reason. Anderson struck me as the perfectly generic surname for the heavily-Scandinavian upper Midwest, the main character being from Minnesota and that being the place where almost all of the story takes place.
I suppose I could have name him Ezekiel Q. Superstar. That would certainly have been original. But since Jack Anderson suited the story, that's what I chose.
By the way, I put a great deal of consideration into the names of my characters.
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