A question for the crowd

[stillsostrange]

I named a character once in The Bone Palace, an offhand reference that didn't warrant an entry in the dramatis personae but is still in print. Now I find myself needing to write more about that character and a) not liking his name much anymore, and b) finding it a bit too similar to someone else who shows up quite often. How many of you would be wildly irritated if I changed someone's name between books? (I doubt most people even remember that he was ever mentioned, but somewhere out there is the reader who will.)

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't even notice, but then, I'm terrible with names.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

If you add a reader's note -- or figure out a way in the text to allow for the name change -- I don't think anyone could object.

[bondgwendabond.livejournal.com]

This would be my preference--maybe there's a reason he goes by different names? Something to appease that super-picky reader.

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

This would be my preference too. Find an in-text reason.

[opera142.livejournal.com]

Give him a new job, and address him by that?

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't bother me at all, unless this was a major character. But since it's not, go for it. You will think up some clever ruse to explain it away.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

I think that making the old name some sort of pseudonym or the like is completely acceptable. And, ymmv and imho, I think a partial explanation, even handwaving, is better than not acknowledging it--so I'd be in the camp of explaining it away. Or, hey, roll with the mystery for a while and make it unclear that they're the old character until it's necessary.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You will, on the other hand, spend the rest of your life on panels admitting, confessing, justifying, defending, apologising...

Unless, as suggested above, you can find a reason for him to change his name/be called by a different title/something. People do that all the time.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I still recall that a McCaffrey character changed names.

If you could put the change into the text (tell us why there) then it should be just fine. Some cultures change their names with life changes (marriage, childbirth, assault...whatever).

[hareguizer.livejournal.com]

I'm with readingthedark's last idea, if it fits the story. Let the character have their new name, and if the more Sherlockian of your readers spots that this is the same character as went before, insert a nod that confirms their suspicions. Let them feel the glow of having discovered the correspondence themselves, and by keeping it a subtle nod, it spares the less attentive readers from feeling dumb.