Thread by @LelindePage

There's something to be said here about who gets to decide which names are "unusual" and which are "common."

https://twitter.com/PenSeawood/status/1491800620914786320

Depending on your language, culture, geography, gender identity, et cetera, a name that seems unusual to you might be common elsewhere.

A familiar name that feels "intuitive" to pronounce—for you—depends on language(s) you speak & which names you hear used in your communities.

In a world where the writers most likely to be published—historically & today—have been English-speaking Whīte men,

the names we see most often in books are those which reflect the norms in *that* community: names of English or Latin origin—common for Whīte (Ānglo-Sâxon) folks.

*Regarding the claim that most published books are in English, please see UNESCO's Index Translationum, a database of book translations: unesco.org/xtrans/bsstate…

*Also: "Just How White Is the Book Industry?" nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Reading through the quote-tweeted thread, it's unsurprising to see which names people define as "common."

But run a search for the most common given names, and Muhammad (or variant spelling) tops most lists. Browse by geography or culture, and the publishing bias grows clear.

Our assumptions about which names are "unusual" are steeped in yt supr€mâcist culture norms.
[Censored to limit trølls.]

When we continue to define "unusual" names as anything too far from John, Mary, or Taylor, we perpetuate the idea that Normal=Whīte.
Normal=English or Latin.

And using language like "unusual" (an adjective whose synonyms include words like abnormal, odd, and deviant)

to describe names we haven't already seen over and over in books for hundreds of years

reinforces the idea that different is bad. Unfamiliar is bad. Other is bad.

My writing mentor and editor (whose guidance has been immensely useful in most cases) told me in one of our first meetings that I should use a different name. Lelindé Omallah Page is "too sci-fi."

This is the name that was on my birth certificate. Even if it's alien to others, it's the name I was given.

Will I be discounted by publishers and/or readers because my name is confusing or isn't "intuitive" for them to pronounce? Definitely. The data gives a resounding "Yes."

But I don't want to cater to a writing world that only publishes (or reads) that which is familiar.

I want to be in a world that embraces variety, elevates "unusual" stories, or spotlights a "common" story that shares a new perspective.
(I can't say I qualify, but I hope to.)

And I hope that more publishers and readers (and writers) will turn toward that world, too.

It's bound to be more interesting, more fertile, more potent than the same ol' stuff we've seen before.

[Thanks for the unroll, @threadreaderapp]