Sh vs. S, Alliteration or Not?

What Alliterative Name says:

"Giving a character an alliterative name is one of many ways a writer can make a name more interesting and catchy, which in turn makes the character more memorable to the audience. This is especially important in works with Loads and Loads of Characters, where extra help is needed to differentiate between them."

This, unfortunately, does not translate well into example writing.

- Could split it by the character's role...

If it's a Protagonist or something, then we can say that clearly, thought was put into their names, so alliteration is deliberate.

I mean...that logic only goes so far. Characters can have alliterative names for the sake of comedy, or to make them memorable, or to make them stand out, or just because they're fun to say; but that's not exactly the same as having "a lot of thought put into them", nor would a protagonist with an alliterative name necessarily have thought put into their name any more than other characters do.

- Well, that sounds like we should have two types of tropes... One for the intent of the name... Like Protagonist With Special Name, and Quirky Person Quirky Name...

And Alliterative Name is how such names' intents are expressed...

...

But I came back to get approval for Robo Romance as a Alliterative Name-d trope.

...

- Oh, right!

Edited by Malady on Jun 28th 2020 at 5:08:23 AM

Robo Romance looks like a pretty straightforward example of alliteration to me.

we do have Hero with a Unique Name

Well, Alliterative Title got a example removed from the "Not same sounds" issue...

And looking over the crowner...

Should we replace it with one that's:

"We're settled that same / repeated sounds count, like Tongue Twister, but do same letters?"

Edited by Malady on Dec 4th 2020 at 5:52:51 AM

I'd only let it slide if it's considered a downplayed example.

Man this discussion is giving me some 'nam flashbacks, this thread was a trip.

There's discussion about Ch and C. Is it alliterative or not?

Hard C (or K) is a velar plosive, i.e. made at the back of the mouth. "Ch" is actually a combination of "t" and "sh" (this surprised me when I first learned it, but pronounce the sounds slowly and you can hear that this is correct), and has nothing in common with "k".

I made a post here last June about the problem of actually troping Alliterative Name, given that most examples are ZCE ('Alliterative Name: Elizabeth Evans' is usually how these things go), making the trope nothing more than a list-making exercise.

Based on the small amount of discussion that occurred above, there seems to be no real idea on how to handle this in terms of example-writing. Creating deliberate alliteration is certainly something creators do, but it appears to be almost impossible to actually trope in a meaningful way (it just becomes a list of ZCE alliterative names, which isn't a trope).

Is it possible that this is one of those tropes that is observable but needs to be examples-free? Or perhaps only becomes tropable once a creator has actually given an interview that actually mentions them deliberately going for the alliteration, in which case it would need to be a Trivia item?

Alternatively, is it possible that Alliterative Name is one of those examples that looks like a trope but, in practice, actually isn't? That it's nothing more than the consequence of different tropes being in play? For example:

• Alliterative Family: When Glen and Glinda Jefferies had children, they decided to give them all names starting with 'G' to turn the coincidence of their names into a family theme: this has resulted in Geoffrey hating his name because he's fed up with everyone insisting on using Full-Name Basis because they enjoy the Added Alliterative Appeal of his surname and find his Repetitive Name funny.

That would be an Alliterative Name, but it's just a consequence of the actual tropes that are in play. The tropes that are in play for his name are Alliterative Family, Full-Name Basis, Added Alliterative Appeal, Repetitive Name and probably something like Never Heard That One Before.

Even if you had an example as follows:

• Carrie Carlston's parents once admitted that the reason they chose her name is that they liked the way her full name rolled off the tongue when spoken. They almost called her Carly, but thought that would be a bit too on-the-nose.

The actual trope in play there is Added Alliterative Appeal. Alliterative Name is just the consequence of that trope being in play.

I'm therefore not convinced that Alliterative Name is really a trope. Even if a creator says 'Yeah, I went for an alliterative name because X', it's usually going to be 'X' that's the actual trope that's in play, with the alliterative name being the consequence of whatever that reason is.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Feb 12th 2021 at 6:37:03 PM