: Would it confuse my readers to give two siblings nicknames that can be abbreviations of the same name? In my book, there's two brothers, who are named Nick and Cole. Now, I've always thought

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IN THIS EXAMPLE, I don't see a problem. As others have said, I don't think "Nicholas" when I hear "Cole", and I doubt most people do. And even if they did, "Nick" and "Cole" sound very different and distinct. In real life, people often use nicknames exactly to give distinct sounding names to two people with the same formal name, like you have two friends both name "Frederick" so you call one "Fred" and the other "Baldy".

The real problem is if the names you call characters by sound very similar. Like if you have two characters that you call "Burt" and "Bart" or "Sally" and "Sandy". You might do this deliberately if an important plot point is that people regularly get the two confused, or that at one crucial time someone gets the name confused. You might do this in a comedy to make a running joke about people getting the names confused. But usually, this is a really, really bad idea. It is almost always a Very Bad Thing if a reader gets to, "And suddenly, Bart burst into the room!", or, "The detective said, 'Bart is the murderer!'", and the reader has to stop and think, "Wait, is Bart the brother or the lawyer? Let me flip back and see ..."

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If you introduce them clearly as two different characters, you probably won't encounter any confusion. However, it may be distracting for some readers, and depending on how they are introduced some name-savvy readers may be waiting for the other shoe to drop (waiting for the reveal that they are actually the same person, or that they were both named after the same Nicholas or similar). If it isn't clear that you are aware of the potential common origin of the names, you will likely also irritate some readers.

This will depend to some extent on your audience. Parents actually do that kind of thing with names all the time, so it wouldn't be unrealistic. However, absent some narrative explanation for the gaffe, I would scoff at your lack of naming knowledge if I ran across such brothers in your novel, just as I (secretly) roll my eyes at parents who name their kids Liz and Beth. I might even take it as a general sign of carelessness on your part. I see Cole recommended as a nickname for Nicholas pretty regularly (see, e.g., Nameberry, The Bump, BabyNameWizard, WhatToExpect, etc.), so it's not an obscure connection.

I once actually stopped reading a "historical" novel which had a Victorian Irish American family with sisters Margaret and Megan (Megan being a Welsh nickname for Margaret that was virtually unknown as a given name in the US until the 1970s), and that error was part of my scathing anti-recommendation of the book. I know other folks who feel the same way about character names, so if you have reason to believe that a significant part of your target audience might be knowledgeable about names (e.g. if you're aiming your book at women who are in a child-naming age range) you might want to reconsider, or give some explanation for the parents' cluelessness.

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No-one will be confused by two distinct names that MIGHT have the same root. Some readers may detect this fact, and be a little disappointed if the story and the two characters' personalities don't demonstrate that YOU knew it. It's fun to hide these little 'Easter Eggs' in a story. But it's not a big deal.

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Who says Cole has to be an abbreviation of anything? Cole Porter for example?

Not at all confusing.

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I think of the cartoon Ed, Edd, and Eddy with this. They are all named some variation of the name "Ed", but one is Ed, one is Double D, and one is Eddy. It's done deliberately, and can occasionally be called upon to create deliberate confusion.

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I don't think this will be a problem for several reasons.

First, when I see Nick and Cole, I don't immediately think Nicholas. I didn't realize they could both be abbreviations for Nicholas until you mentioned.

Second, if you have a character say something like "This is Nikon, but we call him Nick, and this is Colton but we call him Cole" I doubt the reader will be confused.

Third, Nick and Cole can be names and not abbreviations for anything. I know someone named Cole not as an abbreviation, and I believe I have met people who are named Nick.

I don't think this is a problem unless you say "This is Nicholas and we call him Nick. This is also Nicholas, and we call him Cole."

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