Great names in fiction.

Doc Ricketts and the boys of Cannery Row.

Great questions, Boomer! Some of the Godfather charcters had pretty cool names when you translate them from the Italian. The Don himself is Vito Corleone. OK, Corleone is the name of a town in Sicily but it means 'Lionhearted.' Very apropos. And one of his top capi regimes has the ironic name of Clemenza, which, of course, means 'mercy.' One of my all-time favorite names in literature comes from Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. I can't remember the lady's first name now but she's a British reporter named Miss Heftshank. Heftshank! I love it!

I've played with my own name a lot, rendering it from its Anglicized version into Polish, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Scots etc. etc. Two ways to do that is to play with either patronymics or the name of your hometown or, if foreign-born, the country you come from. It's fun. Try it. (For example, my father's name was John, so, as a Scot, I dub myself Andrew MacIan.)

Oh yeah! Good one, farmerman.

What about Jeeter Lester from "Tabacco Road" too.

that. was one crazed sumbitch


howboutt captain Coll and Gus macrae?

or, for me, the scariest
randall Flagg .

Hi Merry Andrew - and thank you!

That is interesting about translating names. My name (especially my maiden name) is truly one of the ultimate generic names of America; thankfully, I am called by something different. I've always wondered what I might call myself if given the chance. I will play around as per your suggestion and see what I come up with.

I did read "Bonfire..." but it was a while ago and I don't remember it too well (I do remember Wolfe calling the overly thin, overly rich women social x-rays, though). Heftshank makes me think of someone a bit more portly. Is that true?

I wondered if they named the bad guy "Randall" in the movie "Monsters" because of that, farmerman! Randall Flagg sounds like a bad ass, doesn't he?

I didntt see monstters yet, but maybe if the screenwriter was a Stephen King fan .

HP lovecraaft was good att names also, even though he couldnt, IMO convey dialogue worth aa damn.

Well,
Wolf Larsen sticks with me long after the story fades.
Dedalus in Ulysses.
Screechowl in Mysteries of Paris.

Shakespeare had some good ones, especially for the comic characters: Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. And Mistress Quickly and Mistress Overdone.

Holly Golightly in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Boomer, I always thought of 'Heftshank' as being a euphemism for 'bigass.'

I'd think of it as big calves/ legs.

Saleem Sinai (Midnight's Children.)

Calliope Stephanides (Middlesex.)

Agreed re: Shakespeare.

Simon Legree was a cool name.

And Jurgus Rudkus.

What was the name of the guy from "The Shipping News"

Quoyle?

OOOOOOHHHH!

Now that's spooky!!!

I just looked it up 'cause I was trying to figure out his first name. (Quoyle.) Evidently he doesn't have one? Then I like typed it and everything and erased it because all by itself it didn't look very impressive.

<pulling coat around me a little tighter, looking around suspiciously and trying not to give into paranoia...>

I could have swore that guy had a first name. I'll have to go upstairs and dig the book out.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter and
Atticus Finch - "To Kill A Mockingbird

Just thought of Nurse Ratched in "The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Hi everybody! What a nice list of good character names we're assembling.

I must confess that I'm not familiar with all of the names so, if you can, try to give me a clue about what makes it fit the character so well.

Munchkins & Oompa Loopas - Onamonopaetic ? Sound like what they are..

Simon Legree (mentioned above) & Ebenezer Scrooge- Commonly used for certain character types

Ichabod Crane- Physical image evoked of geeky tall bird...

Ah! Gabriel Oak-- My stalwart, dependable hero in Far From the Madding Crowd, and his love, Bathsheba Everdeen.

Captain Ahab

Aunt Pittypat

Maleficent

Mordred