An irritating thing

[JRTomlin]

One of the irritating things about writing biographical historical fiction is when everyone has the same name! What to do when Thomas Randolph walks in to be greeted by his uncle -- Thomas. 😣

At which point I stopped writing and banged my head against the wall. lol

They're actually about the same age. Thomas de Bruce (the uncle) throws wide his arms and says, "Thomas."

And Thomas says, "Uncle Thomas! What are you doing here?" 

Ummmm... No.

[cecilia_writer]

This happens a lot in my (Scottish) family history research too - it's really useful when you find you're descended from somebody who was the 10th son or daughter in the family and they've run out of the usual names so have to choose something random and different.

[notthatamanda]

Oh gawd, as a reader, it's awful.  In the Boleyn Sisters, didn't Mary name two of her sons Richard?  I do call my kids by the wrong name all the time so maybe they were onto something.

[VanessaC]

Ah, yes, the obsession with keeping the name in the family ... Still holds to this day in some families - almost always the men. Perhaps one reason why weird variants / nick names are so common - Thomas becomes Tam, for example.

Any chance you could use a nickname / alternate variant, or pick a distinguishing personal characteristic to help keep them separate? - like "Thomas the Red" for red hair.

[JRTomlin]

Nicknames are usually anachronistic. They were rarely used for nobles. One can use the title as a form of address as was often done, but then when their title changes, so does their form of address. Which also annoys the reader. *le sigh*  Also, of course, some don't have a title if they are merely knights or a younger son.

It is complicated. I may refer to one as Thom just to avoid a complication but I will wince because it really is inaccurate. And I don't think Thomas Randolph would call his uncle 'Thomas the Red'. It really is one of the most persistent problems in my genre, how to tell one character from another. lol

This name thing even has been known to confuse historians. For four generations the head of the de Bruce family (somtime kings of Scots) were named Robert and a number of historians give the wrong place of birth from confusing son with father.

[Alice Sabo]

As a hobby genealogist, I feel your pain. At one point, on the Irish side, I was excluding a line because it was all Thomases and my line didn't have any in the large families. However, then I discovered that the eldest James's 3 sisters all married Thomases. How weird is that? I wrote a little family history and had to call some of them "elder". For instance James Henry the elder was James Henry's uncle. And don't get me started on the Hungarian side that reuses names if a child dies. Sigh.

[cecilia_writer]

As a hobby genealogist, I feel your pain. At one point, on the Irish side, I was excluding a line because it was all Thomases and my line didn't have any in the large families. However, then I discovered that the eldest James's 3 sisters all married Thomases. How weird is that? I wrote a little family history and had to call some of them "elder". For instance James Henry the elder was James Henry's uncle. And don't get me started on the Hungarian side that reuses names if a child dies. Sigh.

They used to do the re-using thing in Scotland too, mostly in the early to mid 19th century when infant mortality must have been at its peak there.
My favourite ancestor is one of my great- grandmothers whose first name was Montgomery - she turned out to have been named ater her grandmother who because she was one of about 15 children had been named after an uncle's wife who, according to my theory anyway, had been named after a (Scottish) general in the 7 years war.

[spin52]

As a hobby genealogist, I feel your pain. At one point, on the Irish side, I was excluding a line because it was all Thomases and my line didn't have any in the large families. However, then I discovered that the eldest James's 3 sisters all married Thomases. How weird is that? I wrote a little family history and had to call some of them "elder". For instance James Henry the elder was James Henry's uncle. And don't get me started on the Hungarian side that reuses names if a child dies. Sigh.

It's not just Hungarians. My Italian father was given the same name as an older brother who died as a baby.

[Shane]

Reminds me of the wedding scene in Goodfellas when Paulie is introducing Karen to the all the Peter's and Paul's who married an assortment of Marie's 

[Maggie Ann]

Reminds me of the wedding scene in Goodfellas when Paulie is introducing Karen to the all the Peter's and Paul's who married an assortment of Marie's 

In my Italian family, there is a preponderance of Joseph (Joe, Joey) and Mary (Marie, Maria). In my family, we name the first daughter after the two grandmothers.

[JackT]

I had one novel with five Roberts and three Thomases, all real-life historical figures. I used Tom and Robin for the main two and surnames for the rest!

[notthatamanda]

Reminds me of the wedding scene in Goodfellas when Paulie is introducing Karen to the all the Peter's and Paul's who married an assortment of Marie's 

In my Italian family, there is a preponderance of Joseph (Joe, Joey) and Mary (Marie, Maria). In my family, we name the first daughter after the two grandmothers.

That was on a "Cheers" episode, but Carla refused to name her son Benito Mussolini.

[spin52]

Reminds me of the wedding scene in Goodfellas when Paulie is introducing Karen to the all the Peter's and Paul's who married an assortment of Marie's 

In my Italian family, there is a preponderance of Joseph (Joe, Joey) and Mary (Marie, Maria). In my family, we name the first daughter after the two grandmothers.

I have two great-grandfathers, two uncles and two cousins all with a variety of Nicholas (or Nicola in Italian). Also a grandfather, two cousins, an aunt and a son all with variations on Anthony.
On another subject, if anyone can tell me how to get my single book cover onto the same line as the series covers in my signature line, I'd be grateful.
ETA - Got it sorted. Thanks.

[Jeff Tanyard]

On another subject, if anyone can tell me how to get my single book cover onto the same line as the series covers in my signature line, I'd be grateful.

You've probably got a carriage return in there that is putting the single book on the next line.

In the box for your sig code, put the cursor right in front of the code for the single book.  Then hit the backspace key until the code for that book is right next to the code for the banner.  Then hit space bar once and save the profile.  That should eliminate any carriage returns and put it all on the same line with a sliver of white space in between.

[Kristen.s.walker]

Three of the grandkids are named after their grandmother in my family, fortunately all in different combinations. (Mostly middle names.) But my daughter has the same name as her cousin even though my daughter is several years older. Obviously we picked that name first. Some people don't care if a name is already in a family. It's technically her second cousin, so they don't see each other very often, but it's still confusing when they do.