It's not just fantasy! In Surrey, I used to get sick of primary school mums complaining about characters in the learn-to-read books with foreign names (Aneena and Nadim, so nice and phonetic). "It's so hard and why would they need to know names like that?" Um, well, because maybe they might leave the village one day and meet new people? (Or even go to the village post office, actually.)

As someone who grew up with a 'difficult' foreign name, I can't get enough of people being encouraged to go beyond the safe and familiar, not just for adventures, but because it's a normal part of life to encounter things you might not have met before. At least, I hope it is.