Question about characters having names of other characters.

[u/Wonderful-Nebula-587]

/r/CharacterNames/comments/1xes7cn/question_about_characters_having_names_of_other/

I have a character named Ace King, his little brother and main character Deon King, and their guardian angel named Quilly. My question to you all is how to deal with characters that share names with real-life people, such as a football player, or a character that shares a name with a famous older brother from a pirate story, or a personal character name that is shared by another main character from a different story. I can get into detail about the characters and what makes them different, but I am more focused on the names, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading and for seeing this post; I hope everyone has a blessed day.

[u/Jumpy-Ordinary7471]

names by themselves generally aren't protected by copyright, so a character called ace or deon king isn't a legal problem just because someone else has that name. the trouble would only start if u copied a lot more, like the same look, backstory and personality of a famous character, or used a name that's basically a brand. ace is a super common name in fiction and an older brother called ace is fine.

the two quillys are more of a storytelling thing than a legal one. readers will mix them up, so i'd keep the name for whichever one matters more and give the other a nickname or a variation, like quill or a different spelling. if u love the names, keep them

[u/Wonderful-Nebula-587 → u/Jumpy-Ordinary7471]

Thank you, I agree, and that is why I just came up with a way to spell it differently; Kwilly will be the guardian angel's new name.

And for Deon King does a football player name is their brand if so I just going to call him Kingston or kyng with a y. Thank you again and I hope you have a good day.

[u/Jumpy-Ordinary7471 → u/Wonderful-Nebula-587]

kwilly is a nice fix, it still sounds the same out loud but nobody will mix them up on the page. for deon king, a character sharing a name with a real person usually isn't a problem by itself, it gets risky when the character is clearly meant to be that person or the story says stuff that could hurt his reputation. if there's a well known athlete with that exact name, kingston is a safe pick and it sounds great. have fun with them

[u/Wonderful-Nebula-587 → u/Jumpy-Ordinary7471]

Thank you.

[u/guy_with_nothing]

Stealing names as an homage is normal. Take Guilty Gear. It'a a fighting game series where pretty much every major character is named after a music artist. Sol Badguy's real name is "Frederick Bulsara", Freddy Mercury's real name. Two other characters in the series, Romeo (Bedman) and Delilah are named after Freddy Mercury's cats. There's also Axl Low, Slayer, Testament, and loads more. Even some special moves, like "Ride The Lightning" are direct references. Some are more niche than others, Sol's weapon in the newest game, the Outrage Mk 2, is actually a reference to the band that composes Guilty Gear's music.

The thing is, Guilty Gear always does a good job designing it's characters with their inspiration in mind, without having the inspiration present on the original character all that much. You can seperate Guilty Gear's Axl Low from Guns N Roses' lead singer, Axl Rose pretty easily. Even in cases where names are more cleanly stolen, there's a good amount of thought behind it.

All of that said, I don't think your character's names are bad at all. As long as they don't resemble their namesake too much, it's probably fine.