Is it legally OK that my character's name by coincidence matches someone's in real life, famous or not? (For example I am naming a character Aaron Hale.) The character's appearance and everything else is completely different. Probably a silly question but I can't find the answer anywhere so I'm kinda stuck.
Answer
I have a friend whose name is Michael Jackson--to make things worse, he is African-American--and no one has sued him so far. But that is real life. When you a writing a story everyone would expect you to name your characters deliberately and expect no coincidences.
While legal implications of the problem are beyond my expertise, I would steer clear of the possible matches of such sort, because they will be perceived as intentional, but since it is virtually impossible to create a modern day name which is unused, a standard disclaimer "this is a work of fiction and all resemblances to real people, live of deceased, are purely coincidental." might be all you need.
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