Romance Audiobooks discussion

I have no intention of insulting anyone in this discussion we are just talking about heroes and heroines names. So here goes. (The heroine and hero of this book are Lucien and Winifred)

Winifred? Mavis? Agatha? Aldora? Isabel? Abigail? Madeline? Annabelle? Drusilla? Freya? Henrietta? Cordelia? Beryl? Hilda? Maribel? Hermione? Perdita? Beatrice? Serafina? Really? WTH kind of names are these for a heroine? They're either crazy names or used over and over again, as if the human race has run out of female names.

Lucien? Sebastian? Drake? Maximillion, Maxemillion or Maxamillion? Marcus? Rhys? Jason? Malcolm? Dylan? Miles? Connor?
See where I'm going from here? All the men have nice strong names, with the exception of Percival, of course (YUCK,) while the women have horrible or stupid names. Why do authors want you to believe a heroine is supposed to be strong then they give her a name like Winifred? It doesn't make a bit of sense.

I'm really tired of Abigail, Isabel and Madeline. Even if you change the spelling it's still the same name. There are books upon books of baby names so why don't the authors use them? All the same names all the time? Insane? Or just to lazy to find a different one?

Again, I had not meant to insult anyone if your names is one of the above and you love it, this is just my opinion. They are just examples compared to the men's names.

How do you feel about names?

i'm guessing it might be based on popular names for the specific time period the book is set

Dee wrote: "i'm guessing it might be based on popular names for the specific time period the book is set"

Yeah, not buying it. There's a lot of old names that are a lot better than those. AND there are enough that the same ones don't have to be used over and over again. And why are the men's names not as bad as the womens? Why aren't the men George, Henry, Harry, Albert or Alfred? Why do the heroes have nice sexy names, is all I'm sayin..

You do have a point Trish.

The names don't bother me unless they are either very difficult to pronounce in my head (which is rare) or they are really odd in some way like Hero in

In fact, sometimes I enjoy the juxtaposition of an old fashioned name like Penelope with a strong and independent heroine as in

The name of a person has nothing to do with how strong they are so "ugly" names (for heroes and heroines) don't bother me. Like Lauren, I mind names when they are unpronuncable, among other things. In fact, I wrote a post at the blog about it: http://badassbookreviews.com/tropes-f...

I particularly like it when a writer picks an "ugly" name but creates such a memorable character, that the name doesn't even count. I remember a Spanish soap opera where the hero was called Demetrio (very old fashioned name for Spanish speaking people) but the guy so was forceful and sexy that nobody cared about his name!

D.G. wrote: "The name of a person has nothing to do with how strong they are so "ugly" names (for heroes and heroines) don't bother me. Like Lauren, I mind names when they are unpronuncable, among other things...."

Nice post, D.G.

D.G. wrote: "I particularly like it when a writer picks an "ugly" name but creates such a memorable character, that the name doesn't even count. "

Exactly!

D.G. wrote: "The name of a person has nothing to do with how strong they are so "ugly" names (for heroes and heroines) don't bother me. Like Lauren, I mind names when they are unpronuncable, among other things...."

I agree. I like that post, D.G.

I don't mind ugly names.

I don't like a lot of pet names that get used in books. I don't mind the core group as I see them: baby, babe, sweetheart, calling them by their title or even job but I don't like the ultra cutesy ones like buttercup. It makes me think of a 3 year old or an very adorable goat. I don't mind them as jokes or in a mocking way but after a while I start to feel like it's stupid. (unless that's all they call them: like Bones always calling Cat Kitten which didn't bother me) I especially loathe "mama" when used between lovers. Totally cringe worthy for me. (yes I'm looking at you Kristen Ashley).

Ancientpeas wrote: "I don't like a lot of pet names that get used in books."

I know what you mean. One of the nicknames that bothered me the most was in - (view spoiler)[Kara constantly calls Mzatal “boss”. There is something not quite right about a woman calling her lover by a term that implies an employer/employee relationship... (hide spoiler)]