In our baby-naming books, from Beyond Jennifer & Jason on, we’ve often offered lists of name-inspiring authors and literary characters. But it occurred to me recently that we’ve neglected one of the richest sources–the genre of mystery writers and their fictional heroes and heroines–from Agatha Christie to Alex Delaware. The band of gumshoes, shamuses, cerebral sleuths, police inspectors and forensic investigators populating vintage and modern mystery books and television detective shows provides some really interesting choices, among them:
AUTHORS
AGATHA CHRISTIE
CHANDLER, Raymond
Arthur CONAN Doyle
COLIN DEXTER
CONNOLLY, Michael
CRISPIN, Edmund
DASHIELL Hammett
ELLERY Queen
IAN Rankin
JASPER Fford
JOSEPHINE TEY
MARGERY Allingham
NEVADA Barr
NGAIO Marsh
POE, Edgar Allan
PLUM, Stephanie
REX Stout
SAX Rohmer
WILKIE Collins
DETECTIVES
ADAM Dagliesh
ALEX DELAWARE
ARCHER, Lew
CARTER Dickson
CAT Marsala
EASY Rawlins
ELLERY Queen (both author and character)
ELVIS COLE
GERVASE Fen
GIDEON Fell
JANE Marple
KAY Scarpetta
KINKY Friedman (both author and character)
KINSEY Millhone
MAIGRET, Jules
MARLOW, Philip
MASON, Perry
NERO Wolfe
PHILO VANCE
POIROT, Hercule
SIMON Templar
SPENSER
THURSDAY Next
TRAVIS McGEE
TV SLEUTHS
ADDISON, David
ADRIAN Monk
BANYON
BARETTA
BARNABY Jones
CAGNEY, Christine
COLUMBO
FLETCHER, Jessica
FOX Moldour
HAMISH Macbeth
LACEY, Mary Beth
MADOLYN (MADDIE) HAYES
MAGNUM
McCLOUD
MORSE
NASH Bridges
OLIVIA Benson
QUINCY
REMINGTON Steele
TENNISON, Jane
THEO Kojak
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Tags: Adrian Monk, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, detective fiction, Kay Scarpetta, Kinsey Millhone, mysteries, TV detectives
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 12:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized, baby names from books, baby names from tv, boys' names, hero names, literary baby names, namesakes . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Where’s Dorothy L. Sayers or her sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey? Some more contemporary authors include P.D. (Phyllis Dorothy) James and Ellis Peters (real name Edith Pargeter).