Character names...?

Question: I've got a Civil rights worker character named Rune and I've gotten a lot of flack for that. Keep in mind, when I was 18, I thought the name was wicked awesome, as I was a wannbe goth girl back then. Is it too dungeons-and-dragons goth fantasy? Should I change it? It definitely wasn't in the top-10 back in 1939 (when he was born), that's for sure, but I know for damned sure I'm not going to name him John.

Answer: If you can show a reason early in the story for how he got an unusual name, it should be fine. Also, the suggestion about it being a nick name is good. I remember a scene from an old cowboy show on TV where a character was named Quirt, which someone didn't like because a quirt is a sort of whip used on horses. But the character explained that he got his name because when he was a boy, people used to call him Squirt, and it just got shortened to Quirt. Maybe you could do something like that with Rune.

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