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

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Can I make a pitch for my great uncle's name: Ephraim Higginbottom. I've always thought it was deliciously old-fashined. He was the first child of my great-grandmother's second marriage, her eleventh child out of a total of twelve. I think she went a bit mad with the new surname. And if you're looking for an unusual female name, his wife was a Faroese woman named Brynhild.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I may have to name the gravedigger that, I love it! I don't think Higginbottom is a Dartmoor name, but I'm sure Ephraim was nationwide.

Thanks!