Surnames in Blyton

[Owl's Dene]

There was a racehorse trainer in the 1950s called Geoffrey Barling.
We had a butcher in the town I grew up in called Crappers!

[Paul Austin]

"Hilton" as in Bets and Pip, might be taken from the Hilton hotel family?

[Darrell71]

Possibly. That's the only place I've seen Hilton. What about Daykin though?

[Courtenay]

Or Trotteville?

[mynameisdumbnuts]

I share a surname with a minor Secret Seven character. Very exciting to see my name in print as a child!

I used to know a man by the last name of Hilton. His nickname in the military was Hotel.

In terms of unfortunate last names, this is the worst I've seen. Apparently she pronounces it "Wonker": http://www.kimwanker.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jubei]

....

I have wondered if 'Mr Wooh' the magician/ memory-man in Five Are Together Again was meant to be an East Asian (Indonesian?) with such an unusual name, or Chinese - Mr Wu? '- and if this was his 'stage-name' or his real name. Probably the former. 'Prince Bongawah of Tetarua' in Mystery of the Vanished Prince also sounds East Asian; both could be jokes by Enid, who had an ear for the amusingly unusual, satirising unusual-sounding Asian names .
.....

As I familiar with Indonesian names, I can share a bit that Wooh is quite unlikely any Indonesian / Malay related name. You proposal on that taken from Chinese, Mr Wu , should be more likely. Wu is quite common surnames and also birth name for Chinese (noted that in Chinese, the surname is in front).

[Courtenay]

In terms of unfortunate last names, this is the worst I've seen. Apparently she pronounces it "Wonker": http://www.kimwanker.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shades of "The Bouquet Residence"??

[IceMaiden]

In terms of unfortunate last names, this is the worst I've seen. Apparently she pronounces it "Wonker": http://www.kimwanker.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wonder if she's any relation of Thomas [censored], the composer whose done various scores for TV shows? Surely there can't be too many people with such an unfortunate name .

[Judith Crabb]

I can think of exceptions, but did Enid Blyton, like many popular writers of the early- to mid- twentieth century, tend to give her working-class characters monosyllabic surnames and her main (middle-class) characters surnames of more than one syllable?

[Judith Crabb]

What prompted my post of a week ago was coming upon a statement in Andrew Maunder's biography that Mrs Mannering becomes Mrs Smugs (p.160). I thought, not really because Bill's true name is Cunningham, and I somehow felt that Enid Blyton would not expect Philip and Dinah's mother to go from a three syllable name to a one syllable. She's always Mrs. Cunningham after her marriage. Smugs seems a likely name for a bird-watcher, the cover he uses, but the 'head of this show', the undercover agent is Bill Cunningham.

[Jomo]

Mannering to Cunningham is the appropriate name change but I’m sure they joked about being Mr and Mrs Smugs in private!

And did Diana and Philip change to Cunningham as well? We know Enid Blyton changed her daughter’s names after her second marriage, so it would have been the ‘done thing’, though eventually rather complicated in relation to official records - driver’s licenses, birth certificates and passports.

As for the number of syllables, I think you may be onto something there, I would have to survey some more of the literature to confirm it though. At least two syllables seems to be the standard for most characters, and more than two seems to imply some social elevation (Trott-e-ville for example). Did she ever hyphenate?

Perhaps it’s more the implied meaning of a word used as a surname to depict the character, and it’s sound ‘Goon’ is a very different proposition to ‘Trent’ for instance. ‘Jack Trent’ sounds crisp and efficient, like he was going to be someone important.
(And that reminds me of an interview that I read a long time ago with the Australian fashion designer Trent Nathan, his mother gave him a name that sounded quite swish, and he was invited to tennis parties etc. amongst a much better off social set. It was those contacts (and his mother’s contacts in the rag trade) that helped him to launch his own label successfully.)

[Hannah]

As for the number of syllables, I think you may be onto something there, I would have to survey some more of the literature to confirm it though. At least two syllables seems to be the standard for most characters, and more than two seems to imply some social elevation (Trott-e-ville for example). Did she ever hyphenate?

There are probably not too many names with one syllable but I can think of some (e. g. Alicia Johns, Miss Potts, Miss Jenks, Mr. Goon, Josephine Jones, Miss Oak).
I know one example of hyphenating - Pauline Bingham-Jones at St. Clares. It later turns out though that Pauline just added the Bingham to be more interesting as she is really just called Jones.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Mr. Pink-Whistle has a hyphenated surname!

[Splodj]

I know one example of hyphenating - Pauline Bingham-Jones at St. Clares. It later turns out though that Pauline just added the Bingham to be more interesting as she is really just called Jones.

Like Catherine Zeta-Jones - who's real name is also just Jones!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm not sure that he used a hyphen, but Enid's second husband Kenneth did a similar thing when he added one of his middle names to his surname and called himself Kenneth Darrell Waters instead of Kenneth Waters.