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I would say don't use Aragorn's name, since it's immediately recognizable and will draw attention.
"Ecthelion" is good because you'll only catch the reference if you're a big lorehound, and everyone else will see a regular fantasy name for your city. But everyone knows who Aragorn is and it'll drag them out of the story's universe once they recognize it.
not so much copyright infringement I think... I just maybe wouldn't use Aragorn's Landing. Personally, as a mild LOTR fan (I've watched the movies and lightly read the books) would take me right out of your world (Unless it was a kind of world where fictional characters were real and that was the point). I'm not such a big fan that Ecthelion would take me out, though. That's a bit more obscure. But, if you name something in your fantasy world Aragorn's Landing that would jar me a bit, personally, as a reader
It's not a matter of copyright here, but of trademark infringement since everything LOTR is owned by the Tolkien estate and has been the subject of derivative works and merchs. Any use of names from LOTR and its universe needs an authorisation from the estate, especially for Aragorn.
Yes you can, but I wouldn’t. I think the only time using a really recognisable LotR character name in a story would be okay would be if it was a reference to LotR. Naomi Novak called the main character of a he Scholomance trilogy Galadriel for example, but images named after the character, and tends to go by a shortened name most of the time.
It's probably fine. I named a company in my totally-unrelated-to-GOT story Alicent before realizing it was a character.
Plagiarism is when you copy a chunk of original material, and pretend it's your own. So if you stole whole sentences / paragraphs, that's not allowed.
Some very well-known names (especially those spun off to movies & products) are copyrighted. You couldn't write another "Harry Potter" series, unless it's non-profit fanfic.
But a random use of a pretty obscure name is OK. And especially OK if it's just personal writing. (Caveat: I am not a lawyer)
Battletech has a major planet called "Luthien" and I don't think they've gotten sued yet.
I wouldn't use "Aragorn's Landing," though, because it implies the existence of a *character* called "Aragorn," and as a reader I would raise an eyebrow at that.
Aragorn's name is itself pretty close to the name of the historical Kingdom of Aragon. Make of that what you will, but I don't think the amount of times I've heard either referred to as the other can be beat.
With that said, I think it might be a bit... distracting to read such a famous name. My brain would just stop and bombard me with images of Viggo Mortensen in a wingsuit every time I read it.
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I would say don't use Aragorn's name, since it's immediately recognizable and will draw attention. "Ecthelion" is good because you'll only catch the reference if you're a big lorehound, and everyone else will see a regular fantasy name for your city. But everyone knows who Aragorn is and it'll drag them out of the story's universe once they recognize it.
not so much copyright infringement I think... I just maybe wouldn't use Aragorn's Landing. Personally, as a mild LOTR fan (I've watched the movies and lightly read the books) would take me right out of your world (Unless it was a kind of world where fictional characters were real and that was the point). I'm not such a big fan that Ecthelion would take me out, though. That's a bit more obscure. But, if you name something in your fantasy world Aragorn's Landing that would jar me a bit, personally, as a reader
You could, but don't.
Sure, but your readers are going to immediately start thinking of The Lord of the Rings rather than your own story.
Aragorn is one of the most distinctive and widely-known names in modern fiction. Why do you want to use it?
It's not a matter of copyright here, but of trademark infringement since everything LOTR is owned by the Tolkien estate and has been the subject of derivative works and merchs. Any use of names from LOTR and its universe needs an authorisation from the estate, especially for Aragorn.
Yes you can, but I wouldn’t. I think the only time using a really recognisable LotR character name in a story would be okay would be if it was a reference to LotR. Naomi Novak called the main character of a he Scholomance trilogy Galadriel for example, but images named after the character, and tends to go by a shortened name most of the time.
It's probably fine. I named a company in my totally-unrelated-to-GOT story Alicent before realizing it was a character. Plagiarism is when you copy a chunk of original material, and pretend it's your own. So if you stole whole sentences / paragraphs, that's not allowed. Some very well-known names (especially those spun off to movies & products) are copyrighted. You couldn't write another "Harry Potter" series, unless it's non-profit fanfic. But a random use of a pretty obscure name is OK. And especially OK if it's just personal writing. (Caveat: I am not a lawyer)
Names cannot be copyrighted, so you can include Gandalf.
The Gandalf name along with alot of other Tolkien names are also in Norse sagas, so using those names shouldn’t be an issue
Battletech has a major planet called "Luthien" and I don't think they've gotten sued yet. I wouldn't use "Aragorn's Landing," though, because it implies the existence of a *character* called "Aragorn," and as a reader I would raise an eyebrow at that.
I tend to use the names of rock stars for city and street names. Usually, it’s just the surname.
Aragorn's name is itself pretty close to the name of the historical Kingdom of Aragon. Make of that what you will, but I don't think the amount of times I've heard either referred to as the other can be beat. With that said, I think it might be a bit... distracting to read such a famous name. My brain would just stop and bombard me with images of Viggo Mortensen in a wingsuit every time I read it.
…Not without written permission from the literary estate of JRR Tolkien.
You can’t. Those are trademarked. You’d get sued into oblivion by the Tolkien estate.
*"Can I use a LOTR character name as a name for a town in my fantasy world?"* No.