Interchangeable names?

[ccarver30]

Sometimes I call one of my character's by her full name, Elizabeta, and other times I call her Elisa. It is clear that there is only one person, so that shouldn't be the issue; I am worried that this would get annoying.
Am I wrong- could that get confusing?
What are your thoughts?

[Cato]

Does the narrator refer to her with both names? If so that would be weird, especially if it's 3rd person. If it's the different characters in the story that refer to her as the two names then I don't see a problem with it.

[Harper K]

John Updike did this -- and made it work -- in his Rabbit series. (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest. Some of my favorite novels.) But it's very much tied to character. The main character's given name is Harry, but his high school sports nickname was Rabbit. It's a thread throughout the books that he's constantly looking back nostalgically on his days as a HS basketball star. As the books are written in close 3rd person, it makes sense that the narration sometimes refers to him as Harry, and sometimes as Rabbit. It works seamlessly. It's clear that the character thinks of himself by these two names.

Actually, I do that for myself, too. I have a nicknamey version of my first name that I went by all through school, but now I go by my more "formal" (I guess) first name at work. In my head, I alternate which name I call myself. So if someone were writing a close 3rd person novel about me, it'd make sense to do the same thing.

Does it make sense for your character? Does she have two sides to her personality, perhaps? Or maybe there's one special person in her life who calls her by the nickname, and so she's come to think of herself by that name? If it's tied into character, and motivation, it can work. If it's not, the reader might be distracted by the switching back and forth.

[ccarver30]

I kind of just do it for her name is so long. Mayhap I should just call her that if another character is referring to her (in dialogue).
Thanks for the comments. :)

[qwerty]

I think if you switched between Elizabeta and Eliza (rather than Elisa) it would be more obvious it's just a diminutive of her full name.

[Ciera_]

I have a character named Mia but in more serious situations they'll sometimes call her by her full name of Miranda. I think it works. Yours sounds like it'll work, and I agree with qwerty's comment about the 'z' instead of 's'.
(by the way, your name of Elizabeta reminded me at first of a Polish name my friend mentioned once. She typed it as 'Elzbieta' and I mentally pronounce it Elz-bee-et-a, though I'm sure it's MUCH different aloud in Poland, and anyway they use different characters to begin with.)

[Maryn]

I'm willing to go on record as the dunce who might not realize that Elizabeta and Elisa are related names, or that they're the same person. Same for Mia and Miranda. It's going to take serious context for me to get it and remember it.

In my world, Elisa is its own name, not a diminutive. Same with Mia. If that's not the case in your world, and you're certain your readers will be in your world and therefore know exactly who you're talking about, then all is well. (I'd have no problem with Elizabeth and Liz, Judith and Judy, or Margaret and Maggie, for instance.)

Surely I can't be the only reader who's become confused when a single character goes by Bob, Robert Lee Smith, Sheriff Smith, Bobby Lee, R.L., and Bobo. More than once, I've realized rather late that what I thought were two characters was actually one, and I stopped reading in disgust with both myself and the author.

Maryn, who, like many readers, cannot always devote long stretches of her undivided attention to reading

[selkn.asrai]

I've gotten annoyed with narratives that refer to one character by different names, unless it's for an explicit purpose, e.g., it exists only in dialogue, or in the past/future to distinguish the character's alternate personality, like in Updike's Rabbit series, or like Robbie Turner in Atonement.

Otherwise, I sense that the author might have just wanted to avoid typing out the long name. And if the author can't treat his work seriously enough to be consistent and remember the reader's potential confusion, why should I treat his work seriously enough to continue reading it?

[tehuti88]

When I settle on a name for a character, in the narration I almost always go by that particular name, whether it's the full name or a nickname. If I tend to use the shorter version of the name (e. g., "Kat" for "Katrina"), I might use the full name (Katrina) at the beginning of a chapter, like a sort of "introduction," but then will revert to the short name (Kat) for the remainder. If I always go with the longer version of a name then I stick with that throughout the text. (For example I have an Indian character named Stick-In-The-Dirt; in my earlier writing I would sometimes shorten his name to "Stick," and looking back on that bothers me now since I always refer to him by his full name in my newer writing. Needs editing. If I had been consistent in just referring to him as Stick throughout the entire series then this would not be a problem.)

In short, consistency is what I go for. If I settle on a name for somebody in the narration then I settle on it. Switching between two versions of a name is irritating to me if it's in the narration. It's okay to me when the characters do it in dialogue or thought (including very close third-person POV, sometimes), because they're naturally going to call the character by variations of their name (my MC likes to call Stick-In-The-Dirt "Stick" even while the narrator uses the full name), but in narration I favor consistency.

I recall that when I was reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, it niggled at me that the writer always referred to certain characters by their full names (Serafina Pekkala, Lee Scoresby, etc.). Seemed too formal; who is always referred to by first and last name? But then in the last book when he shortened these names to just Serafina and Lee, it really jarred me because it wasn't consistent. I wondered if he'd gotten tired of typing the full names?

That's just me though.

[RJK]

My MC's name is Alec Theron. The narrator almost exclusively refers to him as 'Theron' unless he is with his brother, then the narrator will call him 'Alec'. In dialog, the characters call him both 'Alec' and 'Al'.

I've been through the MS so many times I can't see any chance where the reader would be mixed up, but of course, it's still a possibility.

[Shar-Jan]

I recall that when I was reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, it niggled at me that the writer always referred to certain characters by their full names (Serafina Pekkala, Lee Scoresby, etc.). Seemed too formal; who is always referred to by first and last name? But then in the last book when he shortened these names to just Serafina and Lee, it really jarred me because it wasn't consistent. I wondered if he'd gotten tired of typing the full names?

Which is why at the end of Subtle knife it was so gutwrenching when Hester screams 'Dammit Lee!'. Some characters have to be given formal names. Minvera doesn't have the chill to it that Mrs Coulter does (That actually gave my goosebumps, and I've not read those books in years, awesome).

Read some Russian literature if you want to see some long names. In The Brothers Karamazov it seems everyone's got about twenty double or tripple barrel names. Its a struggle to keep track of everyone but quite easy if your invested enough in the characters (which if your reading Dostoyevski right, you are).

I don't see that much of a problem with having quite long formal sounding names. After you see it the first few times your eyes just glide over it and never read it anyway.

[cara k]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say 'you' call her by different names. Is this an omniscient novel? Or are the different names through different POVs or in dialogue? In my last novel, my MC was referred to by a couple of different nicknames, but it worked out okay, because different characters called her different names--Becca, Becky, Rebecca. But my main narration--through the MC's POV--kept one name, Becca, because that's how she referred to herself. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's okay to use different names as long as you're not creating confusion and as long as you keep the name consistent for each character. Hope that helps.

[Gillhoughly]

I did this with a character in a book I just sold.

I suggest be subtle about it.

In sections where the character pauses and "takes a breath" or after there's been a narrative break and I'm looking in on him, I used his full name. Ditto for the occasional introspective moment.

The rest of the time I used the shortened form.

So if he was doing something unimportant:

Checking the menu, Rafe held off ordering anything adventurous.

Short worked better. But something more important:

Sighting the target, Raphael held off shooting for a moment.

Each instance is going to be different. I used the full name in those bits where it seemed appropriate, and I used it just the once. It's sort of like when a parent uses a child's full name to get their attention.

[ccarver30]

I decided to change them all to Elisabeta. Thanks, everyone, for the input. :)