Val's day

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

It being Valentine’s Day and all, I feel the time has come to muse on Val Longstreet, and AF names in general. I was taken aback to learn Val’s full name was Valentine, partly because it’s comically incongruous with her character, and partly because I’ve never met or even heard of a real person called Valentine. I’d assumed her name was Valerie (rare but not unheard of). Was (or is) there a particular time and/or demographic in the UK where 'Valentine' was a reasonably common name?

The names of ongoing characters were an aspect of her books that AF couldn't shift to suit the different timeframes of her books, which must make for some interesting clashes in fashion. Being Australian, I don't know that much about what names would have been popular in schools like Kingscote in the eras when the books are set, but I'd guess, for example, that having two Margarets in a small class of girls might have been likely at the time of Autumn Term, but would have been unlikely by Attic Term.

It's also interesting to look at which names seem dated and which don't. 'Nicola', 'Rebecca', 'Karen' and 'Jenny' are as current as ever, at least to my Australian eye, but 'Erica', 'Lois', 'Virginia' and 'Barbara' seem of an earlier generation. I also suspect (again, without much knowledge of the context in posh UK circles at the time) that by Attic Term, AF chose names for new minor characters (e.g. the 'infants' in Ann's dorm) which were fashionable at the time when the novel was set. Then there's ones like 'Thalia', 'Pomona' and 'Unity', where I suspect AF was deliberately picking offbeat names.

Any thoughts from people who know more than me about UK naming fashions through the ages?

Comments

[aspoestertjie.livejournal.com]

I think the most well-known Unity is Unity Valkyrie Mitford... the Mitford sister who thought Hitler was a pinup, and tried to kill herself when war was declared between her countries, as she thought of them.

A good friend of ours is called Thalia, but for the Greek, not AF! Her parents are conservative Afrikaans people, so she is generally happy that she didn't get a weird combination name, or even more peculiar inherited name (Jomar/Glodina/Sugnette/etc.)

[elizahonig.livejournal.com]

Yes, I too wondered if AF had Unity Mitford in mind when she named the entirely unlikable Unity Logan. UM was certainly a notoriously unsympathetic character before her botched suicide attempt lobotomized her.

Another thought about the Marlows and names: odd that the girls get the old Marlow family names (Lawrence, Nicholas) while Giles, the oldest boy, is named for one of his mother's dead brothers (Piers, Giles, Rollo, Terrance). I suppose that Peter too is named for Piers. Normally one would have expected the boys to be called Lawrence and Nicholas, and the girls to be Gillian and Petra.

[(Anonymous)]

I wondered if Rowan was a way of feminising Rollo?
(although we don't find out the brothers' names until End of Term, and unless AF was very organised about it all, I think that may just be a coincidence).

Also, I thought it was odd that 3 of her 4 brothers had very French names. Either Mrs Marlow comes from one of those old Norman families; or perhaps Madame Orly's 2nd husband was not the only French connection in her family?

[elizahonig.livejournal.com]

Rowan as Rollo--brilliant. Maybe that's where she got that terrible nickname Rowly--doesn't somebody call her that?
I think that all the brothers' names are quite old English ones, though maybe Norman or some such. Think Piers Ploughman. Giles I think is medieval too--though I'm less good on male names than female ones. Anyway, I don't think they connote a French connection, just a very old family. Only Terrance seems sort of modern to me.

[dunite.livejournal.com]

Rowan is actually Rowena: she's called Rowan for short, and it's where Giles gets Rowley as a nickname.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Are you getting that from the bit right at the beginning of Autumn Term where Tim says something like 'And the next eldest one - Rowena - " and one of the twins corrects her, 'Rowan'? Because I read that as Tim just getting the name wrong.

[elizahonig.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure the name is just Rowan. AF is quite careful about when nicknames are used and when full names are used (I admire her consistancy on that score)--anyway, if Rowan had another, full name, there are definitely occasions when it would get used.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I'm rereading Cricket Term, and I came across an Ancient Marlow Peter - it's what Geoffrey called his son, after both his father and Kate's, since Nicholas was out until he was definitively dead. So that could have been an additional point in favour of Peter.

In the Autumn Term timeline, Giles would have been born not that long after the end of the war, which could be why he didn't get a Marlow name - they wanted to memorialise Pam's brothers and there'd be plenty more boys for Marlow names, or so Geoff Marlow and his supersperm would have expected. Or maybe also trying to repair the rift with Mme Orly?

[(Anonymous)]

I would guess that when AF wrote the historicals, which was after she'd named the present-day family, she deliberately named the historical characters after the present-day ones. She had already used Geoffrey, Lawrence (twice), Peter and Nicholas/Nicola as modern Marlows so it made sense to use the same names for the ancestors. By then she'd used Giles for Mrs M's brother so she didn't need a historical Giles. Karen Rowan and Virginia wouldn't have fitted into the Elizabethan family - but she could have used Ann.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

There was an Annis.