Top Ten Tuesday- Unique Names

 

Top Ten Unique/Obscure/Hard to Pronounce Character Names That I Have Encountered

This is my first top Ten Tuesday... How exciting! I like the idea of this list. I read a lot of fantasy and sci fi and the characters in these genres always have very interesting and hard to pronounce names. Sometimes I will even slur them in my mind or call them by a portion of their name if their that hard to pronounce.

10.) Kartik from A Great and Terrible Beauty. 
 In a series set in England where most people have very British names, this Indian name stands out as interesting and obscure. Plus he only has one name, like Cher or Madonna. 

9.) Kostas Dounas from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series

I love Kostas. He and Lena with their on-again off-again romance full of misunderstandings. Being that the character is Greek, I found his name to be very unique the first time I saw it.







8.) Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter Series
You know a name is difficult to pronounce when the author has to put a pronunciation guide with in the book. My sister and I would discuss how the names of all the characters in Harry Potter should be pronounced and this one came under much debate until Goblet of Fire.




7.) Eponine from Les Miserables.
I LOVE Eponine. She is my favorite character in the musical and in the book we learn so much more about her. I feel so much empathy for her. I love her so much I even named my cat Eponine, but that was partially so I can sing On My Own to her.






6.) Professor Turgut Bora from The Historian
Professor Bora is Turkish and has quite an interesting name. This story takes place throughout much of Eastern Europe and many characters have unique names. Professor Bora stands out to me mostly because he's also an enigmatic and layered character and I like him a lot more than some of the others.

5.) Pretty Much Everyone from The Hunger Games Series
Apparently in the near future when we destroy the world we will start naming our children obscure things. I blame celebrities. Some of my favorites include Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Finnick Odair, Rue, Thresh, Glimmer, Cashmere, Gloss, Beetee. The list goes on and on.

 4.) Pretty Much Everyone from The Wicked Years

The one that first came to mind was Fiyero Tigelaar, cause I like the ring of that, but there are more. Elphaba, Boq, Nessarose, Brrr, Liir,  Candle, Nor, Trisim bon Cavalish, Rain, and Little Daffy just to name a few.







3.) Bonanza Jellybean from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Just to throw you off the rhythm of everyone in a series. Bonanza is the perfect name for a cowgirl but the Jellybean part is just confusing.This has to be one of the oddest names I have ever seen in literature, and the best part is she chose it herself! You're a weird lady Bonanza Jellybean!





 2.) Pretty Much Everyone from the Song of Ice and Fire Series
Seriously people in Westeros have weird names. Even the ones with seemingly normal names spell or pronounce them differently (except John Snow and Robert Baratheon) My personal favorite and the most obscure is Daenerys Targaryen. But many other characters have crazy names like Jaqen H'ghar, Sansa Stark, Margaery Tyrell, Tyrion Lannister, and Ygritte. And those are just the people I like!



1.) Pretty Much Everyone from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series
This series being a space opera is full of people with obscure and difficult to pronounce names. Some of the best include Trillian, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Zarniwoop, Agrajag, and of course Slartibartfast. This is number one just for Slartibartfast!




What do you think? Pretty weird names, right! Tell me your thoughts in the comments section and of course HAPPY READING!