Common Names in Your Fantasy World

In every culture there are names that are significantly more common than others. In modern times names are starting to diversify, but we still have several common names, like James, or Mary, or Emma. Other cultures are the same, and while their names might sound odd to us they're still very common.

What I stated above may seem obvious, and admittedly it is, but it's often overlooked in fantasy worlds. Especially when the names used are completely invented, or names that already exist. It's also not something most people ever think about unless they're naming a child, so often it's completely irrelevant. 

However it can lend itself to some very interesting worldbuilding, and can actually be used as an excuse for a lot of interesting quirks or titles a character has.

Let's use me for example. My name is Kathryn.

Do you know how many people are named Kathryn in my school? A lot. I lost count a while ago, so I started going by nicknames in middle school. At first I went by Kat, but when I was going into high school I took a summer program that had three other Kathryn's in it. One of then was already going by Kat, so I told everyone to call me Elizabeth, my middle name. A lot of people assumed my name was Elizabeth and the people who knew me as Kathryn or Kat started calling me by my first nickname and last name (Kat Taylor) in conversation to avoid confusion. 

Of course to avoid confusion with teachers I started signing my name as 'Kathryn Elizabeth Taylor' on all my work. 

Now using so many nicknames and my middle name seems odd at first, but it actually makes perfect sense when the events are laid out plainly. It also makes sense to people who are familiar with English names because Kathryn, Elizabeth, and Taylor are extremely common names.

Similar things can be used in your fantasy world. I'd probably recommend to keep it simpler than the convoluted series of events stated above, but you can use similar logic to justify calling a character by their middle name or last name, or even give them a title or honorific 

I know in real life we don't exactly give our peers titles, but in fantasy its a common trope to call someone 'Vanna The Bold' or 'Vanna The thief.' This would make a lot more sense if both Vanna's lived by Vanna the raven haired, Vanna the Short, and Vanna the Scholar.

Popular baby names also helps set up your world. It can help show what real-life civilizations your world is based on, and what's important to your civilization. 

Are short, simple names the most common? Perhaps your civilization is practical and without the need to try and look wealthy or high class. Or perhaps there are a lot of foreigners with different languages that live in your country, and parents want something easy to pronounce in all languages. What about virtue names? Is your world morally/religiously strict? What issues does this cause the protagonist? Are nature or flower names more common? Why is nature seen as so important to your culture? Are most of the flowers extinct? 

The possibilities are endless, but a good worldbuilding exercise is to come up with the top ten most popular names in your story, it can actually tell people a lot about your world.

Don't believe me? Let's play a game then. Here's three of my lists. One is for a wizarding world, the other is for a futuristic dystopia, and the third is for a not-futuristic dystopia. See if you can figure out which is which.