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05/01/2003: "What's in a name?"
As William Shakespeare, once observed, 'What's in a name?' Well, when it comes to fictional detectives I would say quite a lot. In stories peppered with many characters, victims, suspects, innocent pawns in a game of murder, kidnap, felony and other mischiefs, it is useful if the man or woman who is investigating the mystery has a name that is easy to remember. No Joe Smiths or Fred Browns need apply. Right from the very early days, writers have given their sleuths unusual monikers. Look at Edgar Allan Poe's rational detective... he was christened Auguste Dupin. Hardly a run of the mill name. Mind you, neither is Edgar Allan Poe!
When Conan Doyle was creating his master crime-solver, he first came up with the name Sherringford Holmes but then changed it to Sherlock. Indeed it really was old Sherlock who started the trend for peculiar names in the detective fraternity. Not long after him came Sexton Blake. Have you ever met anyone called Sexton? As a last name yes, but not as a first one. It has the same rhythm as Sherlock and sounds sharp click of a finger snap. Another contemporary was Dixon Hawke and Hawke is rather a good name for a fellow who spies out clues.
Once into the twentieth century names became less dramatic but still unusual. Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey are almost comical in their uniqueness. Indeed it was quite whimsical having a foppish fellow called Wimsey investigating crime. The dictionary definition states that a whimsy is 'capricious and fanciful'.
Marple is not such an unusual name I suppose but when connected to the alliterative 'Miss' it becomes so. We know that her first name is Jane - possibly to imply that she was a plain Jane and hence a Miss - but the books were always advertised as simply Miss Marple Mysteries.
On the other side of the pond, Dashiel Hammett came up with another alliterative sleuth - Sam Spade. The surname suggests digging up the truth and physical action. Hammett's sleuth in The Thin Man was Nick Charles - a clever twist with both the first and last names being interchangeable.
Perhaps the most obvious reflection of the character and personality of a detective suggested by a name came with Mike Hammer, the violent hard-hitting (get it?) private eye created by Mickey Spillane, a name in itself good enough to be given to a tough gumshoe.
America's Philo Vance had the strange gentility of Wimsey while Nero Wolf sounded more predatory.
The tendency of modern writers is to choose less artificial names for their detectives. For example Peter Robinson chose the rather mundane name of Inspector Banks. Others who rely on their characters to speak for themselves rather than their outré names include Val McDermid's clinical psychologist, Tony Hill, Stephen Booth's DC Ben Cooper, Natasha Cooper's Trish Maguire, Mo Hayder's DC Jack Caffrey and Priscilla Masters' DI Joanna Piercy
However there are still some authors who go for the memorable and unusual moniker. . For a start we have Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus, of course. Rebus, the dictionary confirms, is 'an enigmatic representation of a name, word etc. by pictures etc suggesting its syllables' - which seems to me to be a mystery in itself. Then there's Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, the dot, dash dot detective. Who can forget Pascoe and the unpronounceable one? Individually perhaps they are not that memorable but yoked together they are not forgotten. Then we have P. D. James Adam Dalgleish or is it Dagliesh? Whatever, it sticks in the mind. Like R. D. Wingfield's Jack Frost and Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford and Gwen Butler's Inspector Coffin, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, David Roberts' Lord Edward Corinth (a pillar of the establishment!) and Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme, to name but a few.
Let me finally mention a detective with a great name. He was created by the French writer Leo Malet who wrote a series of novels in the Forties featuring the lugubrious private eye Nestor 'Dynamite' Burma. Wonderful label. And we all know that Burma stands for Be Upstairs Ready My Angel!
David Stuart Davies on Monday, May 1st 2003 @ 02:55 PM GMT [link]