12 ways to invent a name

Was Peter Pan a real boy? Let's explore stories behind beloved characters

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Did you know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was torn between naming his famous detective "Sherringford" or "Sherlock"? Or that James Bond was actually named after an American ornithologist? We repeat names like "Moby Dick" or "Harry Potter" with such ease that we forget some writer, at some point, sat down and scribbled out a list of possibilities.

Let’s explore the stories behind the naming of 12 beloved characters!

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If "James" sounds like a bland name for a top-notch spy, and "Bond" is a surname you’d probably forget after a first introduction, then Ian Fleming knew exactly what he was doing.

The point of the character’s name was to be unremarkable—even boring. A suave spy trying to blend in with his surroundings couldn’t very well walk around with a name like Sherlock or Indiana.

But Fleming didn’t invent the name: he borrowed it from a book about birds, written by American ornithologist James Bond.

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The solemn hero of To Kill a Mockingbird was meant to be linked with wisdom and justice. Harper Lee chose the name, which means "from Attica," for its association with Greek and Roman philosophers. It was a name that evoked rationality and moral clarity.

She countered it with "Finch," soft and grounded—and another bird. The contrast in those names perfectly suits the man who defended Tom Robinson in court and read to his children by lamplight.

Interestingly, Atticus was based in part on Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a lawyer who once defended two Black men accused of murder.

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What about Homer Simpson? He was also based on the creator’s dad—as were Marge, Lisa, and Maggie. They were all named after Matt Groening’s own family. When deciding names for his cartoon dysfunctional family, Groening had the funny idea of borrowing his relatives’ names.

He intentionally left himself out of it: for his role as the devilish only son in the family, he changed "Matt" to "Bart" (an anagram of "brat").

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Sherringford Hope was the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first gave his detective. The character was clear in his mind, but he took his time coming up with the defining name.

"Holmes" was an English name associated with London in many people’s minds, partly because of the popular book Holmes’s Great Metropolis. And "Sherlock" happened to be the surname of two inspectors solving crimes in England at the time, so Doyle likely picked it from the newspapers on purpose.

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J.M. Barrie’s "boy who wouldn’t grow up" had a carefully crafted name, too. Barrie had a close relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her five sons, whom he entertained with imaginative stories about pirates and treasure.

He borrowed the name "Peter" from one of them, though the adventurous boy’s character was modeled after all of them. Meanwhile, "Pan" is the name of the Greek god of the wild who played pipes and lived outside the rules of civilization—just like the boy.

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Even years after the Harry Potter books became a cultural phenomenon, many people struggled to pronounce the name of the female sidekick, Hermione. J.K. Rowling didn’t clarify its pronunciation until the fourth book!

But she didn’t invent the name. In Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Queen Hermione is noble and wrongly accused, making this a subtle nod to the misunderstood girl power of the character.

Side note: "Harry" came from Rowling’s childhood crush on the name, and "Potter" was the surname of neighbors she liked as a kid.

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Victor Hugo wanted the name of the ex-convict at the heart of Les Misérables to carry a sense of ordinariness. He was meant to represent the everyman—hence "Jean" (the French equivalent of "John").

The surname "Valjean" implies that the name "Jean" had been carried in his family for generations—basically, as unremarkable as a name can get. Hugo once noted that Les Misérables was not about exceptional people, but about dignity in the lowest places.

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The name of the white whale that haunted Captain Ahab’s dreams was borrowed from a real whale, with just a slight name tweak.

Mocha Dick was a real-life albino sperm whale known to 19th-century whalers. It earned a reputation for fighting back when attacked. The name came from the island of Mocha, southeast of Chile, near which it lived. It was first documented in an 1839 account by explorer Jeremiah Reynolds, whose tale Melville likely read.

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During the making of Tim Burton’s iconic Beetlejuice (1988), a studio executive wanted to call the movie "Scared Sheetless." Fortunately, they went with Beetlejuice, a playful twist on Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the Orion constellation.

The movie needed a name that sounded grand and imposing in its original form (Betelgeuse), but cheeky, silly, and very Burton-esque on the movie poster.

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Truman Burbank, the hero of The Truman Show, was always meant to be two things at once: an ordinary man and a massive metaphor. His first name is a not-so-subtle play on "True Man." Burbank may reference the California city, known for its ties to media and television production, adding a subtle layer to the metaphor.

It was the perfect label for a man who is the only authentic soul in a world built entirely on lies.

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George Lucas wanted the Dark Lord’s name to carry symbolic weight, and it does: "Darth" was meant to signal rank, like a title (later extended to Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, etc.), but it also evokes "death."

The funny thing is that, even though "Vader" resembles the Dutch and German words for "father," it wasn’t originally planned by the creators to associate Darth Vader with, well… having a son. That storyline was only introduced in the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

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Cosmo Kramer, Seinfeld’s sliding-door wild card, was based on a real person: Kenny Kramer, a neighbor of co-creator Larry David. Kenny was quirky, opinionated, and eccentric enough to inspire one of TV’s most memorable sitcom characters.

David initially didn’t want to use the name "Kramer," fearing the real one would demand money or publicity (which, in hindsight, would have been perfectly in character). But "Kramer" just sounded right—and eventually, the real Kenny appreciated the nod.

These 12 incredible hoaxes tricked even the smartest minds

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Hoaxes have woven their way through human history, fooling even the sharpest minds and taking on countless forms. Some began as harmless pranks, others as deliberate schemes for fame or fortune, and a few were born from sheer misunderstandings. Regardless of their origins, some of these deceptions were so impactful that they etched their place in history. Join us as we unravel the truth behind 12 of the most legendary hoaxes ever pulled off.

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In 1912, an Englishman named Charles Dawson claimed to have discovered the remains of a "missing link" between apes and humans in Piltdown, England. At the time, the discovery was hailed as the most significant find in the history of human evolution. It wasn’t until the 1950s that it was revealed as a hoax, with Dawson using modern human and orangutan bones to create the fake skeleton.

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In 1917, two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, captured photographs they claimed showed real fairies in the woods near Cottingley, England. The photos gained worldwide attention, and their authenticity was even endorsed by notable figures like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Decades later, in the early 1980s, the cousins admitted the images were faked, using cardboard cutouts to create the illusion of fairies. Don’t laugh—this was long before the era of Photoshop and AI.

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In 1869, a 10-foot stone figure was unearthed in Cardiff, New York, and hailed as the petrified remains of a giant. The "discovery" caused an immediate sensation, drawing massive crowds and widespread media coverage. However, the so-called "giant" was a deliberate hoax crafted by George Hull. Hull, a staunch skeptic, created the figure to settle a score after a heated argument with a Methodist reverend about the biblical existence of giants. Frustrated by people’s gullibility, Hull aimed to expose just how easily he could deceive the masses with his fabricated giant.

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Although it's part of a largely fictional account of the Trojan War, the Trojan Horse is undeniably the mother of all hoaxes in history and legend. According to the story, near the war’s end, the Greeks staged a retreat, leaving behind a massive wooden horse as a supposed peace offering at Troy’s gates. Unbeknownst to the Trojans, the horse concealed Greek warriors who waited until nightfall to emerge, open the gates, and allow their army to overrun the city. Today, this story endures as a timeless parable of the use of cunning and deception in warfare.

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In 1835, The Sun, a New York newspaper, published a series of sensational articles claiming that astronomers had discovered life on the Moon. The stories—later attributed to reporter Richard Adams Locke, though others were suspected to be involved—described fantastical creatures and a lush lunar landscape supposedly observed through a gigantic telescope. Conveniently, the telescope was said to have burned down shortly after the breakthrough. The incredible claims caused a frenzy but were soon exposed as a hoax, designed to boost the paper’s sales.

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Since the 1930s, reports of a mysterious creature lurking in Scotland’s Loch Ness have fascinated the public. Photographs, including the famous "surgeon's photo" from 1934, were once touted as proof of the creature’s existence but have since been debunked as hoaxes, with many revealed to be manipulated or staged. Despite its dubious origins, the legend of "Nessie" has long transcended fraud to become a true cultural mythology. Like many great legends, it thrives on a blend of mystery, hope, and the enduring allure of the unknown.

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On April Fools' Day in 1957, the BBC aired a segment showing Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. Presented as a serious report, the broadcast fooled many viewers—likely due to a post-war lack of familiarity with spaghetti in Britain. Curious callers flooded the BBC to verify the story, and the network cheekily advised them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." Arguably the silliest hoax on this list by far, it goes to show just how gullible people can be!

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In 1938, Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds caused widespread panic among listeners who believed a Martian invasion was actually taking place. This was due to the storytelling style, which presented the story as a series of news reports, blurring the line between fiction and reality. While the reactions were unintended, it became one of the most famous hoaxes in history. The infamous broadcast even became a case study of the power of mass media to manipulate the public.

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In 1996, physicist Alan Sokal submitted a deliberately nonsensical paper to the prestigious academic journal Social Text. The paper, filled with convoluted jargon and academic buzzwords, made no logical sense and presented no meaningful ideas. Sokal's goal was to expose the lack of intellectual rigor in certain academic circles. To his surprise, the article was published. Afterward, Sokal revealed the hoax, sparking a widespread debate about intellectual rigor and some journals’ willingness to publish questionable content.

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Not exactly a hoax, but a lesson on how quickly the media can jump to sensational conclusions, even when the science is still in progress. In 1984, scientists discovered a meteorite in Antarctica that appeared to have originated from Mars. Some of its unique features, including structures resembling microscopic fossils, led certain scientists to speculate that it could be evidence of ancient Martian life. The discovery made headlines, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton even hailing it as humanity’s first proof of extraterrestrial life. However, after further study, it was concluded that the unusual features were not markers of life after all.

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In the 1950s, adventurers in the Himalayas reported finding large footprints they believed belonged to the mythical Yeti. While some of these claims may have been the result of misidentified Himalayan wildlife, further investigation revealed that many of the footprints and other supposed evidence were likely hoaxes, with human prints altered or created using tools. Sadly, this means there are no abominable snowmen lurking in the mountains after all.

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In the early 20th century, the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb by archaeologist Howard Carter was followed by rumors of a terrible curse. Several members of the expedition died under allegedly mysterious circumstances, leading to sensationalized stories of a curse placed on those who disturbed the tomb. While the deaths were natural, the stories surrounding the "curse" captivated the world, spreading rapidly through media and fiction.