Banned Names by J. S. Marlo

 

 

Seasoned Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #1"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

There are lots of parts in a novel. The setting, the plot, the twists & turns, and let's not forget the characters. The author wants the readers to love them, hate them, cry for them, cheer for them... The last thing an author wants is for the readers not to feel or care about the characters at all.

Bad and/or good, characters need to be three-dimensional, but they also need a name that fits them. Once a reader sent me a message about a book I wrote. She told me she hated it, so I asked what exactly she didn't like about the story. She said the story was awesome, the plot kept her up at night, and she loved the characters, but she hated my hero's last name because she couldn't pronounce it. So it wasn't the book she hated, it was my hero's name, which prompted her to leave a 3-star review without any explanation.

I guess you can never please everyone. My hero's name is still the same, I happen to like it, but I do spend lots of time looking for the right names, which brings me to today's topic. Banned names.

Many countries don't allow parents to give names that are embarrassing, misleading, controversial, offensive, obscene, or unreasonably long to their child. Some have rules about the letters/numbers/symbols allowed or not allowed, and some force the parents to choose from a pre-approved list. And some countries ban certain names.

In the United States, among the names that are not allowed, you'll find: King, Queen, Jesus Christ, III, Santa Claus, Majesty, Messiah, Misteri Nigger, @, 1069.

In Iceland and Denmark, parents must choose from a pre-approved list or seek special  approval.

In New Zealand, these are some the names that were rejected by the registration office: King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Duke, Royal, Empress, Messiah, Saint, General, Major, Justice.

In Sweden, there's no Elvis, Metallica, Veranda, Superman, or IKEA. Well... there are IKEA stores, many of them, but no IKEA baby.

In Germany, you can't name your child Adolf Hitler.

In Mexico, among the many forbidden names, you'll find: James Bond, Harry Potter, Hermione, Robocop, Lady Di, Rocky.

In Malaysia, children can't be named after colours, flowers, animals, or food.

In France, these are among the names that were rejected by the registration office: Nutella, Mini Cooper, Fraise (it translates to Strawberry), Joyeux (it translates to Happy).

Bottomline: Before giving your character an unusual name, make sure it is allowed in the country from where that character hails.

Happy Reading & Stay Safe.

J. S.

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

Fascinating & Fun Facts about Babies by J. S. Marlo

 

Wounded Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #2"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

Two weeks ago, I was blessed with a second grandchild. Another gorgeous baby girl. I'm counting the days until I get to hold her in my arms.

The new parents didn't know, and didn't want to know, the sex of their first baby. They picked two names which they didn't share until after baby was born. If anyone had any objections, no one would dare to share it once it had already been given to the baby.

While I was searching for the meaning of her name--it means weaver--I stumbled onto fun facts about newborn babies. Whether I believe all of them is different story, but one of these will eventually appear in one of my stories  LOL

- Newborn babies' kneecaps are made of cartilage, not bones. The cartilage will harden into bony kneecaps around six months of age.

- Babies born in May are the heaviest. Apparently someone looked at the average weight of babies born throughout the year, and discovered that babies born in May are 200g heavier than babies born in any other months. That's 7oz bigger. That's actually a big difference.

That being said, I have no idea how many babies were parts of that, but that's a fun fact.

- Newborn babies have no tears. Babies' tear ducts aren't fully developed until three weeks of age, so they won't shed tears in these first few weeks, but it won't stop them from crying.

I wonder if the tear ducts start to develop three weeks after they are born, or three weeks after they should have been born...

- Babies are born with 300 bones. An adult has 206 bones. Over the years, baby's cartilage will harden and bones will fuse together. By the time she reaches early adulthood (20-25 years of age), she will have 206 bones.

- Most babies are born with a birthmark. They are different types of birthmarks. Most of them are harmless, and a few will fade as the child grow, but most birthmarks will be permanent.

- Babies' hair falls out. A newborn tends to lose the hair she was born with and grow new hair over the first year of her life. The new hair may be very different from the one she was born with.

One of my daughters was born with red hair. By the time she was a few months old, she was blond.

- A newborn baby is born with around 70 reflexes.

I'm impressed, and I bet they are faster than mine too LOL

- Babies know your taste in music. Unborn babies start hearing sounds and music at around seventeen-eighteen weeks. By the time they are born, they apparently recognize your taste in music.

The research doesn't say if they also acquire your taste in music, but it may explain why my daughters love ABBA as much as I do.

- Babies are born with taste buds throughout their mouths. By the time they reach adulthood, about a third of these taste buds will remain, and they will be mostly on their tongues.

- Babies' eyes change colours. At birth, a baby's eyes may appear grey or blue due to a lack of pigmentation. Once exposed to light, the eye colour will start to change, but it may take six to twelve months until baby has gorgeous blue, green, hazel, or brown eyes.

- Babies grow fast. Most babies will double in weight the first six months, and quadruple in size the first two years.

Yeah, they grow way too fast. Next thing you know, they start having little ones of their own.

I'm enjoying every moment of grandmotherhood because I know it will be over in the blink of an eye.

Enjoy the small blessings that life brings every day & stay safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

Unique Names...and then again maybe not

 

Coming in October

Names are important to writers. We spend a lot of time researching titles and even more time finding just the right name for each character in our books. I remember early in my writing career, I had settled on a name for my heroine which was tied to a twist in the plot. When my editor read it she told me that name was a well known romance author and perhaps I should change it. (Not really a suggestion.) In changing her name, I also had to change other names and modify the plot. After that, I began taking a little more time when deciding on names.

Just this week, I discovered a whole new perspective on names. My sister came to visit me in Kansas City. Because of COVID we hadn’t seen each other in a couple years, plus the fact she lives in Illinois. But there was an ulterior motive to her visit. You see, her name is Linda, and she was also coming to the L.I.N.D.A. convention being held here. You read right. They have a convention for people named Linda. Check it out at L.I.N.D.A. Club – Lindas Involved in Network Development (lindaclub.org). They’ve been having conventions since 1987 and my sister has gone to so many that she had enough tee-shirts for me to make her a quilt!

 Well, of course, I had to see if there was a Barbara convention, but regardless of whether I looked up “convention”, “conference” or “club”, I couldn’t find one. I did come across My Quest to Find All the People Who Share My Name - The Atlantic. It’s a fun and interesting article from the Atlantic about “All the other Julie Becks and Me”. Even if your name isn’t Julie Beck, the article has interesting information about how the internet has changed our sense of identity.

 Within that article was the website http://howmanyofme.com/. You can put in your first and last name and find out how many people in the U.S. have the same name as you according to the census, although the site does state the numbers aren’t absolute. There is also a section on statistics and famous people with your name. It even lists names similar to Barbara: Barb, Barbie, Bobbi, Bobbie, Bobby.

 Because I know you’re curious, there are 1,638,172 people in the U.S. with the first name Barbara. There are 98,093 people with the last name Baldwin. There are only 481 people named Barbara Baldwin.

 I tried to find a site that gave a list of all the different “name clubs” around the country but without spending days going down a rabbit hole in the internet, I had no luck. I did find Same-Name Clubs - American Profile, which gives information about clubs for people named Betty, Bob, Linda, Phil Campbell, Jim Smith. You would think there would be a club for John Doe or Jane Doe or at the very least “Karen”. I did look to see if there were actually real people with those names and there are 236 John Doe; only 18 Jane Doe. It didn’t surprise me that there are over a million people named Karen. Make yourselves a club, ladies!

 No matter how unique you might think you are, chances are there’s more than one of you out there. (Or in my case 481.) I decided to check out a few of the characters from my novels. According to the “how many of me” website, which as I said is not absolute, the numbers in parenthesis indicate how many real people have the same names as my fictional characters.

            Charles Cannon (644) and Jacy Douglas (1 or fewer!) from “Loving Charlie Forever”

            Joseph Donovan (354) and Cheyenne Tucker (only 3!) from “Prelude and Promises”

            Erin Thomas (652) and Remington Matthews (1 or fewer!) from “Snowflakes and

Kisses” (upcoming release Oct2021)

It’s no wonder many books have a disclaimer at the front stating that characters and places are fictitious and not related to persons past or present.

To find out more about others with my name, I googled myself. I found an actress, realtor, VP of Marketing and an artist to name a few. I was WAY down on the list, but when I put in “Barbara Baldwin author” I was number 2 on the Google search. Not bad! Just so you know if you Google yourself, there are also obituaries!

The U.S. Census Bureau statistics tell us that there are at least 151,671 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use in the United States, although some names are more common than others. No matter how you do the math, you’re probably not going to get by without someone else having your name.

Barb Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

https://bookswelove.net/baldwin-barbara/

 

           

 

What's In A Name by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

The origin of names goes so far back into history, there is more than one truth or theory, depending on the era, the culture, and what part of the world a character comes from.

 What is clear is that names mostly stemmed from a need for identity and connection within families and communities.

People were often named for the trade in which they were skilled like the English surnames Smith, Baker, Archer, and Tyler, or after the towns or countries from where they originated like York, Hamilton, or French.

First names were often handed down from father to son, mother to daughter, which could get confusing if you had a long line of Edwards or Marys and even more so if, like the boxer George Foreman, all his five sons were named George. Today it seems anyone can name a child anything and often seems more by fancy than reason.

As an author of historical romance, I have most of my work done for me as all I need do is Google the popular male and female names for any given year and go from there. Please note: Google is a starting point, not the be-all and end-all for any type of research. I have also used parish records and names found on tombstones to be full of information, too.

Light from Beyond
All-free-download.com

Because my settings are mostly English, I can pinpoint the county my characters populate and run a list of names for that area. My next Regency romance is set in the New Forest in the county of Hampshire, England, so I am currently researching surnames from that area in the early 1800s.

Once I have a list of names, I consider how easy those names are to pronounce and if the first and second names not only fit together, but also suit my characters. Into that mix I must consider the intricacies of the British peerage if I include lords and ladies in my books. Burke’s Peerage is an invaluable resource for this.

One thing that I find frustrating is when I come across a name in a book and have no knowledge of how to pronounce it. In this instance Google is my friend, as you can search ‘how to pronounce’ whatever the name is and listen to the result. That is why I would never use an invented name in any of my books unless I can qualify it in some way for my reader to easily understand it.

In my current work in progress, a contemporary western romantic suspense, my female character is Callie. Where did that come from? Her mother (like mine!) loved calla lilies, so I have worked that into the story. It is just a small detail which I think (hope) gives my character a little more reality.

​Victoria Chatham

  AT BOOKS WE LOVE

 ON FACEBOOK

 MY WEBSITE

How do you say Snow? by J. S. Marlo

 

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I have often heard that Inuit people have more than 50 words for snow. It's not quite true, but they do have many words for snow.

Back in November, I was checking the weather, and one day I saw a term I'd never heard before: light snow grains. The grains threw me for a loop. I was taking a long walk that morning, and the white stuff resembled prickly snow, so once I got back, I googled snow grains. From there, since I like for my stories to take place in the winter, I looked at how many different kind of snow term I could find in English.

Snow: Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent ice crystals in complex branched hexagonal form. It most often falls from stratiform clouds, but can fall as snow showers from cumuliform ones. At temperatures > than -5 °C, the crystals generally cluster to form snowflakes.

Wet snow: Snow with a high moisture content.

Dry snow: Snow with a low moisture content.

Snow grains: Frozen precipitation in the form of very small, white opaque grains of ice. The solid equivalent of drizzle. Their diameter is generally < 1 mm. When grains hit hard ground, they do not bounce or shatter. They usually fall in very small quantities, mostly from Status clouds or fog and never in the form of a shower.

Snow pellets: Frozen precipitation of particles of either spherical or conical ice; their diameter is about 2 to 5 mm. They are brittle, easily crushed, and unlike hail, when they fall on hard ground, they bounce and often break up. Snow pellets always occur in showers and are often accompanied by snowflakes or raindrops when the surface temperature is around 0 °C.

Blowing snow: Snow particles violently stirred up by wind to sufficient heights above the ground to reduce visibility to 10 km or less.

Snow squall: A heavy snow shower accompanied by sudden strong winds.

Frost: Frost is the condition that exists when the temperature of the air near the earth or earth-bound objects falls to freezing or lower (0 °C). Alternately, frost or hoar frost describes a deposition of ice crystals on objects by direct sublimation of water vapour from the air.

Hail: Precipitation of small balls or pieces of ice with a diameter ranging from 5 to 50 mm or more. Hail is generally observed during heavy thunderstorms.

Ice: The solid form of water. It can be found in the atmosphere in the form of ice crystals, snow, ice pellets, and hail for example.

Ice crystals: Precipitation in the form of slowly falling, singular or unbranched ice needles, columns, or plates. They make up cirriform clouds, frost, and ice fog. Also, they produce optical phenomena such as halos, coronas, and sun pillars. May be called "diamond dust." Precipitation of ice crystals in the form of needles, columns or plates sometimes so tiny, they seem suspended in air. They are mainly visible when they glitter in sunshine and occur only at very low temperatures and stable air masses.

Ice pellets: Precipitation of transparent or translucent pellets of ice, which are spherical or irregular shaped, having a diameter of 5 mm or less. They are classified into two types: hard grains of ice consisting of frozen rain drops or largely melted and refrozen snowflakes; pellets of snow encased in a thin layer of ice which have formed from the freezing of droplets intercepted by pellets or water resulting from the partial melting of pellets. Ice pellets usually bounce when hitting hard ground and make a sound on impact. They can fall as continuous precipitation or in showers.

Freezing rain: Rain, the drops of which freeze on impact with the ground or with objects at or near the ground.

Freezing drizzle: Drizzle, the drops of which freeze on impact with the ground or with objects at or near the ground.

Can I tell the difference between  all of them when I'm outside? Most of the time, but I oblivious didn't know about snow grains LOLOL

One thing I can say, it's how cold it gets in my northern corner of the world.  

It's so cold...we had to chop up the piano for firewood.  Ya, we only got two chords.

It's so cold...grandpa's teeth were chattering.  In the glass!

It's so cold...eating ice cream was knocked down to #4 in the "Top Five Ways to get a Brain Freeze".

It is so cold...we can toss a cup of hot water in the air and hear it shatter into ice crystals.

Happy reading! Stay Warm & Safe!

Many hugs!

JS

 

J. S. Marlo's Website