Is this character name a problem?

HareBrain

HareBrain

Ziggy Wigwag
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One of the main characters in my WIP is found, during the prologue, washed up on a beach with no memory of who he is. The character who finds him asks if the lettering on his wetsuit, "Orca" (actually the brand, but he doesn't know that) is his name. In the absence of his real name, this one sticks, and by chapter 1 has been shortened to "Orc".

Given the events in the prologue, I don't think anyone would be confused that Orc was an orc, and so far I haven't really worried about it. But someone recently expressed a strong opinion that calling a character Orc in a fantasy story -- even if it's obvious that he's human, and even if the story doesn't have the feel of the kind where goblin-type orcs are likely to appear -- would be a disaster. So I thought I'd better ask around a bit more.

So, I'd be grateful for any opinions, as many as possible, even just "not a problem" or "I'd find it offputting".

Thanks.
 
I can't see a problem with it. :)

Are the people in your story Australian? They are the only people I know of that would feel the need to shorten a name by just one letter (Johno, Tomo, Stevo..)

And I'm allowed to say that because I'm one of them :)

I guess what I'm saying is: Is the abbreviation really necessary?
 
It never crossed my mind, in reading any of it.

But if you're really worried, he could be wearing a typhoon, an osprey, a seac, a quicksilver, a hurley, a billabong, an Aleeda, a hang ten....

Besides, if he were an Orc, you'd describe him as such...
 
Yeah Orc sounds fine to me, probably wouldn't even have associated it with the LotR orcs if I hadn't heard a reference to them.
 
Since it's probably that only the characters use the abbreviation, it can't make a huge difference. I'm assuming his name or the full version appears in the narrative gubbins. The only reason I can think of to change it is if you're worried that some readers might make malicious fun out of it, but you can easily defuse that by having one of your characters making malicious fun out of it first - like, "Oh, I thought you'd be much shorter. Tolkin of which ...." etc (only better) :)
 
It wouldn't be a problem for me. If you establish the character as human, tell how he came by the name ... I wonder why the person with the strong opinion would think readers would have any more problem with that than if people called him "Duke."
 
Had another thought after posting earlier (too late to edit now) -- if you want to make the association between the wet suit logo and "Orc" as a name clearer, ensure someone refers to him as as "Orca" in the prologue itself.
 
Is mentioning a brand of wetsuit with a copyright on it going to be a legal issue or is this not an issue?

Someone more educated in law than me, please respond! :rolleyes:
 
Precise Calibre said:
Is mentioning a brand of wetsuit with a copyright on it going to be a legal issue or is this not an issue?

Someone more educated in law than me, please respond! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've worried about this too. No wonder I get so little writing done :rolleyes:

But my understanding is that brand names are trade-marked, not copyrighted, so since I'm not trying to sell something that could be mistaken for the trade-marked version, I should be OK. There are loads of brand-names in novels.

Thanks for the responses so far. Looks like the person who made this comment was definitely in the minority, but I felt I should try to find out how small a minority. Any more opinions, either way, are very much welcomed.
 
You could get round any problem with the brand name by hinting at it.

As an orca is a killer whale, and as yet another name for the same creature is grampus, you could use Grampus as the name on the label. This would make the nickname Gramps, which would allow jokes about the character's memory loss, e.g. "He's having the longest senior moment in recorded history."






(The character may find these jokes irksome, if not orcsome. Whether he'd get grampy about them is another matter....)
 
I imagine the brand name is trademarked rather than copyrighted, though there is more and more overlap nowadays, but anyway what they both offer is protection from copying. As long as Harebrain isn't creating a brand of wetsuit-wear and pinching the name "Orca" in order to ride on the coat tails of the real Orca's success, I can't see a problem. After all, most of the bonkbusters have extensive product placement in order to show the kind of social milieu in which the characters are moving, and there's a brand of chick-lit which apparently insists on name-dropping designer clothes.

The only issue might be if the name is used in a way as to raise questions of libel -- ie if one of the characters started bad-mouthing the wetsuit -- though even then it would have to be pretty bad for any sensible firm to take umbrage, especially if it's clear it's a character talking and it's not in the narrative. (I was thinking of something like the McDonald's libel litigation. If someone delivered a polemic under the guise of a novel alleging things as set out in the original pamphlet -- eg that its burgers are carcinogens -- then that would almost certainly be libellous; merely having one character say it would probably not be, though a good deal might depend on the status and trustworthiness of the character.)
 
Yeah I meant trademarked, not copyrighted, my mistake.

I didn't even answer the question - No I don't think the name is a problem in context to the story, which is completely devoid of Orcs, goblins, trolls, wizards and demons (ok, maybe not demons... everything has demons).
 
It your WIP was a film, HB, they'd almost certainly pay you to mention the product.









(Oh, and didn't Fay Weldon once engage in a little product placement?)
 
Boneman said:
It never crossed my mind, in reading any of it.

But if you're really worried, he could be wearing a typhoon, an osprey, a seac, a quicksilver, a hurley, a billabong, an Aleeda, a hang ten....
Click to expand...
I like this idea. Quicksilver, by itself, is an awesome name. But then you might run into the question of legal issues as mentioned above. Or you could have the character wear a Billabong, and that way, his nickname can be something sensible.

Like Bong...
 
Orc is fine. I thought for a horrible second I was going to open a thread full of character names like xzz'til'licat''ticatic and the effort of trying to open them was going to make my brain implode.
 
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