Names are strange things. If you Google my name, you can find at least five guys with the name Evan Graver.
When I’m naming characters, either the name jumps right out at me, or I’ll do a search for top names for boys or girls, sometimes country-specific. Once I have the name, a description usually pops into my mind, and if I have to change the name, it can change the character’s description and personality.
Don’t ask me. It just happens.
People named Richard are usually easygoing. Change Richard to Dick, and, more often than not, they live up to the negative connotation. (Please don’t shoot me. It’s just an example. I don’t mean to be a dick.)
So why am I blogging about names?
I was working on my Ryan Weller books, and out of the blue, I hit upon the name John Phoenix as a CIA officer. I thought it was cool, so I Googled it to see what was out there. Nothing came up other than regular people and an author by that name. I figured I was good to go.
Eventually, I wrote and published the first four books in the JP Thriller Series in 2024. Now, if you search the Internet, my books pop up on the first page of a search.
So, fast-forward from the initial publication, I’m running ads on Facebook and pointing at the books in my store. Suddenly, I started getting comments about how I stole the name from Don Pendleton’s character, Mack Bolan, who used John Phoenix as an alias.
To be completely honest, I have read some Mack Bolen books, but I was in middle school way back in 1989. Whether the name John Phoenix stuck in my subconscious from those books or I just pulled it out of the ether at random, I don’t know.
Do I think I’m infringing on this guy’s intellectual property?
Nope.
While our characters share a name and a history with the CIA, they don’t have much else in common.
What I do know is that I like my character. He’s going to stick around. He’s got a few more books in him.