What sort of a name is "Cutler Beckett"?

[p0wdermonkey]

I know it's a stupid question but it's been bothering me for ages.  Is Cutler supposed to be his Christian name?  Isn't that a little eccentric for an 18th C English aristocrat?  Even if the point is that he's an ennobled tradesman, it seems like a weird first name

Comments

[this_weirdness]

Cutler is a fairly common last name of English origin. It means knife maker.

The use of the word cutler to denote a person who makes, sells, or repairs knives and other cutting instruments, dates back to 1350/1400.

I don't know of anyone with the first name of Cutler though.

[this_weirdness]

Also, in the credits of DMC and AWE, he is listed as 'Cutler Beckett'. There is no hyphen to make it double-barreled.

Sorry, I can't be of more help.

[p0wdermonkey]

Exactly. It's a surname not a first name. And "knife maker" hardly sounds like the sort of posh surname a family might use as a first name for the sake of keeping the connection.
Guess I'll just have to suspend disbelief and accept it. Would have been fun to make something interesting of it, but I can't think what :(
Thanks for having a go.

[yoiebear]

Cutler, on it's own, is a unique name, but names of this type were not unusual in the 18th Century.

Names such as Barnaby, Reynold, and Rowland were fairly popular. Also, Oswyn really jumped out at me on the list.

For women, popular names include Clemence, Thomasin, and Frideswide.

When writing fic and needing a name, I often use this site: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/christian/fairnames/givennames.html#men

[p0wdermonkey]

Thanks for the link.
I still think calling your son "knife-grinder" is weird, especially for parents with the kind of social pretensions I imagine for baby Beckett.

[yoiebear]

Maybe it was a family name? His mother's maiden name, perhaps?

[p0wdermonkey]

That seems like the only possible reason, but I wouldn't expect them to do it unless the name had snob value. I'll just imagine the Cutler family were famously wealthy and powerful.

[p0wdermonkey]

I so glad it's driving somebody else crazy too!
Thanks for the link.

[elerrina_amanya]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by Beckett's title =) It's not so much that he is referred to as "Lord Cutler Beckett"; there are ways to justify his aquiring that title, although they may be rather awkward. (One possibility is that his father recently inherited the title of Marquis and little Cutler as a big brother-I did say awkward!)
What really gets me is that they call him "Lord Cutler" and "Lord Beckett". There's just no way to reconcile that. Seriouly, it wouldn't be so very hard to find this stuff out, would it? (It's kind of like the "Lady Lara"/"Lady Croft" dichotomy in TombRaider...sadly, not an isolated problem =) )

[rum_inspector]

Very strange sort of name I would say :D
Maybe he's self addressed himself... thought his real christian name too ordinary and chose a new one. The writers propably chose it because it does sound like a sharp name.

[p0wdermonkey]

I love the idea that he calls himself Cutler because his real name is Colin - or Jack! Wish I could make that plausible in a fic.

[rum_inspector]

...and then some older relative could be introduced, who refuses to call him nothing but his real name. Or even address him with some pet name from when he was a little child.