Are authors recycling?

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Has anyone else noticed that many authors now are reusing names from older books or even from each other?
RA Salvatore and Elaine Cunningham, for example, seem to have shared several names (Caradoon and Tintagel to name 2). And Salvatore's use of the name "Elbereth" in the Cleric Quintet is just plain pathetic. Is this a widespread phenomenon, or is it just between these 2 authors?

 

Well, a lot a the time I'm sure it's just a mistake. Some names are going to be arrived at by two different people even if they don't know another character with that name exists.

That said, some names seem to pop up in fantasy too much. The best example of this is 'Tomas.' It's everywhere...and it's just Spanish for Thomas, for cryin' out loud.

 

I don't think they even REALIZE what they are doing. It can be that they think that they invent a name, and when they do, they do not recall that hey, someone used it before.

I actually once got to ask an author where he gets the names for his characters. It was on an organized chat, and I shall not steal a part of the transcript from any of the sites it's on.
Basically, he stressed phonetics, and contuiinity. Basically, using the last name of a family that had appeared before in his books, and a name that had a particualr sound in it, in this case fit for a military leader.

Yikes, caught... gotta run

(the struggling loony)

 

I understand that it could be accidental. But when it happens more than two or three times, I get suspicious. I read somewhere that Salvatore's inspiration for writing Fantasy came from reading LOTR. Thus, he is definitely familiar with the name Elbereth. What I don't understand, is why he would use it unaltered in his story. If he altered the spelling, or mixed it with another name or just used it as a base example for a different name, I would understand (For example, there is a character in the LOTR mythology, the father of Beren, who's name is Barahir. I used this name as a base for an elven character I created, Valahir. I used the name as a starting point, and changed it). But blatant copying? Maybe if the name he used was the same as a little known character, then I could believe that it was just a coincidence, but not a name as common in LOTR as Elbereth.

 

Some of the names are for cities and towns. If an author is writing a story in the same world that another author is using then it makes sense that they would use the same names for cities and towns. But I really don't like the blatant coping of heroes names.

 

In the book from Salvatore about Lúthyen(!) Bedwyr is also a land called Eriador. This can hardly be an accident.

[ February 03, 2003, 22:39: Message edited by: ArrynMorgerim ]