Some notes on names in Kidnapped

[regshoe]

“And how is yourself, Cluny?” said Alan. “I hope ye do brawly, sir. And I am proud to see ye, and to present to ye my friend the Laird of Shaws, Mr. David Balfour.”

Alan never referred to my estate without a touch of a sneer, when we were alone; but with strangers, he rang the words out like a herald.

As useful research for my WIP, I've been investigating names in Kidnapped.

First of all, a comprehensive table of names used for the two main characters:

Name	Total uses
David	70
Davie	25
Mr Balfour	15*
Mr David	13
David Balfour	11
Mr Balfour of Shaws	2
Mr David Balfour	1
Name	Total uses
Alan	412
Alan Breck	15
Mr Stewart	9*
Alan Breck Stewart	2
Mr Thomson	21
Thomson	2

*15 of 29 total uses of 'Mr Balfour' refer to David; all the 'Mr Stewart's are Alan.

Narration and dialogue use a variety of different names for David, though plain David is most common. David rarely directly uses his own name in the narration; when he does, he's David Balfour, and he also uses this name in speech, but when quoting his own thoughts in the narration he thinks of himself as Davie. The Mr Balfours are from various characters, notably Mr Henderland, Cluny Macpherson and Mr Rankeillor; though Rankeillor more often says Mr David, and is the only character to use this name. Hoseason addresses him as David; both Riach and Ebenezer are split between David and Davie; Mr Campbell exclusively uses Davie. Alan usually calls him David (because he cannae bring to mind the name of his landed estate!), and most of the plain Davids in the book are in Alan's dialogue. He switches to more formal names both genuinely, where appropriate, and sarcastically (both uses of Mr Balfour of Shaws are Alan being sarcastic), and calls him Davie more often later on in the book, most notably several times in the post-failed-duel making-up scene.

Despite all the kerfuffle about his estate, David is never actually called Shaws the way, for instance, Ewen is called Ardroy. Is this custom more of a Highland thing, or perhaps it'll be used more once David has actually taken possession of his estate and is living there?

A small tangent—how does David pronounce his surname? The usual pronunciation of Balfour today has a short A (like 'ballad' rather than 'ball') and the stress on the first syllable; but the Wikipedia page of Edwardian PM Arthur Balfour claims that the traditional Scottish pronunciation has a schwa in the first syllable and a stressed second syllable rhyming with 'tour', which would seem to fit better with the usual rules of Scottish names—there are two citations given, but I can't follow either of them (one is a broken link; the other is a book two volumes of which are on the Internet Archive, but not the one cited). But perhaps David would use that pronunciation. (How is it pronounced in the various film adaptations?)

Alan is called by his first name only the vast majority of the time, including in David's narration. Alan and David get onto first-name terms with each other far more easily than Keith and Ewen! He refers to himself as Alan Breck several times, and there are a few more uses of this name in narration and various characters' dialogue. Cluny and Robin Oig call him Mr Stewart (it struck me as slightly odd that this least Highland-sounding form of his name is used mostly by other Highland characters; it's a contrast to FotH, where most of the Mr Camerons are from Keith, although Lord Loudoun does also use it), and David makes a significant switch to this more formal name during their quarrel (in reply to which Alan continues to call him David). Then there are a couple of full names, one each from Alan himself and David. Towards the end there's also his alias Mr Thomson, which appears mainly in Mr Rankeillor's dialogue and in the narration in that part of the story. I don't think we ever learn exactly what his rank is in his French regiment, and he's never addressed by it.

In conclusion, definitely some interesting and useful things here to be aware of!

Comments

[sanguinity]

Oh, how interesting! I do like it when authors use names deliberately like that, with the ebb and flow of the relationships. Thank you for writing this up!

[regshoe]

It is an interesting thing to investigate about a book :D

[ljm]

A name spreadsheet! Very interesting. I love seeing data from literature presented like this!

[regshoe]

I do like a nice fannish spreadsheet :D

[isis]

This is really interesting, and shows the deliberateness of choice here!

[regshoe]

Yes, it's an interesting thing to investigate—I like seeing those little choices in a book.

[garonne]

This is so interesting! I love this kind of analysis.

David is never actually called Shaws the way, for instance, Ewen is called Ardroy. Is this custom more of a Highland thing, or perhaps it'll be used more once David has actually taken possession of his estate and is living there?

In The Laird of Norlaw (Margaret Oliphant, 1858) the family name is Livingstone and the character is referred to as "Norlaw" or "Livingstone of Norlaw". The sons are called "Firstname Livingstone" or "Mr Livingstone" or "young Livingstone" or "Mr Firstname". And the estate of Norlaw is in the Borders, not the Highlands. There's another character called "Mr Huntley of Melmar" (Melmar is another estate in the Borders, it seems--I haven't actually read this book, just skimmed through it!) and he's also referred to as "Melmar" and also "Mr Huntley". It looks like the wives/widows are called Mrs Livingstone and Mrs Huntley, not Lady Norlaw or Lady Melmar. (It's a little confusing, because there's another character who has Huntley for a first name, but he's a Livingstone...) But anyway, my guess is that David would be called Shaws.

[garonne]

It just occurred to me to take a look at Catriona (another book I have not read) and there's a character called "Andie" who addresses David as "Shaws" in dialogue.

Catriona has another character called "William Grant Esquire of Prestongrange, Lord Advocate of Scotland" (another Lowlander it seems), who is referred to as "Prestongrange" throughout, and his unmarried sister and daughters as "Miss Grant".

[regshoe]

It is great fun looking at favourite books in this way and seeing those little details.

That's useful information about The Laird of Norlaw (I was trying to think if I could remember any examples from fiction or history—I'm sure there must be some that have slipped my mind—David Logie of Balnillo in Flemington is called Balnillo, of course, but he's also Lord Balnillo so that's a bit different)—and if he is actually called Shaws in Catriona that would seem to be conclusive! Thank you :D

[ethelmay]

In Compton Mackenzie's Highland novels, there are characters referred to as Ben Nevis and Kilwillie, after their respective estates.

[regshoe]

Yes, that seems to be typical for Highlanders!

(Irrelevant side thought: surely Ben Nevis isn't an estate? That sounds a bit impractical :P Glen Nevis belongs to a Cameron, of course, probably a distant cousin of Ewen's...)

[ethelmay]

They're comic novels - I expect the Ben Nevis is for humorous effect. But it's a very long time since I read them.

[luzula]

I checked the Chevalier de Johnstone’s memoirs of the ‘45, and found places where he refers to Lowland lairds by their estate name, and he was a Lowlander himself. My computer unfortunately restarted after that, so I can't give you a page number…

Anyway, thanks for the post, this is all fascinating!

[regshoe]

Oh, that's good to know—thank you for looking it up! And glad you enjoyed the post :)