{"id":1084,"date":"2025-08-03T18:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurentchani.com\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2025-09-15T16:36:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:36:31","slug":"the-names-and-first-names-of-the-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/les-noms-et-prenoms-des-personnages\/","title":{"rendered":"The names and first names of the characters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is sometimes odd<\/strong> to see how some elements<\/strong> impose themselves, beyond our control<\/strong>This is particularly the case for the names<\/strong> and the first names<\/strong> of my characters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My history<\/strong> takes place in France<\/strong>. It would therefore appear logic<\/strong> that the first names<\/strong> of the protagonists<\/strong> be French speakers<\/strong>, at least for those from the country<\/strong>I could have chosen. Rock<\/strong>, Paulette<\/strong> or even Hugo<\/strong>. This is what I did in the first pages of writing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very quickly, however, I realized that this did not suit me. These men<\/strong> and these women<\/strong> were not distinguished by their name<\/strong> or their first name<\/strong> in the construction of this nascent history<\/strong>, but rather by their job<\/strong>, their SKILLS<\/strong>, their Status<\/strong> or even, for one of the key figures<\/strong>, by its incompetence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will not reveal theplot<\/strong>, but to illustrate my about<\/strong>, you will find in the excerpts section<\/strong> of this blog<\/strong> a short extract<\/strong> mentioning a certain "Mr. Bob"<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So most of my characters<\/strong> are identified by a nickname<\/strong>, a denomination<\/strong> that differentiates them from each other. It has become a kind of distinctive mark<\/strong> demon writing process<\/strong>. It seems to me that this is not very fluent<\/strong> today. But, by curiosity<\/strong>, I asked my virtual friend<\/strong> about the very famous "William the Conqueror"<\/strong> : what was his surname<\/strong> ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its answer<\/strong> was as follows:
" William the Conqueror<\/strong> had no surname<\/strong> in the modern sense, because the hereditary names<\/strong> were not yet used at that time. It was called William of Normandy<\/strong>, because he was Duke of Normandy<\/strong>, or even William I of England<\/strong> after his conquest of theEngland in 1066<\/strong>.
He was son of Robert I<\/strong>, Duke of Normandy<\/strong>, and sometimes it was referred to by its original nickname<\/strong> : William the Bastard<\/strong>.
THE surnames<\/strong>, as we know them today, gradually appeared in Europe<\/strong> between the 11th and 14th centuries<\/strong>, but their use only became widespread much later... \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, who knows the surname<\/strong> ofHelen<\/strong>, of Jesus<\/strong>, of Moses<\/strong> or of Socrate<\/strong> ? They were referred to by their origin<\/strong> : Helen of Sparta<\/strong> (or of Troy<\/strong>), Jesus of Nazareth<\/strong> (Or Jesus son of Joseph<\/strong>), Moses<\/strong> \u201cdrawn from the waters\u201d, or even Socrates of Athens<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of this little investigation<\/strong>, I feel relieved<\/strong> and comforted<\/strong> in my choice<\/strong> : do not give any name<\/strong> \u2014 and sometimes not even first name<\/strong> \u2014 to my important figures<\/strong>, except for those that appear from the first pages<\/strong>, as I mentioned above.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Il est parfois \u00e9trange de constater comment certains \u00e9l\u00e9ments s\u2019imposent d\u2019eux-m\u00eames, ind\u00e9pendants de notre volont\u00e9. C\u2019est notamment le cas pour les noms et les pr\u00e9noms de mes personnages. Mon histoire se d\u00e9roule en France. Il para\u00eetrait donc logique que les pr\u00e9noms des protagonistes soient francophones, du moins pour ceux originaires du pays. J\u2019aurais pu choisir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"blocksy_meta":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P.jpg",512,768,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P-200x300.jpg",200,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P.jpg",512,768,false],"large":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P.jpg",512,768,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P.jpg",512,768,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P.jpg",512,768,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P-8x12.jpg",8,12,true],"mailpoet_newsletter_max":["https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/@Big-Daddy-61-P.jpg",512,768,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurent CHANI","author_link":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/author\/laurentchojnowski970fe415b2\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Il est parfois \u00e9trange de constater comment certains \u00e9l\u00e9ments s\u2019imposent d\u2019eux-m\u00eames, ind\u00e9pendants de notre volont\u00e9. C\u2019est notamment le cas pour les noms et les pr\u00e9noms de mes personnages. Mon histoire se d\u00e9roule en France. Il para\u00eetrait donc logique que les pr\u00e9noms des protagonistes soient francophones, du moins pour ceux originaires du pays. J\u2019aurais pu choisir…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4177,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions\/4177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurentchani.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}