Victorian Names

This is something that I often have a difficult time with as a writer--choosing names for my characters. It's hard enough writing contemporary novels. A name can say a lot about a character. To write in a previous era, however, you not only have to choose a name that tells the reader about the character, but you need to find one that works in the period. A period that, as most of us know, if often misunderstood as prudish or ultra-conservative. Thus, often the names that were used back then deliver the same feeling.

Anyway, that was this morning's dilemma. I found a site:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~poindexterfamily/OldNames.html

with names from the era, taken from genealogy records. It was gratifying to me to note that most of the names I've chosen over the years are on this list.