Favorite character names

Agador Spartacus.

I liked that one too. It was such an in-your-face joke when you first see it written on the page that it was almost too over the top, but Stephenson doesn’t harp on it and you end up getting used to it.

Another one I always liked was Luke Skywalker. I just thought it fit in well with the setting and it showed a new direction for naming - it wasn’t the clever reference, and it wasn’t the made-up alien language name. I’m sure others will disagree with me, and I may be showing my ignorance of earlier sci-fi (which is, admittedly, vast).

Zap Rowsdower from Final Sacrifice.

Georgie Tirebiter. He’s a spy and a girl delighter!

Pushme-Pullyu

Horatio Hornblower
James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser
Peter Death Bredon Wimsey
Siegfried and Tristan Farnon
Lazarus Long

While we’re on that subject, in real life in World War 1 there were generals French and François – British and German, respecively.

Hey! What have you got against Catherwood? :smiley:

One of my favorite TV series was an Australian mockumentary called The Games. The three main characters were:

John Clarke
Bryan Dawe
Gina Riley

What’s so great about those names, you ask? Those are the actor’s real names. (If you’ve seen the “the front fell off” clip, that’s John and Bryan.) Most of the cast just used their real names. Sam Neill was in one episode, playing a character named Sam Neill (I think). For a show that was almost completely deadpan, it was perfect. One of the exceptions was a journalist, named Jack Hughes.

Another Discworld name

Princess Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre

Hotblack Desiato.

Back to Pratchett: Salacia Deloresista Amanita Trigestrata Zeldana Malifee …skips several pages…von Humpeding. She’d prefer to be known as Sally.

I’ve always liked Detritus. Simple and eloquent.

Long John Silver.

Allan Quatermain.

Eleanor.Just beat me to it with Hornblower ! And I like your other choices, though Fraser is strange to me.

Venture Brothers, best cartoon currently in production, has some killer names.

Dr. Girlfriend (who later marries The Monarch, becoming Dr. Mrs. The Monarch)

Master Billy Quizboy, “boy” genius

Jefferson Twilight, a 70s-style hero who only fights blackulas

Baron Werner Ünderbheit, a Doctor Doom-style dictator with a metal jaw thanks to a college accident
(“In my country, lab partnership is a sacred trust…”)

Phantom Limb, a bad guy whose arms and legs are invisible

Dr. Henry Killinger, a mix of Henry Kissinger and Mary Poppins

And my all time favorite, Molotov Cocktease, super assassine and, well, cocktease

Caracatus Potts

I love that House’s James Evan Wilson is JEWish.

Hagbard Celine

Nanki-Poo
Peep-Bo
Ko-Ko
Pish-Tush
Pooh-Bah
Yum-Yum
Pitti-Sing
Katisha

[nitpick]Caractacus[/nitpick]. But great choice!

Captain Nemo

Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

Wonko the Sane

From the same story that gave us Truly Scrumptious.

And the same author that gave us Pussy Galore.

That surprised me when I first found out. It probably shouldn’t have.

Fargo North, Decoder.

Winifred “Fred” Burkle (Angel)

Playa Palacios (journalist from BSG)