I am presently reading a rather obscure JV novel (“800 Leagues on the Amazon”. ) The names of some of the characters seem a bit strange (Joam Garrado is not a Portuguese name).
In “From The Earth To The Moon”, one “Impey Barbicane” is a the protagonist-the name also seems a bit odd. Are the names anagrammic versions of real names? What do they mean?
You do realize Verne was French don’t you? Some of the names that seem strange to 21st Century American ears are considerably less so given the fact that he was writing in Continental Europe in the 19th Century. Besides, he had an imagination, and for many people it’s not hard to come up with interesting fictional names.
Of course, the character of Impey Barbicane is supposed to be an American.
My take is that the name was whimisically chosen from real words to create a particular impression. For instance, an “impi” is a unit of Zulu warriors and a “barbican” is a fortification, so the name “Impey Barbicane” is supposed to sound military. That kind of thing seems pretty common in 19th century literature (e.g. naming a gambler Mr Deuceace or Captain Marker, or naming a status seeker Mrs Proudie).
Sounds sinister, like a bad omeN.
I saw what you did there. 
How about Mr. Plileas Fogg (the hero of “Around The World In 80 Days”? Or his valet (Passepartout-“passes all”?)
Are you reading the books in french?
Because the names could well be the work of the translator.
How about them, eh?
Checking der Wiki, I find the character’s name in 800 Leagues on the Amazon to be Joam Garral, not Garrado. He’s described as living on the Peruvian-Brazilian border, so a name that’s a composite of Portuguese and Spanish would be apt.
Uh, that’s “Phileas Fogg”. Obviously derived from the Greek “philos”, meaning love. He may have coined it.
Passepartout is the word for a passkey, i.e., a key that opens all doors.
And Verne had the convention that Americans were all crazy adventurers, so an odd name for an American would be perfectly in keeping with that.
You know, “Skeleton Key” would’ve been a great name for one of those henchmen who got punched out by Adam West on BATMAN.
Hey…
Hmm, Impey Barbicane is an anagram for American Pibbey. Anyone know enough French to anagram Pibbey?
Robur the conqueror in * Clipper of the Clouds * and Master of the World was said to be the sort of pun in French equivalent to be"Dinah the Mighty"in English.
Nemo is Latin for ‘no one’.
It’s also an anagram of My Caribbean Pie. Mmm, caribbean pie.
Drove the Nautilus to the levy, but the levy was dry.
Joam is close enough to João, a common Portuguese name (John). It is pronounced Joe-an, with the sort of nasal N used similar to French. Garrado turns up a .br address at the top of Google. If it’s Garral, then I don’t know (top search there is a Star Wars monster).
Hergé (Belgian) also did this. Translators changed the names, but kept the alliteration and weird names. E.g. Cuthbert Calculus is Tryphon Tournesol in French. (Tournesol implies turning towards the sun, but literally a sunflower). Thomson and Thompson are Dupont et Dupond.
Also, 20,000 leagues is a horizontal distance they travelled, not a depth. The deepest part of the ocean* is just under 2 leagues.
*Some guy measured it once, several decades ago. He spent a short time down there, somewhere more than 10 minutes but less than 30 minutes.