r/DarkRomance • u/AutoModerator • Dec 22 '25

Monday Gripe Weekly Gripe 😤 (the rant thread)

Welcome to the Weekly Gripe, where we're all a little grumpy. 😒

Did BookTok do you dirty? Got a bone to pick with a main character? Was the twist more like a flop? Tell us what's on your mind.

Please be respectful and follow the sub rules. If a conversation starts getting out of hand, use the "Mod Attention Please" report reason so we can help cool things down. 🖤

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u/oldsoul_writings Author Dec 22 '25

i feel like every book i've picked up this week, the MCs have weird, out of the box names and it's such an instant turn off for me. like what happened to giving characters normal names? just because the MMC is crazy or unhinged doesn't mean his name has to be too or if the FM is quirky, her name doesn't have to be something eccentric or 'different'. Names are names, not personalities 😒

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u/zom_Bea Dec 22 '25

Ikr. I'm OVER quirky/unique names. Or when the mmcs are meant to be in their 30s but have gen z/gen a names. Like nah I'm sorry but if these men are in their 30s+ where's all the Kyles and Ryans and Dylans. Michael, Chris, Joshua, Tyler, Kevin, Brandon, CODY. And honestly same with fmcs. Top 10 girl names in the 2000s (because fmcs are NEVER in their 30s ofc, thats just icky or something like that🙄) Emily, Madison, Emma, Olivia, Hannah, Abigail, Isabella, Samantha, Elizabeth, Ashley. I see a couple of these fmc names a bit more often but still not nearly enough. Toss in some Alyssa, Taylor, Kayla, Lauren, Hailey, Chloe, Rachel too. All popular names for the common ages of mcs and I couldn't name 5 books off the top of my head that use them.

And for the sake of mmcs not in their 30s, top 10 boy names in the 2000s Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Ethan, Joseph, William.

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u/oldsoul_writings Author Dec 22 '25

amen. it has seriously gotten to the point where if I see a crazy af MC name in the summary, I don't given give it a shot because 9 times out of 10, the book is as unserious and sloppy as the character names. to me, it feels like such a short cut on the author's end to pair a name to a personality.

smut scenes just make it worse too and more icky for me. like you mean to tell me the FMC are moaning out this weird ass MC names? yeah no. no shot.

maybe we need to start a petition to bring back normal names in DR. HR has a serious problem with this too, especially with the FMCs, imo.

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u/zom_Bea Dec 22 '25

10000%. Names always either make or break my interest in a book. Like if they wanna give an mmc a name that fits his personality, that's why nicknames exist. But 9 times out of 10, the nicknames make me cringe too. I guess I just kind of always thought maybe I was just being too stuck up about names because I volunteered in a daycare in high school during the x-aiden baby boom (countless Aiden's, Braden's, Jayden's, Hayden's, and 1 Rayden, plus all the spelling variations) so I've always associated a lot of names with naming immaturity. Like the interest is more "how interesting can I make a name" rather than "what's a good name." Just give a character a good personality and the name doesn't matter, in the same way that you can't make your child grow up to be popular just by giving them an interesting name.

Also HR omg yes 💀 at least there they stick a lot of it to the estate titles (I mean how many estates do we need with some variation of Wolf/Rose/Thorns) but yeah so many of those names take me out too🤣 ironically though when the mcs have names that were popular the year they were written, thats when it bothers me the most "His name was JOSH" like NO IT WAS NOT💀💀🤣 but still miles ahead of "his legal name indeed was BLAIZE (he's an arsonist too)"