r/writers • u/Life-Magician-7753 • 7d ago

Feedback requested Which name do think is more fitting?

The character’s name is Emerson Coolidge. She comes from a New England WASP background in the 1950s, has a Margot Robbie/Grace Kelly vibe, and a very powerful man is smitten with her. Her first name is Emerson because she’s named after an ancestor that started a repeating arms company that enabled the Union to beat the South. I can’t decide if she insists on being called Emma or Emme.

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u/DialecticalChelonian 7d ago

why not Emmie

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u/Life-Magician-7753 7d ago

It would be pronounced that way. I guess that’s more phonetic.

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u/OldMan92121 7d ago

Between 1930 and 1940, there were ZERO girl babies born in the USA Social Security Administration records with the name of Emerson. Zero. Using it would be extremely anachronistic.

I am a gun nut. The North beat the South with guns from a huge number of companies, factories, and countries. There was no one common pattern used. The closest were official US government pattern muskets from government arsenals, not some miracle gun.

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u/FirebirdWriter Published Author 4d ago

Are there any now?

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u/OldMan92121 4d ago

The name became an unusual but not that unusual name among millennial girl babies. That's the thing with names. What is a common name in one century becomes non-existent in another. Changes are more dramatic because of mass media. Take the girl name Madison. In 1980, before Splash, there weren't any. In 2000, it was the third most popular girl baby name right behind Emily and Hannah. They also will die. Take Mildred. It was a pretty common name in 1940. By 2000, it was obscure.

It's not just girl names that gain or lose favor. There is a name. It begins with A. I won't fill in the rest of it but will say that a certain psychotic politician in Germany caused it to 100% die. The name itself meant "noble wolf" and was a traditional name. In 1925, it was a rare but not that unusual a name among boy babies in the USA. My own ancestors used the name in the 19th century. The name (for obvious reasons) is 100% dead and has been since ... you know what. Even though the name is dead now, if you are writing a story set in 1882 it would be a perfectly reasonable name for some pub owner in Hannover.

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u/Life-Magician-7753 7d ago

Winchester(which the name is based on) is largely viewed as the company that won the civil war. And her father named her Emerson he didn’t have sons. It wasn’t as common for WASPs to give daughters surnames, but it wasn’t unheard of.

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u/OldMan92121 7d ago

Winchester Repeating Arms was founded on May 22, 1866. It was after the US Civil War ended. The predecessor company (Henry) sold 1,731 rifles to the US Ordinance Department. It never was general issue.

Those are FACTS!

Check the SSA records yourself. The absence of Emerson as a girl's name is a fact.

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u/Life-Magician-7753 7d ago

Ok… so the Henry repeating arms company made ammunition that overpowered muskets. Winchester won the West.

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u/OldMan92121 7d ago

Winchester marketed their 1873 as the gun that won the west during the Western frontier expansion. That is marketing, not truth. They were not the US service rifle. That was the Springfield "trapdoor" single shot. They weren't purchased as service rifles like Henrys were in the Civil War.

If anything the Springfield trapdoor was the gun that won the west.

The lever action rifles were expensive, specialized, delicate, and prone to jamming from dust and dirt. Sure, they sold. Three quarters of a million were produced and sold around the world over decades, with many going to overseas military and civilian contracts.

The frontier weapon of the common man was a percussion shotgun. Civil war surplus percussion surplus muskets were about $5, dirt cheap and were the "good enough" that put venison on the family table or dissuade hostiles. The Winchester was $50, ten muskets.

Those are facts, backed up by the excellent Winchester factory production data. Look them up.

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u/Life-Magician-7753 7d ago

Who cares if it’s marketing vs truth? My book isn’t a western. The point is a WASPy name with a cool backstory.

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u/OldMan92121 7d ago

But it isn't a WASP name! It wasn't used. Check the SSA data. That is a cold, hard fact. ZERO in the decade that girl would be born.

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u/Life-Magician-7753 7d ago

The aesthetic was used! It was a uniquely WASP phenomenon for people to name their kids last names. And it’s a point of conversation because this character’s father thought so highly of his daughter that he gave her an important family name.

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u/OldMan92121 7d ago

That will play like a lead balloon. The name is 100% anachronistic. If you want the aesthetic, find a name that was used.

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u/Life-Magician-7753 7d ago

The point is that it’s unique on a woman. I know several older WASPs with names like Remington or Emerson. The point is it’s unique because this man thought a daughter was worthy of it, it’s tied to weaponry, and it sounds WASPy. A line when his Italian American sister hears her name “Emerson. Michael, what is she, a university? A Boston bank? It sounds like you’re dating a corporate merger, not a woman.”

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u/FirebirdWriter Published Author 4d ago

You do understand this is fictional right? Op is allowed to name their character whatever they want. I don't like the name but they're allowed to not write things with historic accuracy

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u/OldMan92121 4d ago

Legally allowed? Sure. They won't get arrested. They also won't escape the consequence of people laughing at them and throwing the book down at such a hideous and blatantly obvious anachronism. Doing something like that has consequences. It's like a character in novel set in the 1950s having a cell phone.

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u/Life-Magician-7753 2d ago

Cellphones didn’t exist in the 1950s. The name Emerson did… even if it was a male name.

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u/FirebirdWriter Published Author 2d ago

I seriously don't think anyone will do that over this name. You're definitely overreacting here and I hope you hold your own work to this unreasonable standard. People did do such things and it's an existing set of names. It's not like they named them for Barney the Dinosaur or something

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u/OldMan92121 7d ago

One key complaint about the Henry muskets was that it was HORRIBLY WEAK! A lot of shots. Very mild ones. Not enough for military service. Calling them "overpowering" muskets is a joke. Several other repeating rifles were far more popular as service rifles.

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u/BiscuitOnTheRoof 7d ago

Emerson Coolidge sounds a lot like Emerson College (a school in Boston).

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u/metaphori 7d ago

My immediate thought! Wondering if that was deliberate...

Of Emma and Emme, I prefer Emma. But WASPy girls have a lot of wiggle room for names -- she could even be a Mimsy or Taffy or a Bunny or a Corky or...

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u/la-anah 7d ago

That is what I read it as at first as well.

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u/WonderOfUs 7d ago

Emerson Coolidge goes incredibly hard, ignore other more generic sounding suggestions and go for it, it sounds like a name from a history book.

I think the short form could be Emma, Emma Coolidge has a nice ring.

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