Character Names

June 6, 2013

I have thought a lot about names of characters in books and I have noticed that some characters with the same names from different books share some of the same personalities. There is one name in particular that I have seen that.

The big name I have noticed the trend is the name Vaughn. All the book characters  I have met that are named Vaughn have turned out to be evil. In the chemical garden Vaughn is the main antagonist and in Variant Vaughn turns out to be an antagonist and also pure evil. Another name that has come up a lot is the name Sam. All the Sams I have come across have turned out to be one of the main characters and are on the same side as the protagonist. In Gone Sam is the main hero of the story and in The Wolves of Mercy Falls Sam is the also one of the protagonists and a hero of the story.

I don't know what it is with all characters named Sam being good or all characters named Vaughn being evil. There might be something in the author handbook about which names have to be evil and which good. I would like to see the author that goes against this trend and makes a protagonist named Vaughn or an antagonist named Sam.