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naming a character in a historical setting

When you create characters (for example for fanfics or role-playing games) there is a common issue people run into: their new blorbo tends to need a name. And naming characters can be hard.

When naming characters, I usually pick something behind the name or a random website for baby names and call it a day. However, I spend a lot of time lately on researching my family tree. It gave me new insights and inspiration in terms of naming characters. I noticed that this can come in handy, especially when writing in historical settings.

Here are me findings:

1) Parish registers are a great source for names. When your story takes place in a region where the church was/is present, chances are, that they kept records on all christenings, weddings and burials. Those registers tend to go back quite a bit. The regions I researched tend to have registers that go back to around the year 1700. Some regions have registers that are even older.

A birth register will usually contain the full name of a child and the names of their parents and sometimes the names of their godparents. A marriage register will contain the full names of groom and bride and sometimes the names of their parents and their ages. A burial register will include the name of the dead person and usually their age. They might also include information an their spouse and/or kids.

So yeah: These registers can give you a lot of names. (Both given names and surnames.) They can also tell you a lot about how names were structured at the time. And because the local church documented all births, weddings and deaths (not just those of the nobility), those books are great for looking up the names of ordinary people.

[Note: The following pharagraphs will focus on what I found during my research. Because I researched specific villages and cities in what was then Prussia and what is now Northern Germany and Poland, my findings are somewhat specific to those regions. Naming conventions in other parts of Europe (or other parts of Germany, for that matter) can be different. So if you want to have some regional flavor for story, please try to look up how people used names in the region you want to write about.]

2) There were naming trends in families and villages. One of the villages I researched had a lot of Joachims. And I mean loads of them. There was a family that had a Joachim who named his son Joachim. Who also had a first son named Joachim. And while I don't know anything about him and his kids, both his siblings named one of their children Johann Joachim. There was probably another Joachim that predates all of them, but I found only traces. The parish book just doesn't go back far enough. There were other names that ran in the family, too. Names like Hans and Peter for boys and Marie and Dorthee for girls were pretty common.

And yes, it was pretty similar in other families of that village. Loads and loads of Joachims. At the same time, a village, just a couple kilometers further south, had significantly fewer people with that name. This means, that you can sometimes recognize people who weren't born in that village but moved there, by their names.

3) Naming trends also changed with time. Let's go back to Joachim-village for this: At the beginning of the 18th century, it was pretty common to give kids only one name. Sometimes a kid got two. By the middle of the same century, having a first name and a middle name was pretty much the norm. Later, this could go up to three or more names in total. And we're still talking ordinary people here, farmers and day laborers and cowherds. So no one who was particularly fancy or well-off.

4) It was very common to name your kids after other people. As I already mentioned, some kids were named after their parents. This could happen in the form I detailed above, where each Joachim called their firstborn son the same name. The same family had a Anna Maria who named one of her daughters Anna Maria, too.

In another region, there was a family where the parents and all their kids had at least three given names. The father was named Carl Friedrich Wilhelm whose spouse had the given Names Hanna Friederike Wilhelmine. Each of their kids inherited at least one of their given names.

In some regions, it was also pretty common to be named after your godparents. (Of which there tended to be many. In villages I read the parish books of, three to five godparents seemed to be the norm. However, I saw instances, where children at up to nine.) And if you weren't named after your godparent, you could end up with the name of your dead sibling. (And yes, most families had at least a few of those. That's why you are supposed to get your kids - and yourself! - vaccinated. Childhood diseases were fucking scary before the advent of vaccinations and antibiotics. So let's not go back to that!)

5) While most kids got very common names, not all parents played by that book. During my research, I stumbled across some pretty unusual names. (At least unusual for the region.) The most unusual name I saw was Dionysos. I also saw a Levin and an Achaz.

6) Place names as surnames were really common. (At least in that one region where I was looking for ancestors.) I knew that people took place names as surnames, of course, but I was surprised at how common this was. Most place names were pretty regional, too. Almost all of them (except Berlin) came from a radius of about 50 kilometers around the village I was researching. And the vast majority were a lot closer than 50 kilometers.

7) The way names were written depended on the person who was doing the writing. When it comes to female given names, a lot of them can be spelled with either an E or an A at the end. (Like Marie and Maria.) In a lot of cases, those spellings are used pretty much interchangeably. Additionally, there was this one woman, whose surname ended on either -berg, -burg or -borg, depending on which source you were looking at. At the same time, the name of her husband flip-flopped between being written with a P and a B. And those Joachims I was writing about? Yeah, their names could be written as Jochim and Jochen, too. No one really gave a fuck and I rarely saw any corrections.

My takeaways from this:

Most names were not random. People got named after family members or godparents.

At the same time, other parents didn't use those naming traditions and went with names that can look very random to us. However, they probably had a reason for how they named their kids. If you want to use an uncommon name, maybe include this in their backstory.)

It's okay to have multiple characters with the same or very similar given name/s. It can be very historically accurate and says a lot about the family/the culture of their region. It shouldn't be too difficult to differentiate between them, as the people in the past managed this, too. (For example, with nicknames.)

Both, history lessons and stories in a (pseudo-)historical setting tend to make ordinary people invisible. But they were there. And no, they were not dumb or brutish or uncivilized. You just have to look for them.

Oh and just one more tidbit: During the time period and in the region I was looking at, people did not marry as soon as puberty hit. Most grooms and brides were well into their twenties, before they tied the knot. And yes, a lot of them did fuck before they married. It's all in the (parish) books.

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Weasley family headcanons cuz why not

Percy was the first person to find out Fred and George were serious about opening a joke shop because he saw them struggling to understand legal documents the common room. He never told their parents but he did sit with them and explain what they would need and they always took his advice even when they stopped talking to him

Charlie’s favorite little sibling is Ron and Ron sends the most letters to Charlie

Mr Weasley used to reserve special days once a month to take Ginny out and do whatever she wanted for a day

Fred and George only play the most pranks on Percy because they know he doesn’t actually hate it. And late at night he comes by and gives them tips or fixes spells for them. He’s their favorite brother but no one can tell.

Ron and Ginny tried baking once to surprise Mrs Weasley but almost made the oven explode

Ginny accidentally turned bill bald when she was a toddler and he told her to go to bed. He still holds a grudge over that.

Bill and Charlie and Percy meet up once a month as adults to keep each other updated about life.

Mr and Mrs Weasley are both amazing at dancing and unfortunately all their kids suck at it

One time in his first year Fred broke his ankle racing George to the dining hall. Percy gave him a piggyback ride to the hospital wing. Years later Fred returned the favor when Percy collapsed from exhaustion studying for his newts.

Ron can tell the twins apart he just pretends not to so that he can annoy them

Mrs Weasley and bill are the best chefs of the family but George is the best baker.

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the weasleys, circa 1995

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teen wolf didn't make stiles a werewolf because they knew he would be finding increasingly absurd ways around all the absurd Werewolf Rules. some bad guy tries to trap him in a circle of mountain ash and he reveals he's been carrying one of these bad boys in his backpack for months

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RWRB Timeline

I originally worked out the timeline for Sep. 27, 2020, and when people suggested I post it on tumblr, I said fuck it and did the whole book.

Go big or go home, right? 

I have spent the past 3 days working on this. It’s half summaries of the events of the days in order, and half “here’s a one sentence summary of the day”.

Whenever possible, I’ve detailed out when things happen by the hour, like the day at Wimbledon, or the email leak day, including guesstimations on flight times, and what time EST and BST Alex is taking off and landing. I often forgot to add vague things like “morning” in, so sorry about that.

I’ve bolded all the dates I’m sure of.

Bold and italics means an official date: emails, text threads, tweets, holidays, Georgetown, etc.

Two asterisks ** = official dates.

Just bold means a day I’m sure of, based off of official dates: Two weeks later, day one post lake house, “a tuesday”, etc.

One asterisk: * = something I’m sure of based on official dates.

I’ve also bolded days of the week I’m sure of, even if I’m not certain of the date.

I’ve left a few things vague. Like, October 2020 is a lot of “sometime between these days, this happened”. Feel free to pick a day in that range to your heart’s content.

If you don’t like the day I picked for little things like Bea walking in on face time, or coming out to June, feel free to change it.

I didn’t bold everything I’m certain on, as I technically don’t have textual evidence to back it up. (Things like the wedding day, Alex and Henry’s texts at in the beginning, some things during the campaign.)

I’m 100% willing to answer questions on why I chose certain days, and any other questions or comments you may have!

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

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the unofficial RWRB fact sheet

ever wondered or forgot a basic / specific fact on the characters and are too lazy to scour the pages / cmq’s twitter looking for this one specific fact? well no need to fear! here is a compiled list of very average to very specific facts on all your favorite characters for your fic / art needs!

aka the wikia list we need that i’m trying to make here / spoilers below

((all facts taken from CMQ’s twitter/book))

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[smiliegurl92]

People have this habit of defining the difference between slytherin and hufflepuff as ‘slytherins have selective loyalty’ and it really grates on my nerves because like, I love slytherin; it’s a great house, but you literally can’t have ‘selective loyalty’. That’s not a thing.

All loyalty is selective, that’s the nature of loyalty as a concept. If there’s ‘selective loyalty’ there must also be ‘unselective loyalty’ implying there are people who are loyal to everyone equally WHICH IS THE SAME AS NOT BEING LOYAL TO ANYONE

Can I instead propose: Slytherins will give conditional loyalty.

Hufflepuffs won’t retract their loyalty once it’s given. Screw a hufflepuff over, and they still wouldn’t dream of telling anyone the secrets you shared with them in confidence. Slytherins will be loyal as long as that loyalty is reciprocated. They value fraternity and will do anything for their friends, but once you cross them they have no problem withdrawing their loyalty. It’s precious, and shouldn’t be given to people who can’t be trusted.

But please can we drop the term ‘selective loyalty’?because it really doesn’t make any fucking sense.

[smiliegurl92]

Flynn’s house/family is a mixture of the mom’s house from Yours, Mine & Ours, the Fosters (from the tv shows Fosters and Good Trouble), as well as the real life Braniff family (on YouTube as This Gathered Nest, and Angela Braniff).

Sarah (Sadie) Thomas was born in 1968, and works as a biomedical engineer. Aulii Kim was born in 1970, and works as an actuary. Aulii grew up in Hawaii, Sadie grew up in Michigan. They met in university, and moved to LA. They officially got married in 2008 before the whole Proposition 8 bs started, although they had been living as common-law spouses since 1991.

Flynn is the youngest of 5, all adopted by her 2 moms. There were also a large number of foster kids in and out of the house throughout the years, many of whom stay connected to the Thomases even after they return to their birth parents, or move on to wherever they are going next.

1.    Arlo (1994)

2.    Harper (1997)

3.    Daisy (2000)

4.    Jack (2002)

5.    Flynn (2005)

Arlo was a domestic infant adoption, but their birth family chose a closed/private adoption.

Harper was a domestic infant adoption, and it was an open adoption so her birth mother is involved with the family (somewhat; she lives in New York).

Daisy was adopted from foster care.

Jack and Flynn are biological siblings (adopted from foster care).

[smiliegurl92]

So Alex and Reggie meet at 7 years old when the Peters move in 3-doors down from the Mercers and are instantly best friends. Luke technically could meet them the next year, since my headcanon is that the Pattersons move to LA when Luke is 8. BUT, I don’t think Luke meets any of the boys until middle school, when he and Reggie are the only 2 kids in detention on the first day. And then Reggie starts bringing Luke along everywhere and Alex is like “ummmm who is this”. Luke is similarly unsure about Alex because he just seems super serious and anxious. But then Luke picks up on the fact that Alex’s nervous tic is actually him finger drumming super complicated songs and Luke becomes a human golden retriever, following Alex around with his big puppy dog eyes until Alex just. gives in and accepts that he is now the perennially stressed single parent to two ridiculous teenagers.

[smiliegurl92]

TW: homophobic parents, potential religious trauma, generally bad parenting

Alex Mercer headcanons:

·       Both of his parents were born in Germany, and they came to the States after they got married.

·       Born to Tomas and Petra in Los Angeles, California in 1978. His baby sister Julia was born in 1981.

·       Alex’s parents were incredibly strict. They were heavily involved in the church, and cared more about appearances than their kids’ feelings (“but what will the neighbours think?” was heard frequently in the Mercer household).

·       Alex was in piano lessons, which morphed into him playing the organ in church. He started drums at the suggestion of his youth pastor (who didn’t last very long, with all his “progressive” views, but he still managed to make a significant impact on Alex’s life). The Mercers were not overly thrilled with the suggestion of buying a drum set, but eventually caved when a few church elders expressed excitement over adding drums to their worship band.

·       He was in band in middle school and all through high school, and learned an assortment of instruments. He played everything they had in the percussion section, but he also played trumpet and trombone.

·       Alex took dance classes all through elementary school and loved absolutely all of them. His dad made him stop when he was 11 though, because it was too girly. His sister kept up with dance, and would teach him the moves in their basement (they also did Jane Fonda’s exercise video religiously after it came out, and as many other home dance workout routines as they could get their hands on).

·       Alex was also very into water sports; he and Julia spent countless hours during summer vacation at the community pool, and the beach. He loved to swim, surf, snorkel, and scuba dive.

Scuba diving was one of the activities he could do with his whole family, since his parents were marine biologists and went diving pretty much all the time. Alex and Julia started taking the junior scuba diving classes as soon as they each turned 10.

[smiliegurl92]

TW: Potential domestic abuse, generally bad parenting

Reggie Peters headcanons:

·       Born to John and Barbara Peters in Maplewood, Missouri in 1978.

·       Reggie has an older brother (Robert, or Robby) born in 1974 and a younger sister (Tiffany – only Tiffany, Reggie god!) born in 1982.

·       They lived on the Peters’ farm with his grandparents on one side of the farmhouse, and his family on the other (they had a swinging door in the kitchen joining them together). His cousins all lived on the property as well so there was never a shortage of kids to play with. Reggie spent most of his time with his grandpa in the barn taking care of the horses, or when his grandpa had actual farm work to do and couldn’t have little kids around, he would be cooking and baking with his grandma. His parents were not happy together, but the Peters kids were happy with their family and neighbours.

·       Then there was a big fight with all the adults when Reggie was 7 (Reggie’s older brother knew what it was about but never told Reggie or his baby sister) and John dragged his family to LA to get away from his “overbearing godforsaken family”.

·       They moved in down the street from the Mercers, so even though Reggie was devastated to leave the farm and his family behind, he had a new best friend and that was pretty awesome.

·       John and Barbara’s fighting got worse in LA, and the kids were a lot more aware of it than they may have been back in Missouri since they were home more.

·       It was a common occurrence for the yelling to escalate to throwing things at each other; plates, lamps, all sorts of things broke in the Peters house. Then there would be uneasy “truce” times, where the kids were walking on eggshells to avoid tipping either parent back into rage mode.

·       Things got even worse when Robby turned 18, since he left and joined the military. He had protected Reggie and Tiffany from as much of their parents’ bs as he could, but he had to get himself out. Reggie’s last few years at home were awful, and his biggest regret about dying was leaving Tiffany there alone.

·       On a happier note, all the Peters kids were musically inclined. Reggie learned to play banjo, piano, harmonica, guitar, accordion, and had started learning dobro before leaving Missouri. In LA, he begged his parents for music lessons (any instrument, he didn’t even care, really Mom!) and they eventually caved when Robby found an old bass guitar and brought it home. So Reggie started taking bass lessons when he about 9, and never looked back!

Robby was always the least musical of the three of them. He would sing with his siblings, and could pick out a tune on the banjo or piano but his heart was never really in it. Tiffany loved music as much as Reggie did, but she was much more classically inclined. In LA, Robby and Reggie saved up for quite a while to buy Tiffany a flute, and then guilted their parents into paying for lessons for her. She was only 3 when they left Missouri, so she never really learned all the “family instruments” like Reggie, but the Mercers had a piano that she taught herself to play as well as her beloved flute.

[smiliegurl92]

TW: transphobic parents & just generally bad parenting

Luke Patterson headcanons:

·       born to Mitch and Emily Patterson in Calgary, Alberta in 1978 (hence his general dislike of country music because Stampede was always so overwhelming, and he never got to go to BVJ because he was just itty-bitty; not to mention Emily tended to listen to the super twangy type of country music).

·       They put Luke in French immersion, which does not help with his general issues with school (I feel like Luke would be very similar to my little brother who is super smart but struggled all through school, especially since my parents forced him into French immersion).

·       Mitch Patterson has a PhD in something techy, and Emily has a master’s degree in Art History.

·       Luke starts piano lessons at 4 years old, which quickly becomes viola lessons when he can’t sit still at the piano.

·       He is also in all of the winter sports (skiing, skating, but not hockey because “It’s not ladylike”).

·       His parents buy Luke a guitar for his 13th birthday and come to regret it since he immediately drops the viola to self-teach himself rock music.

·       Mitch Patterson gets a job offer to teach at the California Institute of Technology (in Pasadena) a little before Luke’s 7th birthday. The Pattersons move to Los Angeles about a year later and officially become US citizens when Luke is 15.

·       While the Pattersons consistently misgender Luke, and are generally not supportive of his gender identity (or his life goals and love of non-classical music), things escalate shortly after his 15th birthday when he announces he wants to start taking t and get top surgery.

·       There’s an extremely tense few months at the Patterson household, before Luke finally runs away to the LA LGBT Center where they help him get emancipated and in all the support groups/counselling necessary for top surgery to be possible (they also help him get on t, obvi). He officially lives in a set of apartment buildings the Center owns and “rents”, i.e. for $0, to emancipated teens. Essentially, he still lives in the studio since he’s there basically all the time.

·       Luke gets approved for top surgery around his 17th birthday, and has a glorious few months before the fated night at the Orpheum.

[smiliegurl92]

After the season 1 cliffhanger,

● Julie and Carlos have a heart to heart about ghosts, which Ray overhears and then it turns into a 'the Molinas are amazing hug fest'

● It takes a while to figure out Nick/Caleb and how to deal with that

● The boys gradually become visible when they aren't playing with Julie, and officially come back to life (complete with heartbeats!) after Caleb is defeated, although they retain their ghost powers too

● It takes Alex and the gang a good while to track Willie down, since Caleb was punishing him by keeping him locked up in the club, but Julie totally uses her ghost powers on him too

● Once Caleb is gone for good, Ray brings Tía Victoria in on everything and because she is amazing, she only mildly freaks out before trying to feed all the ghost boys

● Ray also has a come to jesus talk with Trevor, who then a) has a good talk with each of the boys, and b) sets up a trust fund with all the proceeds from his first album for the boys

● Ray offers to adopt all the boys while completing their "come back to life" paperwork. But then, because Luke and Julie are leaning towards something romantic, and Willie and Alex are already dating, Tía Victoria adopts Luke and Willie, and Ray adopts Alex and Reggie.

● Ray handles the discussion about school a lot better than the Pattersons did, and discovers that part of Luke's hatred of school was because of his undiagnosed dysgraphia.

● The boys agree to go back and at least get their hs diplomas, and just take some time to adjust to being alive (and go to therapy).

TBC

[smiliegurl92]

I know arguments can be made that all the boys have ADHD/autism/both, but my sepcific neurodivergent headcanons are that Luke has dysgraphia and sensory processing disorder, Willie has ADHD (along with a healthy dose of PTSD and analysis paralysis...thanks Caleb), Reggie is autistic and also has ADHD, Julie has clinical depression and chronic insomnia, Alex has generalized anxiety disorder and develops OCD after the whole Caleb debacle, and Flynn has ADHD. They all have trauma obviously, from their families, or deaths, or fill in the blank here, so that is also a factor for all of them.

[smiliegurl92]

Sooooo Julie and The Phantoms. I have thoughts lol. Not developed thoughts, so tumblr is the place for them, rather than ao3. Here we go! Luke is trans and demisexual, Reggie is bi, Julie is pan, Alex is gay, Willie is nonbinary (specifically genderfluid) and graysexual, and Flynn is a lesbian. Flynn resisted coming out for quite a while, because she has 2 moms and wanted to be different and ☆rebellious☆.

[smiliegurl92]

I HAVE PERCY WEASLEY FEELS AND IM NOT OKAYYYYYYYYYY. I've been binge watching @geekasaurusrex videos on tiktok (WrongHouseWeasleys anyone?) and I legit cried after their Percy series. Basically, they argue that Percy is a Hufflepuff, and go through canon examples to back up their theory. It's a perspective that puts Percy's actions in such a heartbreaking light...I need to bundle Percy Weasley up in a blanket burrito and give him all the love.

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