Good Day Dear Writers, again I need your wise advice, I'm writing a story about a fictional University, first I picked a name it was very unique however after sometime I decided to change it, I do have two options for University title which I like so much however when I checked on the internet there are some real business companies and real high school, or even real city with similar name of course without word University on it. And I have a question Dear Professionals can I use such names or words for my fictional University name? Really need your wise advices.
I think Wassamatta U. has already been taken. I think that a college or university named after a person with a common name would fly. Obviously, Smith and Brown are taken, but when the writers of Animal House chose "Faber College" as the name for their fictional school, they probably researched the hell out of it to make sure that no toes would be stepped on. Just looking up at the bookshelf over my computer, I see the names Ehrlich, Claiborne, Dreyer, Walsh, and Raymond on the spines of the books. Any of them is probably common enough to use, yet not so generic as to produce a lot of hits in a Google search.
Semi-common last names are great for smaller upscale private universities. Two or three syllables seem to be impressive: Dowding University; Sanderson College; Bowmen Tech; etc. If you're looking for something humorous, subtle geographical names are a hit. Two running jokes I have in the series I have the roughs for are Coastal Nebraska U (Coastal Nebraska and Coastal Wyoming both being old pirate radio jokes from the 80's and 90's of unknown origins) and North South State.
Thank you for your wise advice Dear Members, one more question please what if I choose a name for a fictional University but there is a high school with the same name? Is it still not recommended to use it or is it okay to use it? Thank you sincerely in advance
I don't think it matters very much as long as there is no college with the name. My high school school shared a name with many high schools across the country. You could call it Dan Day University after a local metereologist and I doubt anyone, including Dan, would care.
