Character Names

Type 'common character names in AI fiction' into a search bar and you get a LOT of results. Here are two, which explain exactly what this chapter is NOT about:

I DID find one, however, that comes close to our topic of names that AI assigns to the characters in the content it produces. This article, from January 2023, explores the common names that AI used when it was producing the script for a movie.

As the article's author discovered, the cast of characters became repetitive and predictable. He did further research into the historical first names, last names, and professions of movie characters, and was not surprised that the AI-generated names closely matched the movie names. This is to be expected since AI uses massive data dumps in order to produce content.

This is also true in written content that is AI generated or assisted.

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Common Character First Names and Variations

Our example pieces, which were all published on Vocal 8/18/23, contained many of these names. However, in order to make a more complete list the AI-assisted/generated content identified on 8/25/23 were also scanned for names, too.

1. Aiden
2. Alarion
3. Alex/Alexander
4. Alistair
5. Amelia
6. Aria
7. Aurelia
8. Aurelius
9. Aurora
10. Daniel
11. David
12. Elara
13. Eldar
14. Eleanor
15. Eliza
16. Emily
17. Emma
18. Ethan
19. Evelyn
20. Gabriel
21. Helen
22. Isabella
23. Jack
24. Jake
25. James
26. Kevin
27. Leo
28. Liam
29. Lily
30. Lucas
31. Lyra/Lira
32. Lyriel
33. Lyrion
34. Maria
35. Mark
36. Maya
37. Max
38. Mia
39. Olivia
40. Sam
41. Sara/Sarah
42. Seraphina
43. Sophie/Sophia
44. Thomas/Tom/Tomas
45. Timmy

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Finding the Commonalities Among Names

Although this is a sample of less that 50 AI-generated pieces, there are interesting commonalities that give insight into how AI assigns the names to each character.

Names shown bold and underlined above each begin with 'Au', and these are the winged characters that had the name:

• Aurelia : bat
• Aurelius : Phoenix
• Aurora : butterfly

A larger sample will need to be checked to see if a name beginning with 'Au' is assigned to only winged creatures within the content AI generates.

Names shown bold and italicized above are magical and otherworldly characters. These names favor the letters 'A', 'L', and 'R', but more than looking alike they roll off the tongue with the same rhythm and movement. Several were used in more than one of the samples; here are their roles:

• Alarion : alien
• Alistair : wise sorcerer
• Elara : girl traveler to space, girl that walked through a portal, explorer that found mystical cave, a young companion, enchanted girl from the woods
• Eldar: noted as an 'enigmatic figure' and a traveler
• Lyra/Lira : gentle healer, space woman
• Lyriel : alien woman
• Lyrion: alien male
• Seraphina : malevolent sorceress, mage from Eldoria

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Last Names May Seem Familiar

It is unusual to have a character identified with a last name in AI generated content. Usually it shows a person in authority: mayor, doctor, teacher, parent, scientist, etc.

Here are the last names found in our sample content:

• Anderson
• Blackthorn
• Blackwood
• Hawthorne
• Ramirez
• Thompson
• Williams

The bold and italic names are much like location names in AI content, a mix and match mashup.

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The Unnamed

A very large presence in AI generated content has no name. Much like a NPC (non-playable character) in a roleplaying or online game, these unnamed exist to interact with the main characters and/or scenery.

They are most often 'the villagers' or 'the townspeople', 'the neighbors', and if the setting is non-human: 'the school of fish', 'the cat colony', etc.

Sometimes only the name of the location is used, further depersonalizing the narrative.

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The more you scan AI generated content the more you will notice variations of these common names.

The next chapter is on: Story Arcs.

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The content above is from my work in progress, described in this Vocal post:

The previous chapter is Location Names.

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And while you are here, please add a comment below: What other common names have you noticed? Did you spot any of the AI keywords in this chapter?