Joanna is having a giggle over female characters…

Someone, somewhere recommended my old blog on Naming Minor Characters and it resulted in hundreds of hits last week. When I checked, I saw that most of it was about male characters. Certainly the game at the end was about males. So I thought I might do another version focusing on female characters instead.

When I look back at the literary canon, I see more interesting male names than female ones.

There aren’t many female characters with names to rival Mr Pecksniff or Scrooge in Dickens. But search around, and there are some. What about Lady Dedlock in Bleak House? Since much of the plot revolves around the deadlocked court case of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce, the name seems very appropriate.

But there are others, even better. What about this pair of chancers?

On the left of the illustration is Mrs Gamp (Sairey Gamp). On the right is Betsey Prig. In Martin Chuzzlewit, they purport to be nurses, in the days before Florence Nightingale’s reforms. Heaven help their patients 😉

Mrs Gamp gave rise to the use of the word “gamp” for an umbrella, because she always carried one. The dictionary defines a gamp as a large, unwieldy umbrella. It’s not a word that’s used nowadays. Which is a pity, I think. (And this second drawing shows the gamp, front and centre!)

For female characters, Dickens is the source that keeps on giving…

Personally, I’m a fan of Betsey Trotwood, in David Copperfield. For me, the “trot” part of it conjures up the kind of woman who bustles about, doing her own thing; but the “wood” part suggests stubbornness. I’d say that’s precisely who Aunt Trotwood is. (Of course, it helped that she was rich enough to behave in precisely the way she pleased.)

I love this illustration (by Phiz) of David’s first meeting with her, don’t you? [Click to enlarge to see the expression on her face.]

But I have still more…

What about Peggotty, larger than life and so full of love for David?

In this colour painting, she’s shown with David as a toddler.

Or another larger-than-life character, Miss Havisham, in Great Expectations. Unlike Peggotty, she is not one of Dickens’s big-hearted female characters. She wants to blight the life of all men because she was jilted at the altar. To me, the name suggests someone who has everything (she’s very rich) and wants her own way. And then there’s Estella, the girl that Miss Havisham shapes to be incapable of love. Her name means “star” of course. To poor Pip, Estella is like an unattainable star.

As I said in that previous post, Dickens was a master namesmith.

Henry Fielding was a namesmith too, long before Dickens

Admittedly, Fielding’s most famous novel, Tom Jones, doesn’t do much on the characteristic names’ front. Apart from Squire Allworthy, of course. This 1800 illustration of the heroine, Sophia (Sophy) Western, is anachronistic. The novel was published in 1749 when women wore hoops. If Sophy had been wearing the appropriate dress, she’d have had difficulty skipping, don’t you think?

Perhaps I should also repeat the heroine’s name. She is Sophy Western, after whom Sophie Weston of this parish is almost named. (There may be a story there???)

But in Fielding’s earlier novel, Joseph Andrews, there are lots of wonderful names, including for female characters. For example, Joseph finds himself invited to share the bed of the widowed Lady Booby. Being an upright Christian, he refuses, but Lady Booby continues to try to ensnare him. Later he meets the novel’s heroine, Fanny Goodwill, who is poor and illiterate but very beautiful. And the name says it all, doesn’t it? In spite of Lady Booby’s machinations, they do eventually manage to marry. Sighs all round?

So, a century before Dickens, Fielding was adept with names for both male and female characters.

Fun with naming female characters : make up your own?

I’ve done this for female characters before but here’s another one. (And the old one for male characters is here.) The occupations are all historical because that’s mostly what I write. Change them to something modern if you like.

How it works:
Find your birth DAY/DATE in column 1 or 3, your birth MONTH in column 5, and the final figure of your birth YEAR in column 7. Then read off your words from the columns alongside. So, if your birthday were, say, 24th July 1953, your character would be Huntbottom the Governess. (Lots of innuendo there, no?)
If you don’t like the answer you get from your own birth date, make up a different birthday and try that instead. It’s all about having a bit of fun.

Some of these concoctions don’t sound great, but I like Pinchworthy the dancer and Snarewell the abbess (brothel keeper). Less offputting mixtures might be Tenderbody the nanny and Weedgoody the florist. Doodlehead the milliner, anyone?

But I’m sure you can come up with better than these. Do share.

Joanna