Use judgement.

Out of curiosity... by AelinTheAmazing on 2013-04-09 02:55:00 UTC Reply

Can agents not written by the same person have the same name? I believe so, as I've found several agents on the Wiki with the same name.
Does it depend, though, on any of the things below?

1. The prominence of the agent
I can see how it would be odd to have two agents named, say, Acacia... but what about a slightly less prominent agent, like Mara? That's a common name anyway.

2. Whether the name was invented by the person who controls the agents
If so, would you then have to ask that person for permission to use the name? What about if they no longer wrote missions or used the agents? What would be done then?

3. The unusualness of the name
If it's an easily recognizable name, like Luxury, I can see how one might not want there to be two agents named that. But if it's a common name in the fandom the agent comes from, would it matter? What about if it's just a common name generally?

4. If it depends on other things, then what does it depend on?

These questions are pretty much hypothetical - I'm just curious, since the FAQ doesn't seem to cover this. Maybe I'm just the first one to ask about it. Or maybe there's some really obvious answer that I'm not seeing...?

Use judgement. by hermione of vulcan on 2013-04-09 17:17:00 UTC Reply

I mean, there are a LOT of names out there, so honestly, I don't see why there needs to be a problem. You could always check a baby names dictionary. Or try to make the name meaningful. For example, the main character of my OFU is Nora Greyson. "Nora" easily extends to "Eleanora", which is the name of her Sue. Grey is somewhere in between black and white, and Nora is somewhere in between badfic writer and goodfic writer as she learns more lessons at the academy.
I think it also helps if you make agents who are not from World One. It's unlikely that you'll end up with two elves with the same name. Their names won't be Suvian, but they won't be common either.

I know at least for the Eldar... by Lily Winterwood on 2013-04-09 23:19:00 UTC Reply

They don't usually give the same name twice. So I kinda cheated when I named Eledhwen because she'd been a partially discarded name for Morwen (who was also human, so it practically didn't count).

There's some delicious verbal irony in naming an elleth "Elf-like". :'D

Usually being the important part here :) by Khaosity on 2013-04-09 23:57:00 UTC Reply

It's unclear whether there are one or two Glorfindels, and there were apparently two Legolases (?). One from Gondolin, and the poor ellon suffering from Orlando Bloomingitis.
By the way, what's up with Eledhwen's second name? "Elerossiel"... I recall reading somewhere that "Elerosse" would be the Quenya form of "Elros", so that would make Elerossiel "daughter of Elros", which makes absolutely no sense at all. It's probably my somewhat iffy knowledge of the Elven languages at fault here, though. Would you mind explaining?

To be absolutely honest I named her... by Lily Winterwood on 2013-04-10 00:24:00 UTC Reply

...When I had absolutely no clue what the hell I was doing. Ah, the glorious days of middle school ignorance.

And unfortunately it's a bit too late to change it, so I may just have to retcon it with "perhaps there were two Elros as well" - but to be frank, I'm not exactly certain what her background precisely is, because she first surfaced as a Generic Elleth in Rivendell, constantly roped into serving the Sue until she just got fed up with it.

I'm probably not the best source, but... by Karen on 2013-04-09 04:39:00 UTC Reply

I'd say it's okay for agents written by different authors to have the same first name. Recognizable names like Luxury's are probably advised against, but otherwise go for it!

Again, though, I'm probably not the best source. Someone else have an answer?

Pretty sure there are many Agent Kitties running around. by Lily Winterwood on 2013-04-09 05:29:00 UTC Reply

I know one of them came from IAHF, but I'm sure there's another one somewhere.

Just an example of a potential Agent Kitty name confusion.

Yeah, there are several Kits and Kittys. by Neshomeh on 2013-04-09 16:34:00 UTC Reply

There are disambiguation pages for them on the wiki. Used to be just one for Kit, but this thread prompted me to add one for Kitty, too.

There are quite a few Saras and Sarahs, too.

Personally, I'd say try to avoid anything that's been used before, just to avoid confusion and to strive for some originality. On the other hand, we don't want our agents' names to be TOO original. That's how we end up with the Marybella Suelilly Starlight Jones-Telcontars of the multiverse. {; P If it comes down to a choice between a common name that's been used before and something like the aforementioned that hasn't, I'd go with the common name.

~Neshomeh