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

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Heh yes, and I really like to identify with my characters and don't want to look back and think "oh that was the Charles with the lisp" or whatever.

I think the Bible is a good place to start, thank you!

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I was also thinking literature of the period.
Austen, Byron, Shelley (both of them) etc.

I'd say stick with names of the books and the main characters of the Bible:
Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Reuben, Benjamin, Joseph. Aaron, Joshua, (Moses and Sampson, not so much) Eli, Samuel, Jesse, David, Jonathan, Absolem, Josiah, Ezra, Daniel, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah (often shortened to Jeremy, per Sabatini), Amos, Joel, Joseph, Phillip, Thomas, Peter, Timothy, Barnabas, James, Silas, Thaddeus

Those would be common enough.
Ananias, Cain, Jubal, Nimrod, Haman, Judas, Ahab...those aren't going to be as common
(bad guys seldom are)

You want some weird names, check out Job's daughters:
Jemima, Kezia, Kerenhappuch (the last means "the horn in which I store eyeshadow")


And don't forget your surnames!
Locational, descriptive, professional and patronymic.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The trouble with a lot of the biblical names is that they were often more used for the working classes than the upper classes!

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I figured the more common ones, like John, Peter, Joseph and such, were all over the map.

Did the upper class use more French names? Or am I being too medieval?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It depends on the era, I think - French names fell out of fashion towards the end of the 18th and into the 19th century for obvious reasons!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Fanciful names - almost the reverse of today - the chavs name their daughters Teriyaki and Chardonnay and the upper class call theirs George and William.

Here's a sample of the names from Burke's Peerage from the 17-19th cents.

barbarina
basilia
beatrice
beatrix
belinda
bella
bethia
betsey
bridget
byzantia
camerona
camilla
carolina
caroline
carteret
cassandra
catherine
cecilia
charity
charlotte
charlotte-florentia
christabella
christian
christiana
christina
christobella
cicilia
clara
clare
clarissa
claudia
clementina
clementine
clotilda
colina
constantia
corbetta
cordelia
corisande
cornelia
deborah
delphine
delphine
diana
dinah
dora
dorcas
dorothea
dorothy
dorriel
dulcibella
dymphna
edwina
eglantine