Ah excuse me, in the future i’ll use more clear terminology. In this case MC is an abbreviation for Main Character, where I also occasionally use SC in tandem for “Side Character”
I believe that the vast majority of readers would never notice this, and of those that do, very few would be bothered by it.
Remember that in books, all we have is the name. In real life and in visual art, you can associate a name with a face, but in a book the only thing you see is the name, so you have to be sure that it’s unique. Otherwise it would be like casting the same actor in different roles, and not in a cool way.
Lisa Geary. Or Alison Geary.
For my writing, the names often just come to me, and have to feel right. These names feel right to me – do they feel right to you?
Here’s one that feels right to me: Sadie Pascoe
It also has some small amount of symbolism, but not enough to be annoying. “Sadie” is short for Sarah - the woman in question would be given an old-fashioned name, and then called by a diminutive. “Pascoe” is a Cornish name, meaning Easter, which leads to allusions of the Paschal Lamb and sacrifice.
It does, although like all J names, it starts with a Y in Hebrew.
All the best names start with Y.
Also, in real life, i know hundreds of people. (And i find it mildly annoying to have two "Andy"s in the same social circle. And it was really annoying and often confusing when there were two "Matt"s on my team at work.) A novel rarely has more than a few dozen characters, and honestly, fewer is usually better. In real life, many details are random and unimportant. In a novel, every detail is there for a reason. If two co-workers in a novel shared the same first name, that would mean something.
Some thoughts:
1.
Is this too on-the-nose?
2. I see an -ene/een name. Arlene, Maureen, etc.
3. Some sources to look at/swipe from for Midwestern names include Coen brothers movies, A Prairie Home Companion radio show characters, and the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous. Although those last two are set in Minnesota (as is the Coen bros.’ Fargo). There must be some other things like this but I’m not thinking of any now.