On Wednesday, January 22, 2003, at 03:40 PM, lazarus wrote: > On Wed, 22 Jan 2003 12:22:29 -0800 (PST), you wrote: > >> Ruhlen, Rachel Louise (UMC-Student) writes: >> This falls in the same category as the "Orlaan/Loraan" controversy. >> _I_ >> still don't believe there's no connection! >> >> Note that, in _Taltos_, Vlad talks about a Jhereg named Rolaan. I >> think Steve just likes the sound of those phonemes. >> >> rone > > Also, names repeat in the real world, in every culture, but for some > reason readers want every character ever mentioned in a fantasy world > to have a unique name. > > How many guys named Bob or Steve or Jeff have you had working for you? > At one point, my entire sales staff was made up of Chris's and > Randy's. Drove the central office crazy, of course. > You are correct and a lot of writers miss this point. A good example is Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" books. Ten volumes, I don't think a name is repeated once. Its like everyone on the planet has a unique name.