Character Names

[vespican]

Over the past couple of weeks, some of the LiveJournal's and other blogs that I follow have gotten into discussions of some of the more theoretical areas of writing.  jpsorrow  has discussed writing the "other," as in those outside of the normal gender boundaries.  He has also posted (and hosted) discussions about author's writing characters of the

Comments

[sageofthpalouse]

I wonder if the records of the British Admiralty could be a source of authentic 18th & 19th century names. A one-off list might be crew lists of Robert Stephenson, the great engineer of many 19th century lights, and grandfather of Robert Lewis Stephenson. Here's the Bell Rock list http://www.bellrock.org.uk/people/index.htm

Would you ever be tempted to dream up punning Dickensian names? Uriah Heep, Mr Scrooge, etc.

There also are nicknames. Were those common in Pierce's time? They were a rather proper lot I gather.

[vespican]

I suspect Admiralty records would be a good source. HMS Victory's website has the roster of the crew at the time of Trafalgar, and I've gone through it a time or two in the past. For the most part, last names are fairly common British sounding names, although there are a few of obvious origin in other parts of Europe. Most first names seem to be common as well, ones that we would have been familiar with during our younger years. The one neat thing about the list is that it also lists each crewman's nationality. At times the name doesn't actually match the nationality. Of several "Smiths" on board, some are English, some Scottish, some American (Canadian?), and if I remember correctly, a few even listed as French. Crews in the Royal Navy were often a very international lot

[sageofthpalouse]

Do you have theories why multinationality would be common? Also, maybe this is not the place to ask, but do you draw a line between military and exploration in your writing

Muster Books and the Like

[vespican]

As for the multinational makeup of a ship's musterbook, I think that nations were not as isolated two hundred years ago as we might suspect. As it is now, there was a fairly constant flow of people from one country to another. And in terms of naval crews, it was often practiced to invite the crew of a defeated ship to sign on with the victors. And of course there was the famous (or infamous?) British press gangs and impressment of seamen from ships stopped at sea. As events leading to the War of 1812 can attest, many of these seamen were not British subjects at all. On the other hand, many British seamen did find a bit of freedom and served both in the American merchant fleet and the fledgling US Navy. Supposedly when uss UNITED STATES defeated HMS MACADONIAN, many of the American frigate's guns had been named for particular British heroes, ships, and successes. Nelson, Victory, and Trafalgar come to mind. I also think that with their cronic shortage of hands, most British officers didn't look to closely at the national origin

Re: Muster Books and the Like

[sageofthpalouse]

Did a quick check on Pasco. One site with French/Spanish/English names said Pasco is Cornish, the Spanish is Pasquale and the French is Pascal. There is a Pasco, WA of course and are plenty of Spanish place names in WA and zero Cornish that I know of. So I liked your Spanish idea. Whichever nationality, at the last Nelson was a good copy editor: "Cornwall expects that every man will do his duty" ... just doesn't have quite the ring to it.

Re: Muster Books and the Like

[vespican]

I think I got the "Spanish" idea from doing a little on-line research about Lt. Pasco. I came across something to do with the city, and that referenced a namesake with Spanish origin. It might depend upon how long a family (and an name) have to be from a particular nation for that name to be considered as being of that nation. I seem to remember years ago that "they" traced "Kennedy" back far enough to figure that it had originally been Italian, not Irish. Of course, spelling and pronunciation probably changed over the years.
Dave