Character names

[radiantfracture]

If you see a character named "Clive", what do you think about them?

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Comments

[radiantfracture]

Me: smarmy British villain

[ioplokon]

Isn't Hugh Grant's character in Maurice a Clive?

[radiantfracture]

My god, I had forgotten that entirely. Hmm is that good or bad

[sovay]

If you see a character named "Clive", what do you think about them?

Almost certainly British. As a given name it really thins out in the second half of the twentieth century, so in someone of my own age or younger I wouldn't be surprised if they had chosen it for themselves. I happen to like the actors Colin Clive and Clive Francis, so I have positive if slightly theatrical associations with the name, but I am aware that C. S. Lewis preferred to be called Jack.

[juushika]

The protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI is named Clive & my partner is playing the game right now, so I've been thinking about this a lot! Mostly in negatives: not an action hero; it feels out of place in the game. Stuffy, tight upright shapes in "liv," probably that's me drawing on British associations subconsciously. Skinny beaky guy. A name that precludes nicknames, emotionally distant, formal; but too concise for great dignity, a single syllable, pert, taut.

[radiantfracture]

Wow, that feels exactly right.

[juushika]

Good grade at name stereotyping: normal to want and possible to achieve!! Saw your academic villain comment further down & agree that would certainly be a Clive; too on the nose, though, that I can't say.

[springheel_jack]

Not for me, Clive.

[radiantfracture]

Had to look this up!

[genarti]

British, or maybe Australian or South African or something. (My immediate thought was "not just British but English specifically," but upon further reflection what I really mean is just that I don't associate it with Scotland; I don't know beyond that. But I'd be surprised to learn that a Clive was USAmerican or Canadian or whitish.) Middle aged or older, probably, unless this is a period piece. I don't have strong class associations, though that doesn't mean it actually lacks them.

[isis]

Yes, this for me as well.

(also my brain overlays it with Chive because it's just one extra squiggle, so I also think of Clive as being herbal and green and a bit sharp.)

[radiantfracture]

herbal and green and a bit sharp

I feel like that's not incompatible with the rest of the name's resonance.

[genarti]

Whitish?? That was meant to be Scottish! The dangers of phone typing when tired...

[radiantfracture]

I thought you might've meant Welsh.

[genarti]

Also plausible! But no, actually, I have no idea how common Clive is or isn't in Wales, which is the initial realization that made me walk back that "English" assumption.

[wildeabandon]

If they're British then probably roughly my parents' generation (say born in the 50s - 60s) and from a working class background.

[smokingboot]

Clive is a bit dull. Except for Clive Owen. Clive Owen is hot.

[jazzfish]

THIS

[radiantfracture]

I thank you for your expertise!

[pauraque]

Older white English man. Maybe his parents liked C.S. Lewis.

[cmcmck]

I tend to think of Clive of India as there's a statue to him in Shrewsbury just up the road.

He came from Shropshire.

It's become one of those 'worritsone' statues.

[radiantfracture]

Well, this guy fits with the villain vibes for sure.

[sabotabby]

British, probably evil.

My two specific associations besides CS Lewis are the main character from Children of Men and Clive Barker, none of whom are bad people, but if he popped up in a novel I'd think bad.

you see sabs

[radiantfracture]

I gave my academic villain what is, to me, an obvious villain name as his working character name, and now I'm trying to decide if I keep it or try to tamp down the signal that he is a very bad person in a particularly British way.

Clive means "cliff" or something similar, which happens to be useful to the mythic parallel I have discovered I am using. (See Inanna and Ebih, in which Inanna kicks the ass of a mountain: https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr132.htm)

I keep naming people symbolic things and not finding out until afterwards that I have done so.

I thought about Cliff, but it seems too on the nose given the constant traversal of an actual cliff. Also Craig.

Re: you see sabs

[sabotabby]

You are a delight and a joy.

I think Clive is a less obvious villain name than Cyrus, and mythic parallel is good, actually. Please do not name him Cliff or Craig though. I know a Cliff and a Craig and they are both middle aged guys who I quite like but are dorks. So I can't not see a dork there.

Ewen?

Re: you see sabs

[radiantfracture]

Ewen is Quite Good.

[jazzfish]

Male. White. English (not just British but specifically English).
Upper class, but maybe not the upperest of class?
A bit stuffy, a bit dull.

[radiantfracture]

I like the specificity in class here.

[elusis]

English prat

[radiantfracture]

same

[agoodwinsmith]

After reading all the comments, i had to look it up, and I found "cliff" as you say, but also "slope, like a steep river bank" and I'm not quite sure what to do with that. Other google hits seem to say that Clive is hitting its stride as a favoured baby name. I wonder if that will be true, or if it will become an also-run name not quite chosen.

[adore]

Clive is a guy who's working in an office in post-war Britain. Post either war. His uncle brought him into the office. Maybe he came back from the first world war or maybe he came back from a stint at the East India Company. Either way, he wears bad quality suits that are all checkered or striped, and smokes something foul. Tries to flirt with the secretaries and none of them are having it.

[radiantfracture]

This appears to be the beginning of an excellent espionage story.

[kenjari]

White British man, probably not working-class. Probably stuffy and uptight, but could be awkward and nerdy.
Unless the character is the hero in a romance novel, than he is stuffy and uptight, but also hot and secretly passionate, with an intriguing interest or hobby.

[radiantfracture]

Unless the character is the hero in a romance novel, than he is stuffy and uptight, but also hot and secretly passionate

So true.

[moon_custafer]

My spouse once met Clive Mantle, who played Little John on Robin of Sherwood. He always describes him as an enormous man who said (deep voice) “Excuse me, I don’t believe we’ve met; I’m Clive,” and offered him a hand ‘the size of an ashcan lid’ in greeting.

[radiantfracture]

That goes a long way towards rehabilitating the name.

[twistedchick]

Chives, and then I have to reset my brain.

[radiantfracture]

See, I think if I am reminded of a food, it's the Olive.