Where do they get there names from?

Sorry grammatical error THEIR

Ebenezer Scrooge

Is Hercule Poirot a strange name for a Belgian?

FarNorth No, but it might be for a Frenchie.

I have always had a great fondness for Tom Stoppard's Foot of the Yard.

Why is my post pink?

I remember hearing somewhere recently that nobody knows where Thomas Hardy got the name 'Bathsheba' (Everdene) from (Far From the Madding Crowd). Racking my brains for other unusual female names, but haven't woken up yet - but sure there must be many!

Because it's your post ...... it's been like that since the BIG EXCITING forum changes

I read this and assume Hardy with the upbringing of his age would have been more than familiar with the story and the characters?
"Bathsheba is One of the Most Beguiling Characters in the Bible
Whether or not theirs is a classic love story, David and Bathsheba share a powerful bond.

Bathsheba is in the bible. The one David did the dirty on Uriah for.

I think it is Cormoran not Cormorant BTW
Still pretty strange!

Oh silly me re Bathsheba!

Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Pussy Galore, and Xenia Sergeyevna Onatopp - Bond villainesses!

I think that fictional detectives have always had strange names to make them memorable:
Sam Spade
Dirk Gently
Jack Frost
Sherlock Holmes

I've only read one of Kathy Reichs' books because of the name Temperance Brennan. I could live with that, but the shortening to Tempe jarred every time I saw it. How is that even pronounced- Temp, Tempy, Tempay?

absent Poirot was Belgian.

The name Lorna was invented for Lorna Doone.

And JM Barrie invented Wendy for Peter Pan.

I worked with a Wendy about 10 yrs ago who at the time was in her mid 60s. I thought it odd that an older lady was called Wendy
PP first published 1911

I think Endeavour was a Quaker name. I have a friend called Friendship for the same reason.

Harry Hole
Hieronymous Bosch

Two answers I have heard
1) place names . Anybody remember Widmerpool in Dance to the Music of Time? (It's on the way to Nottingham)
2) real people -friends (and possibly people who have got up their noses) or in return for a charity donation or even once as a raffle prize!

Ultimately Dickens was the past master of inventing names which came to illustrate their character. Scrooge, Mr Squeers, Dotheboys Hall Mr Gradgrind,

Hieronymous Bosch?

His mum and dad got there first.
g.co/kgs/HXCTsg

One of his most famous works.

He`s also a police detective in books by one of my favourite authors, Michael Connelly, but he prefers to be called Harry.

www.michaelconnelly.com/about/faq/

I know, I love them. Here Connelly explains why he chose the name.