future names

[imamaryanne.livejournal.com]

Author and former Jeopardy! champ, Ken Jennings tweeted this yesterday:

Sci-fi writers used to give "future" characters normal-sounding names but spell them real weird. You have to admit they sort of nailed it.

Very astute, Ken Jennings. Very astute.

On a related note, a friend of mine put on Facebook that she met a Jheysen. That is pronounced Jason if you didn't quite get it. *rolls eyes*

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Comments

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

That is hilarious. Thanks for sharing! As for Jheysen...I can't help but think that someday kids with "normal" names will in fact be the "abnormal" ones. :(

[serenebean.livejournal.com]

There is a "Jeyson" in the school district I teach in. Stuff like that always messes me up, because for me, the arrangement of the letters really affects the pronunciation..."Jason," "Jheyson," and "Jeyson" feel like they're pronounced very differently to me. The "jh" has a softer sound (and a bit aspirated at the end) than the "j", and the "ey" sound is much longer than the "a". In the same way, I pronounce "there," "their," and "they're" differently too.

Anyway. I'm rambling. :)

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I've noticed similar things in fantasy, mainly A Song of Ice and Fire. A lot of the names I would never expect to see on a real person, but a bunch of other names are almost exact to "regular" names, just with a slight spelling change. It does work. It gives them a sense of familiarity while making it obvious that they are occupying a different world, or time, depending on the genre.