Subject: Five minutes on a name
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Posted on: 2011-05-09 08:34:00 UTC

I agree that the character's character and actions should be memorable, more than his name. But considering that most parents spend more than five minutes thinking up the right name for their kid, it is likely that a character's parents would do too. So when a writer starts to name a character, she has to take in consideration who the parents are and what they would name their kid. This process can take up much more time than five minutes.

In this case there is a character that has decided that he doesn't want to give his real name and filled in ??? on the form. That says something about the character. It also leaves his partner with something she can't pronounce. This could be a good scene for when the agents meet, or it could be a running gag throughout several missions where she tries out different things to call him (such as "hey you" and "Uhm").

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