Name Games in Heated Rivalry (Fic)
I've been enjoying the concept of names in Heated Rivalry again recently.
Obviously, the setting of Heated Rivalry has turned names into a plot point. Hollander and Rozanov becoming Shane and Ilya is the key internal conflict of the romantic drama in the literal sense (cf. Tuna Meltdown) as well as in the metaphorical sense of growing closer as individuals.
Beyond that, there's the idea of commercialisation and brand identity turning Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov into #24 HOLLANDER and #81 ROZANOV, and the topic of the claustrophobia and determinism of a brand identity that is focused on a single personality. This drives the external conflict.
Further, there's the idea of nicknames used in sport to encourage group cohesion and to signify comfortability in the locker room: Roz/Rozy is socially well-integrated, but Hollander doesn't have a common nickname.
Then, nicknames and endearments in the sense of Russian diminutives to explore cultural identity, the immigrant experience, and Ilya Rozanov's complicated feelings about Russia and his family: Ilyusha, Ilyushka, Ilyushenka, etc., but also Shanya, moi pomidor, etc.
Then there's the problem of Montreal Jane and Boston Lily, where names are a subterfuge to disguise non-conformity and as an ultra-private pseudonymous identity.
As regards fic, this has formed a neat conundrum. What do fic writers call the main characters in narrative—and why?
Most commonly, naming schema in narration follow some particular rules: 1) first names for the perspective character in reference to themself; 2) surnames for distancing behaviour when in the other's point of view or in socmed/outsider perspectives; 3) first names to demonstrate emotional intimacy when in the other's point of view; 4) full names for reference to the public personality or brand identity when appropriate (of both perspective and non-perspective character).
However, there are some interesting things to pick at here.
First names in perspective characters are the rule for the close-third person perspective that is very common in fic. English-speaking naming conventions encourage individuals regularly to identify most with personal names, and first names are often closest to 'the name with which a character refers to themself in their own mind.' Sometimes this is a nickname rather than a first name, and use of first name or nickname is used usually to indicate a character's positioning on the scales of neuroticism, self-concept, and group integration (with the group that provides/enforces the nickname), but that's uncommon in this fandom.
English-speaking is a key word there. Ilya Rozanov usually uses 'Ilya' in internal monologue rather than any diminutive. I attribute this to a writer's habit and audience expectation, but I could forsee some interesting meditations on ESL integration. I have rarely seen some writers that attempt to root his lack of diminutive in his family circumstances, but not in narration. Nonetheless, I suspect use of a nickname/diminutive in narration is primarily avoided due to the informality in writing style that it suggests in English.
When a diminutive is used for Ilyusha, it usually indicates a flashback to childhood, separating the child from the adult and effecting a feeling of nostalgia inherently linked to his cultural identity.
The use of surnames to signify distancing behaviour is an effort of narration matching dialogue and emotional development: it's a reflection of the closeness of the close-third perspective. It is less common for a perspective character to use a surname to refer to themself in fic as the author generally aims to elicit a feeling of emotional closeness between the audience and the character.
Overall, use of surnames indicates the perspective character's or the diegetic writer's professionalism or their attempt to enforce professionalism and emotional distance from the surnamed character. This makes it appropriate for inset news articles in epistolary fic or portions of the narrative where Rozanov and Hollander are in denial of their romantic fate. In writing generally, use of surnames indicates an academic style more suited to analysis or reporting (as seen in essays such as these), so its use in the narrative of a perspective character also can lend this sense of examination of the surnamed character suited to the uncertainty that characterises their early romance.
First names used to refer to the non-perspective character act in the inverse of surnames used as distancing. In debt to the Tuna Meltdown, the use of first names between Shane and Ilya is intimate and vulnerable. A writer's choice to have each refer to the other by first name in internal monologue can act as a dramatic irony, especially when it is used from the early in the fic. The characters themselves need not necessarily explicate the shift for the audience to register the foreshadowing, and it can be incredibly subtle when the audience is as used to first-naming as surnaming in the greater fandom. Often, there is a revelatory emotional moment where the perspective character switches from surname to first name in reference to the other; whether this switch occurs first in internal monologue or in dialogue indicates whether an internal or an external moment acts as the catalyst in the perspective character's submission to their own feelings and to their relationship development.
However, it's not uncommon for the narrative to use first names all around throughout the narrative. Sometimes this accords with a stricter or third-omniscient perspective, but sometimes this indicates a preset level of emotional intimacy in fic that focus on the dating-era or later.
Full names are used exclusively in reference to public identities, brand identities, and occasionally identity as legacy. This follows award presentation/government name format. Apart from the use in epistolary fic, often they are only used to indicate a name change: some fic have one take the other's marital name, and this is almost exclusively used for Ilya Hollander rather than Shane Rozanov to promote a found-family plot. The full formal name of Ilya Gregoryevich Rozanov is very uncommonly used, except in some political/legal/courtroom fic and some few fic that examine his relationship with his father. I have seen a few kidfic that lightly touch upon the inheritance/non-inheritance of the Ilyich/Ilyinichna patronymic in relation to rejection or reclamation of cultural identity or paternal relationship. The avoidance of full names in narrative except when being changed or assigned follows the English-speaking format; when used otherwise in general prose, it tends to indicate a form of alienness.
The moderate stance walks a general writer's-rule line that is nonetheless pretty complex in deference to the role names and their parts and their utilities play in the plot. However, there are some less common schema used in specific instances.
Some writers enforce a contrast of naming scheme in narrative vs. dialogue to reflect the double-lives of the characters and the conflict between their inner lives and external pressures. It's also used to demonstrate the secondary relationship conflict of the acceptance of their relationship by support structures. This can mimic the meeting-the-parents scene where 'Rozanov' corrects the Hollander parents to 'Ilya,' but it's also used in plots that illustrate the secret-relationship portion of their arc when the characters are struggling to reconcile their closeness with the external perception and approval of their closeness, such as Bad Friend Hayden Pike fic, Boston Year fic, and TLG-era fic.
Sometimes, the first-name/surname use in narrative is touched on more explicitly: the surname is directly and textually linked to the brand identity, and the first name is linked to the private identity. The divide, if not the precise boundary, is maintained lightly in some post-marriage fic. The double-barrel Hollander-Rozanov (or sometimes Rozanov-Hollander) marital name is used as a scheme in fic where the private identites overtake the public. Often, fic choose to have Hollander and Rozanov keep their maiden names as post-marital professional names to maintain their brand identities; this usually indicates a plot where the characters become comfortable with the divergence of private/public identities post-outing. The use of the double barrel in narrative usually appears only in crackish plots.
Shane Hollander often is provided with locker room nicknames in divergent plots that focus on developing his support network: Hollzy, Holly, Hollywood, etc., with each having their own underlying issues as regards genericness/conformity, feminisation (and its intersection with homophobia and anti-Asian racism), and the conflict provided by Shane Hollander's relationship with Rose Landry. These are extremely infrequently used in the narrative of outsider characters, but most usually they are dialogue-only. Although locker room nick names for Ilya Rozanov are more common in all plots, they tend to follow this same rule.
The fandom name of Hollanov is used most often in socmed fic that examine fandom communities, but it is also occasionally referenced explicitly in casual dialogue as a Brangelina-style portmanteau. Sometimes, fic use the less common 'Rozander' in to as a meta-textual joke.
Jane and Lily are most often used in passing or in gender-swapped fic, but there is a subgenre of fic where Jane/Montreal Jane and/or Lily/Boston Lily are assumed as pseudonyms proper, usually as online handles. Jane and Lily become third (or fourth) identities in full where they are given leeway to act publicly or semi-publicly as romantic partners on social media or in WAG chats. Often these are crackish fic, and often epistolary, but sometimes they further into an examination of heteronormativity and the attempt to conform a non-normative identity under external social pressure.
Private nicknames and diminutives are used almost exclusively in dialogue, often as a third level of intimacy after surnames and first names. Russian diminutives for Ilushka indicate Shane's attempt to respect and integrate Ilyushka's Russian identity and his sacrifice thereof; Russian diminutives for Shanya indicate the same, and Ilyushka's various petnames and endearments for Shanya (moi pomidor, lyubimiy, etc.) indicate Ilyushka acceptance of the break from his cultural identity and family inherent in their relationship.
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