Characters' Names

[erastes]

I know i've complained about this before but gah!  NAMES! Sometimes I'm sooo tempted to go bananas and leap down the "implausible name route" like Deymien Aztec de Chandon or something.  I've actually started writing today and there i go, tap tap tap - I have the name of the butler and I stick "Mrs XXXX" for the housekeeper because she's not vital - and then I hit the first major male character and GRIND TO A BLOODY HALT.

I go and search for Parish records - and am bombarded with Charles and Edward and George and John -sheesh- all so DULL! Names just drive me bonkers.

Does anyone have any great links?  And no, I don't want baby names sites, I want parish records, or sites with real names!  help help help. Or you may be responsible for me having a Deymien Chandon.  (although that's SO bloody tempting...) I'd like unusual but plausible if you know what I mean.

Comments

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

You mean you don't do OH (our hero) and LI (love interest) and EV (evil villian, which I guess is redundant)?

Sometimes what works for me is googling old family-tree/geneaology sites (sorry, cannot spell today)

You'd love it up here: the older generation has such great names. The man we bought our house from? Ovid. His brother? Horace. The man who works at the convenience station (where you bring the trash if you don't have it collected) Eldon. There's Augusts and Goliaths and Samsons and more...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what you mean by the formula you mention. Ohliev?

I've been trying for geneology sites but they all seem to be pay-per view - do you have any links?

The trouble with England is that most names were biblical (so the ones you mention would be applicable) and vicars would refuse to baptise children if they weren't biblical names . Hmmm. perhaps I need to investigate the bible more thoroughly....