Jul
21
My Vampire’s Name is Edward
July 21, 2009 | 1 Comment
One of the best things about my job is attending the conventions and events that I am invited to. I so much enjoy meeting fans of the genre and getting to know them. Lots of first time and potential authors also ask me fairly specific questions both about vampires and the publishing business and I always do my best to either answer them or direct them to someone who can better help than myself. However, for the last year I have been asked one question more often than any other, and I’d like to take a moment to answer it here for everyone.
It goes like this: “I am writing a vampire book and my vampire’s name is Edward. What do I do?”
For starters, I had no idea that Edward was such a popular name. I can only recall meeting two people in my entire life who was named Edward. One was a kid I knew when I was like four years old and don’t remember him as much as I remember my mom telling me I played with a neighbor kid named Edward. The second Edward I encountered was 20 years later when I met my brother-in-law. Lots of space and time and people between the two events. According to the Social Security office since January 1, 2000 to date only 27,682 of the 19,078,548 registered people have been named Edward. That is 0.145% of the population. It would lead one to think that it is something of a rare name. Back in the 1900s Edward was a popular name; it was in the Top 10, number eight in fact. However, over the last hundred years it has slipped steadily and currently stands as 132.
All of that aside when asked the question about “what to do?” I usually respond with a question of my own “What do you want to do?”
Stephanie Meyers does not own the name Edward. Has she popularized it? Absolutely, but your book and your character’s names have nothing to do with her. No doubt you choose Edward for a lot of the same reasons Meyes did—it sounds old and adds a layer of age and mystery to a vampire; it’s easy to pronounce; it is only two syllables long and can easily be mated up against any number of potential last names; its gender specific; it does not have any bad, silly sounding, or double entendre nick names attached to it; there are no real variants of the spelling of the name so it will pop up consistently in a search engine; and basically you like it.
New York Times Best Selling author Jim Butcher was once asked how he felt about his wizard detective being named Harry Dresden while there was currently another series of popular books out about a wizard whose name was also Harry—Harry Potter. Butcher responded with something along the lines of “I don’t think anyone who can read is confusing the two.” He went on to explain that he picked the name Harry back when he was in college before the Potter books were even written. When Butcher’s first book was on the shelf the Potter books were popular in England but unknown in the states. By the time the two Harrys met, as it were, each Harry was firmly established.
Names overlap. It happens. I only see it as a “bad” thing when the name is so iconic that it causes an issue. For instance, if I were writing a period western my male lead would not be named John Wayne or Rooster Cogburn. For starters there would be a lawsuit and I would lose. If I had written a sci fi novel and my guy had named his starship the Rooster Cogburn that would be different. The name of the ship would imply that just like the character it was named after, it was old but more than capable of doing the job, even if it was a bit sloppy in the process.
Personally, I don’t know if the name Edward is going to be forever branded with the vampire character from the Twilight books. It is still too soon in my opinion to name a blond haired puck rocker vampire Spike, a dark haired brooding vampire Angel, a “woe is me” vamp Louis, or any vampire Lestat. Lilith is OK despite the number of folks who use it because it is so iconic and so overused that it is at the point of being a bad cliché.
Here’s my professional advice on the matter as well as my reason why: change the name, it will make any potential publisher that much happier with you. It is easier for them to say “trash it” than “someone go through the trouble of contacting the author and see if they would be willing to change the name of the vampire.” That is not to say that keeping the name Edward will cause you to not get published, but why take the chance.
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Edward Cullen is just a kid in a good time in his carrer. Angel (played by the hottest David Boreanaz)is special, romantic, but in the same time a vampire, a fighter. He has a soul, he is charming, the best vampire I ever saw. I am 99% sure that Angel is better than Edward Cullen. Angel went to the hell and back for stay with Buffy. It is a immortal love! Noone can repeat this. Besides I read the book and I think Meyer was inspired from Joss Whedon’s vampire.