ALL: Character original names

[Paul Raven]

Amusing in the sense that Alice Matthews had earlier married Ray Gordon.

[Sapounopera]

Taylor Ashford became Taylor Hamiton on B&B.

[Paul Raven]

On Y&R the character of Jonas was originally Rick but Jerry Lacy objected as he felt it drew comparisons to Rick in Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart - who Jerry portrayed in Play It Again Sam.

Jerry didn't want to again be associated with Bogart.

I saw a 1979 newspaper article announcing the arrival of Linda Miller as Mimi to All My Children. Linda is Taylor Miller's real name so the decision was made to go  by Taylor.

As for Mimi, was it a misprint or the characters original name?

[depboy]

On GH, Dr. Lesley Williams (Denise Alexander) was originally going to be named Dr. Margery Williams.

March 13, 1973 summary

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I think Bonnie Lockhart explained in Judi’s first run that Maureen was her middle name and that’s what her husband insisted on calling her. 

[Darn]

I don't know where else to post this but daytime is so bizarre. There are 4 soaps left and despite 70+ years of their existence they've only had a handful of Asian characters YET right now there are two Asian characters on different shows named Li. What in the world are the chances?

[j swift]

The first name of Li may be a soap oddity but, Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million in Asia.

[Darn]

Oh so they're just lazy. Noted.

[dragonflies]

The one on Bold's name is actually Li Ann lol

[janea4old]

DAYS: Bo was originally Marcus Aurelius, later changed to Beauregard Aurelius. 

 

 

[Paul Raven]

In the original As The world Turns proposal Grandpa Hughes was Fred, not Thomas. 

Edith Hughes was Mary and Donald Hughes was Kit short for Chris Jnr

[LoyaltoAMC]

Some from AMC:

Dimitri Marick was originally supposed to be named Brice Cannon.

Ceara Connor was originally Allison Connor, but the name was changed after Agnes Nixon's real-life niece, Ceara.

Hayley was also originally Allison. Then they changed it to Hayley Welles, and finally to Hayley Vaughan.

Brian Fitzpatrick, who played Mitch Beck, was hired to play a character named Trip Marshall, but they changed the name after they decided to make him Donna's brother.

Cindy was credited as Cindy Anderson in the credits for a few weeks before they decided to change her surname to Parker for some reason. 

A few years before Opal showed up, she was referred to as Bertha. 

 

[Darn]

Thank god! Dimitri Marick is such a unique yet believable name. Brice Cannon sounds like a parody soap name.

[Vee]

One of the more infamous for me: OLTL brought on Colin and Troy MacIver's sister Emily who had originally been referred to offscreen as "Carol". When Emily came on, instead of ignoring it Gary Tomlin for some insane reason saw fit to openly retcon this by having Emily tell her new beau (Teddy Sears) this absolutely tortured backstory about how children used to mock her and call her 'Christmas Carol.' Okay?

Edited May 5, 2023 by Vee

[Paul Raven]

Perhaps Brice Cannon was just the name used when casting the role?

As was often the case a show would use a mythical name either because the final name hadn't been decided or they didn't want to reveal it at that point.