English Names

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:34 pm Post subject: English Names

Can anyone provide me with a good website or book in which I could find a large selection of English surnames and popular first names of the Regency Period?

Thanks!

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:07 am Post subject:

I have several books I use. For first names I use the Wordswotth Dictionary of First Names, as well as Naming Through the Ages, and the Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook (which was written by author Sherrilyn Kenyon). The latter two will tell you which first names were used during which periods. For last names I use A Dictionary of English Surnames.
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:09 am Post subject:

Thanks, Candice!

Viscountess of the Manor Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 1100

You could also try looking through period Peerages on Google Books.

I posted the following on an old discussion here on this board:

I made a quick and dirty list from "Who's Who in Late Hanoverian
Britain" and my 1779 edition of the Peerage, and the same names show
up over and over and over:

William
John
George
Henry
Thomas
Charles

Then we have a few names, which while no where near as popular as
those above, still show up quite a bit:

Frances/Francis
Edward
Samuel
Richard
James
Robert
Frederick
Philip

Then there are a smattering of names that still seem "normal", but
show up only once or twice:

David
Adam
Jeremy
Joseph
Edmund
Gilbert
Daniel
Arthur
Harry
Hugh
Hugo
Douglas
Basil

And then there are the fun ones, many of which seem like surnames
used as first names to me (these are the kinds of names lots of us
seem to choose, LOL):

Cuthbert
Horatio
Theobald
Granville
Richmal
Sydney
Spencer
Rowland
Peregrine
Heneage
Washington
Vere
Willoughby
Anne-Holles (!) yes, first name for a man
Sackville
Brownlow
Spencer

I've seen quite a few men given their mother's maiden name as their Christian name, resulting in some very strange names if, for some reason such as an inheritance, said man were to take on his maternal family's surname as well. I came across a Pryse Pryse that I just can't stop giggling over (and Heyer has her Carlington Carlington, which I’ve always loved).
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-Kalen
w/a Isobel Carr
Ripe for Pleasure, May 2011
Book 1: The League of Second Sons
www.isobelcarr.com

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:52 am Post subject:

Anne-Holis. I'm just shaking my head.

These are too hysterical! Thanks for sharing. Wink

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~~*Diana*~~

Spiders we've caught in the house as of 8/30/08: 121
QOTD: How come nobody mentions spiders in their romance books set in England?

Viscountess of the Manor Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 1100

I also really like the BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names. It's out of print and a bit pricy, but it's wonderful.
_________________
-Kalen
w/a Isobel Carr
Ripe for Pleasure, May 2011
Book 1: The League of Second Sons
www.isobelcarr.com

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:59 pm Post subject:

Kalen

These are great! Thanks so much for boiling it down to the essentials. This is my first book. So, although I really want to pick a good name,really it's the least of my (many) problems. But as I'm batting little hands away from the keys right now, I really wonder what I was thinking even starting this. If I weren't so thrilled with my plot (and isn't everyone?) I think I'd wait a couple of years until they all start school (I have an almost 4 y.o. and 2 y.o triplets). There is screaming from another room, so I must dash, but thanks again for the excellent info.

Jodi

Viscountess of the Manor Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 1100

Jodi, just have fun with it. If you find you're really serious about it, you might want to join Romance Writers of America and the Regency Chapter thereof, The Beau Monde (I'm the Past President, so I admit to being prejudice).

In the mean time, this is a great place for vetting your ideas.
_________________
-Kalen
w/a Isobel Carr
Ripe for Pleasure, May 2011
Book 1: The League of Second Sons
www.isobelcarr.com

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject:

Kalen,

I'm trying so hard to remember I'm supposed to be having a good time. What with outlining and character exercises, I'm starting to feel like I'm in some sort of writing boot camp!

Tonight, I've totally broken from it all and am just writing for fun and to see if it may take me someplace interesting. Thank so so much for your input on all my questions. You are an absolute treasure trove of information. daumen rauf

Upstart Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 36

So I've read through these answers, done research and have my own names, but am still feel a little confused where the whole title thing comes in to play. What do you, as writers, recommend? My first and last names aren't an issue but how do you know what a man is actually an earl of? For example, John Messed-Up, Earl of....? Somebody sent me a link to some maps and counties, but do you just pick a county name which is what John Messed-Up is earl of or is it something different?

I gotta say, without this page, my writing would be going much slower. Thanks a bazillion![color=orange][/color]
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Writing and Re-Writing,
Grace

Viscountess of the Manor Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 1100

The Beau Monde was just discussing this . . .

There is no “right” way to do this. We all have our own methods. You can pick a country, town, etc. You can also pick a foreign place (Marquess Douro, one of the Duke of Wellington’s lesser titles). Titles with foreign names usually commemorated battles for which the man was ennobled (or at least for which he was given a greater title). I like to browse through the peerage and play mix-n-match. I’ll take a lesser title and move it up the chain, thereby changing it.

For example:

One of the lesser titles of the real Duke of Leeds is Baron Osborne of Kiveton. I might “steal” Kiveton and make my hero the Earl of Kiveton or Earl Osborne. Easy, right?

One thing to be sure to do is Google your “made up” title. You may have accidentally recreated a real title, or you may have inadvertently come up with something another author has already used (nothing like shopping a manuscript where the hero bares the same name as one of Candice’s or Julia Quinn’s or Jo Beverley’s heroes!).
_________________
-Kalen
w/a Isobel Carr
Ripe for Pleasure, May 2011
Book 1: The League of Second Sons
www.isobelcarr.com

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:55 pm Post subject:

Most titles are based on places, so I tend to use real places as title names. Occasionally I make up a title just because I like the way it sounds (like Lord Thayne in Just One of Those Flings), but that is the exception. I have a great gazetteer of English place names that I use when I need a title. I tend to use small and/or obscure places since the bigger places often have real noblemen attached to them. When creating a ducal title, I use big cities, ie the Duke of Carlisle (from A Garden Folly) or with Duke of Norwich (from Once a Gentleman), since almost all the counties have real dukes.

I actually went through my gazetteer at one point and created a spreadsheet of all the place names that I thought would make good titles. Now I just go to that spreadsheet when I need one.
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Viscountess of the Manor Joined: 20 Sep 2006 Posts: 1100

Upstart Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 36

Yippy skippy! Thank you much. I think that might end my title research, at least for today.
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Writing and Re-Writing,
Grace