I was on Instagram recently and I came across one of those multi-page feel-good posts where someone was talking about using airdrop to help someone who was having trouble in her relationship. It was an interesting story, until we got to the point where she introduced herself by name as Stephanie Chen. 

Chen is one of the hallmarks that something was written by AI. Sure, there are plenty of people in the world with that last name, and even with the first name of Stephanie, but that made me worry that the whole thing was written by AI. Still, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. 

Then the poster said they did it again, with a grad student named Marcus, and I knew it was AI because Marcus is without a doubt the most common male name used by AI when generating fictional content. 

Marcus is a perfectly normal name. Plenty of people have it. But it’s almost impossible to use in fiction anymore because people will see it and think that an AI wrote the story, even when it didn’t. 

Marcus Chen? Definitely AI. 

Other names that will make you think AI wrote something:

First names: Della, Elena, Mara, Marcus, Nadia, Priya, Renata, Theo

Last names: Chen, Cole, Okafor, Reyes, Vance

There are more, to be sure, but it’s something for writers to consider changing when they get to the editing phase of their stories.

There are plenty of people who write with AI; the rightness or wrongness of that isn’t something I’m going to debate. But for those who don’t use it, make sure to keep in mind the major hallmarks of AI writing, including character names, and don’t let yourself make that mistake.