: Re: Will naming a character Sindri make it too obvious that he isn't trustworthy? I am writing a middle-grade series where a character is introduced early on as a supporter of the protagonists.

@Berumen699

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Honestly, when I saw the title for the question, I thought that the whole name was an allusion to this fact (in that either the name was a reference to a character or the name's meaning in it's native language was a reference) and not that the word "Sin" was contained in the name (the name sounds like it's Hindi or Indo-Persian, but that's speculation on my end, so it took me a while as I was trying to remember my limited knowledge of Hindu pantheon and even more limited knowledge of Indian media characters and tropes). Unprompted, I didn't see a problem with the name, and thought it unusual.

It's not unusual for characters to have symbolic names and subvert expectations. Consider the villain from the "Gargoyles" Series, MacBeth (I've been rewatching lately so it's on the top of my mind) who shares his name with the titular play by Shakespeare that should not be named, but he's presented as only sharing a Scottish accent with the character at first, and any reference to is brief (In his first episode, the similarity came up, but it has nothing to do with the conflict... the big "reveal" is that he has a very personal relationship with another villain who isn't in this episode and even then, that requires knowing a line by the other villain that was uttered 4 episodes prior to understand the full implications.). And all of this requires the kids watching the show to have some knowledge of Shakespeare to begin with, which is a little above the reading level of the kiddies (though many original fans are fans of the Bard because of this show).

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