Real life people with character's names

[BilboBaggins]

So most of my characters have pretty strange or obscure names, so I've actually never officially met anyone with the same name as a character. I'm going treeplanting over the summer, so I'll basically be spending three months with the same 25 or so people (hopefully I like them, haha). The foreman has been sending us emails and I just realized that one of the guys in the crew has the same name as a character of mine. Has anyone known anyone with the same name as a character? Is it incidental or does it not matter? I'm just worried that if I don't like this person that he'll tarnish my view of my character. :/

[Lizzie Wanderlust]

That happens all the time for me. I choose common names for a lot of my characters, like Michael or Amanda. Though no one I have ever met has ruined my image of the characters. It's a lot like meeting someone with the same name as yourself. My names a family name, and so over the years there have been many of "me"s on my family tree. And we are all different people, with different personalities, and never influenced by one another. You'll find that it's easy to think of your character the same way. A name doesn't make a person (or a character), the personality does, and that's all that matters. :)