Names, names, names

I realised that it's far too late for me to go to bed when I have to get up at around six, so I decided to read a historical romance. I chose Liz Carlyle's A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. The opening chapter already tripped me up:

"Up Jumps the Devil

Winter along the Somerset coast was said to possess a certain bleak beauty. To some, however, the Feburary of 1827 was mostly just bleak. It could have been worse, Aubrey Farquharson supposed. It could have been the winter of 873.
That as the year a village of local peasants, harried, starving, and weary, raised a cairn on a hill high above the Bristol Channel, to keep watch for Norse invaders ...

[...and blah blah blah - a little story about Mangus the Waelrafen AKA the Death Raven, Castle Cardow and some pretty Saxon girl named Ermengild ...]
Thus ended, or so it was said, the first of many mismade marriages at Castle Cardow.
Aubrey Farquharson had heard this tale and many more during her journey down Birmingham. The naval surgeon - "

There I stopped. Her? Did it say her? I re-read the first two pages to be sure and I realised that Aubrey Farquharson is indeed a her. Never mind, I thought, I can deal with that.

Unfortunately after some twenty pages, I forced myself to admit the defeat. The confusion over the name continually tripped me up. Whenever I see the name Aubrey, I automatically expect to see 'his', 'him' and 'he' and every reference to the Opposite Sex but, instead, I get 'her', her' and 'she'.

So, I had to give up on it. :( I really wanted to read a Liz Carlyle novel. I know that later, if I don't get used to it, I will try to wrap my head around the idea of two men kissing. Hey, Walrafen, meet Aubrey who is the One for you. Isn't he pretty? :D

Ach, well. I will read THE SEDUCER, Madeline Hunter's first book in the SEDUCER series. Wait. Wait. Let me check the h/h's names in this one. Daniel St. John and Diane Albert. What is it with the name St. John, anyway? It's very popular with historical romances. It screams Romance! Heroine in Need of a Rescue! Adventure! Dashing Hero! Sex! Drama! Romanticised History! Dastardly Villain! Whoo hoo!

Unfortunately, St. John makes me think of nothing but St. John Ambulance, a very well known national voluntary emergency service that was founded a few decades ago. That and actress Jill St. John. :D

Actually, the question should be this: Why on earth should a name affect my ability to enjoy a story?

I don't know. To me, Aubrey is a male name. How do you get round that? It's akin to naming a woman Simon or John. It's not about the name itself, it's about my inability to "unisexise" the name. Hm, I'm curious now:

I am going to check the internet to see if Aubrey is an unisex or a female name in the US [where the author is from, I think]. All British sites refer Aubrey as a male name [Aubrey Beardsely the artist, Captain Aubrey from MASTER AND COMMANDER, etc.] and only two American sites that have two female bloggers who go by the name of Aubrey. It seems that Aubrey is indeed a female name in the US, but it is still very much a male name in the UK, where Carlyle's story takes place.

*sigh* Am I that petty-minded? I feel I am, but at the same time, I know quite a few British fellow readers share this frustration. A while ago, we listed names of British heroes in British-setting historical romances that we found disconcerting:

Devon / Brad / Brandon / Braden / St. John [as first name] / Reese / Demon / Reed / Kyle / etc.

Ironically, men of the nobility and such were [and still are] usually known - and addressed - by their surnames and, for some, shortened forms of their surnames, anyway. So it is quite disconcerning to see these English heroes being addressed by their first names! It's quite funny.

Actually, I remember a while ago there was a lengthy discussion on the All About Romance message board about Mary Balogh's MORE THAN A MISTRESS. A few American readers disliked the English hero's name - Jocelyn - because, in their views, it's a female name, which is amusing because, although it's less used these days, it's definitely a male name over here. Mary Balogh got it right, but her readers didn't like it.

Funny how it works out, eh? :D OK. I will shut up and get ready to leave here for London. Night, night to you all.

Be good, be bad & be safe.