# Did Agatha Christie just completely make up the name "Vitamian"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306 "2005-10-01T05:04:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/1 "2005-10-01T05:04:08Z")
There’s an Agatha Christie story in which a government official is named [Vitamian Evans](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Vitamian+Evans%22). Googling Vitamian gives us mainly English misspellings of “vitamin,” as well as foreign-language references that seem to indicate that vitamian means vitamin in various foreign languages (or else that it’s a common spelling error there as well). So tell me: _Vitamian_? What? Has anyone ever heard of this name at all in any context? Was our Agatha just staring at a bottle one morning and said, “Hey, this sounds like a good name for a character!”? Legitimate name, or completely made up for no reason? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/2 "2005-10-01T06:02:45Z")
I’m so pleased that I’m not the only one who has asked himself that very question. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/3 "2005-10-01T13:42:40Z")
It’s a perfectly legitimate name, made up for the story. Authors are allowed to do such things. For instance, the name “Quarnian,” which appears to be coined by a British mystery writer of about the same time as Christie. ---
**Author:** ![billfritter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@billfritter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfritter)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/4 "2005-10-01T14:17:39Z")
In case you were unaware, people can make up any name for children as well, or to rename themselves. When John Glenn went into orbit for the first time, there were children named in his honor, as John and Glen, but also Orbit ! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/5 "2005-10-01T16:36:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s a perfectly legitimate name, made up for the story. Authors are allowed to do such things. Most famous example: the rumor that James Barrie invented the name Wendy for _Peter Pan_. (Cecil’s answer: [No he didn’t.](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpeterpanwendy.html)) ---
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/6 "2005-10-01T17:12:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Authors are allowed to do such things. Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that they weren’t! But the thing is that Christie is not what could be called revolutionary when it comes to naming characters–very few have names that are wildly nontraditional–and it would be unusual for her to simply make up a name out of thin air, especially for such a minor character (who, iirc, is only mentioned once), which is why I wondered if the name had an origin other than Christie’s little grey cells. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/7 "2005-10-01T18:13:19Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > (Cecil’s answer: [No he didn’t.](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpeterpanwendy.html)) That’s a Staff Report by **Czarcasm** , not one of Cecil’s columns. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/8 "2005-10-01T19:20:44Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > Most famous example: the rumor that James Barrie invented the name Wendy for _Peter Pan_. (Cecil’s answer: [No he didn’t.](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpeterpanwendy.html)) Even better example: Samuel Richardson’s coining the name for his title charcter of the novel, **Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded**. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-agatha-christie-just-completely-make-up-the-name-vitamian/324306/9 "2005-10-01T20:52:55Z")
One interesting Christie surname is “Beddingfeld” - one would normally expect this to be “Beddingfield”, but it’s definitely “-feld” throughout original copies of the book (The Man In The Brown Suit) despite reviewers often getting it wrong.