Don't know if this is relevant in the present case but I bookmarked this site a while back - thinking it might be useful - "faire names for English folk"

http://www.faire.net/SCRIBE/faqs/Fairenam.Htm

sarah

The character's pretty sinister, a nasty guy, so I'm looking for some kind of similar play-off against the seeming innocuous, homely, yet also somehow creepy name.

Charles Law - with nickname "Chucky"

I like it because Chucky sounds nice and innocuous, but those interested in Irish politics may feel a slight twinge of the sinister - as in "Tiocfaidh Ár Lá" / "Our day will come" (Irish republican slogan) pronounced something along the lines of chocky are law (no, I don't speak Irish).



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Alright, I should have gone the whole hog and given him a middle name of Rob.

Paul Siren - Tempting you to smash on the rocks.

Pete, how about

Cleaver

And perhaps less seriously…

Dewhurst (a master butcher!)

Grinder

Blimey there are some super names there. I think Medlar and Carver are close. But there's something so perfect about Potter -can't use it cos I'd be sued- and I'm not really going to be happy without it. Real life does it every time...

Forgot to mention that this guy is an L.A. cop, which is a whole other dimension.

Thanks for all the help there.

Pete

The character's pretty sinister, a nasty guy, so I'm looking for some kind of similar play-off against the seeming innocuous, homely, yet also somehow creepy name.

this guy is an L.A. cop

No offence, but the idea of a sinister and creepy American cop has had a fair bit of a walk around the park by now. Is the American police force really just a gung-ho militia with the same vague grasp of the law they are meant to protect as George W.? If so, then I wonder why you are more worried about immigration than emigration. Why is he a cop? Should he be a cop? Is there anything to make him more interesting?
Just my two cents.

Mr Coffey

Your guess is as good as mine.

I'm writing from personal experience about a particular event involving a guy so sinister and evil-minded it would be hard to draw him true and have readers believe in him. Before going on patrol this guy, a man with rank, would make his unit watch snuff footage sent up by latin american police forces showing the beating to death of suspects, just to get everyone in the mood.

Nuff said?

But it's like cops anywhere. Most of them are ok. Some of them are really great. A few of them are heroes and saints. And then there's this guy.

But the story isn't about him. In fact it centres on one those heroes and saints, just so you know.

Pete

Pete

It sounds interesting actually. Doing things in a new and different way is part of the fun of writing. I was just curious why you think you'd be sued for using the name Potter? JK Rowling didn't invent that name, and has no copyright over it.

JB

Hacker?

Schneider? Snyder?

Both contain a touch of the nasty.

Chris

Before going on patrol this guy, a man with rank, would make his unit watch snuff footage sent up by latin american police forces showing the beating to death of suspects, just to get everyone in the mood.

I'm instantly thinking somebody a bit lean, WASPish and more intelligent than you want him to be.

Vanderbilt or Roosevelt (just stolen from Wikipedia...) sound nicely innocuous and yet believably nasty, Roosevelt of course having the double whammy of having been a president.

Actually, Wikipedia claims the term WASP is particularly applied to the Dutch, so you could usefully raid a Dutch / Afrikaans naming dictionary for a few others. (The AWB's leader Eugene Terre-Blanche being an excellent example of an appropriate name that would suit your purpose well if it wasn't a guarantee of litigation.)

G

JB

I'd be sued because it's the real guy's real name and in the context of the tale he'd be recognisable.

Pete

If you'd want Potter for its ordinary innocuousness, then you perhaps want one of the the other job names. A lot of them have interesting connotations or overtones in among the ordinariness:

Kilner(=Potter, sort of), Baker, Baxter (female of Baker), Cooper, Carter, Brewer, Brewster (female of Brewer), Spinner, Butler, Steward, Fletcher, Singer, Archer, Spicer, Mercer, Marriner, Tanner, Smith, Butcher, Calver, Carver, Plummer, Plumber, Farmer, Fisher, Shepherd (getting Biblical here)

Emma

Emma, as ever, you are on the button. I feel suddenly spoilt for choice. I think you should start charging!!!



Pete

Pete, you're welcome. Names are tremendously important in my fiction, so I spend a lot of time thinking about them, and my current cast of 15th century people of course aren't that far from surnames evolving - often from jobs of course. The family in the 20th century strand are call Pryor... think about it.

Emma

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Personally, I hope you use Kilner. The link with Potter is delicious, and it has a sort of narrow meanness about the look and the sound, with the awkwardness of the l-n in the middle. And 'kill' in there too, of course.

But don't let me influence you, of course.