: Re: Stereotypical names In every country, some names are particularly common: 'John' in the UK, 'Juan' in Spain, 'Ivan' in Russia. Those names are common almost to the point of being stereotypical

@Nickens642

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I want to add that some "stereotypical" names are actually not as common as one would think. This is something that readers familiar with the country in question will notice, and is sometimes the main problem with stereotypical names.

For example the Russian name Ivan: I've never actually met a Russian named Ivan. I have met Russians called Alexej, Sergey, Wladimir, Sasha, and Andrei, however. None of the Russian authors I read and love have this name (Fjodor, Arkadi, Boris, Leo, ...). I don't know for sure, I think the name might be an outdated stereotype, i.e. the name might have been common once but not anymore, or it might be a name that is more common in a specific social class, the working class for example.

It's the same with some German names like Michel, Fritz, Franz, Otto, Hans, Heinz etc. that were common up until the early 20th century, but now are much less popular. (Though some German names have had a comeback, for example Anton.) Here it might be related to the Third Reich and how typically German names left a bad taste with some people in the aftermath, but I don't know for sure. In any case Germans in foreign literature still often have one of these names, even if the novel is set in modern times, and it's always jarring. Biblical names like Tobias, David, Simon, Jonas etc. are now much more common.

So I would say that using stereotypical names is not necessarily bad form, but you have to know where the stereotype comes from, and if it is relevant to the time period your novel is set in.

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