What’s in a name? How to christen a literary character

Whether it’s James – slang for a heel – or Quintilian Lightsaber Mordor Cantaloupe, a name does a lot of the heavy lifting when creating an identity. Better get it right

“GANDHI!” the young Icelandic woman yelled at the top of her lungs, “STOP BITING DARWIN! STOP!”

Gandhi – a massive Greenland dog tough enough to take on a bear – was apparently trying to gnaw the leg off Darwin, the team leader. Darwin wasn’t having it, and a moment later one of them accidentally barged into Mandela and very shortly our romantic journey via dog sledge had devolved into a metric ton of canine warfare. It must have seemed like a clever idea at the time to name the team after great thinkers and peacemakers, but as the battle went on, by turns ferocious and merrily amoral, the shouts of the handlers became less and less funny, and finally seemed very sour indeed.