zdashamber: painting - a frog wearing a bandanna (Default)
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My Amber group is starting up a new campaign, and I'll be playing the daughter of Victoria (daughter of Llewella) and Job. If she was named after her dad's mom it would probably be something old testament. I lean towards Jael... It amuses me endlessly that one of the most highly-praised of all women in the Bible is Jael, who welcomed a fleeing general from the other side, and while he was napping she took a hammer and drove a tent spike through his head. I guess women didn't have to worry about the sin of Sodom. Snerk.

Trouble is, the attempted pronunciations of many of the group came out like "jail" or "jile". What I'd prefer is jaa-el. "Son of Ja-el, kneel before Zod" is something I can deal with.

I seem to recall back when I was calling a minor character Ce'e that everyone else called him Cee. Two syllables... Do you think I should give up and find another good old testament name? Got any favorites?

Or maybe I'll just make her insane, and out to get everyone who mispronounces her name. :)

Date: 2005-10-03 09:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cochese.livejournal.com
I think any awkward name is going to be mispronounced. It's a fundamental law of humanity. And if you have an unusual spelling, everyone will misspell it. In one game I was, we had a character named Rhyss. The GM spelled her name differently every time she was mentioned in email, and never close to right. There was also one NPC who we never knew her exact name because the GM pronounced her name differently every time, and spelled it differently in email every time.

If you can handle the frustration, name it what you like. If you will go nuts pretty easily, then go for something simple.

Date: 2005-10-04 05:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] corwin77.livejournal.com
Two things: I find when I have a hard to pronounce named character it helps if I say the name, then spell it, then spell it phonetically. Or rather get the other player to do that. A friend had a character named Piera, pronounced Peer-ra. Once I did the phonetic spelling I never said the name wrong again.
Second instead of Ja-El, I would tend to pronounce the name Jay-El, it's only a slight difference but it sounds less like a super hero villian IMHO.

Date: 2005-10-04 05:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zdashamber.livejournal.com
Sounds more like a piss-soaked building where you're held before arraignment, though... ;)
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