How Many characters are named Mary?

Daisydidit

Don't feel like this needs much explaining.
I'm reading through the entire Poirot series right now and it seems like every other book has a girl named Mary.
Also I've  noticed other names being repeated?
What's up with that?

taliavishay-arbel

At that time people didn't go for unusual names. So you got a lot of Mary, Anne, Charlotte, Elisabeth, Jane - and for men Charles, James, John, George, Henry. Going back a half-century, Jane Austin wrote only six completed novels, and yet she uses a lot of names twice - you have a Mary in Pride and Prejudice, in Mansfield park and in Persuasion, an Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice and in Persuasion, a Henry in Northanger Abby and in Mansfield park, a Jane in Pride and Prejudice and in Emma, an Elinor in Northanger Abby and in Sense and Sensibility - and in most of these cases the characters of the two name-sharers are completely different. So it is just a case of reusing a common name. 

Tommy_A_Jones

All the names you have mentioned tali have one thing in common they are all Regnal names or whatever the female equivalent is, they are all names of Kings or Queens, 2 other popular names are William and Edward, this reflects the time Agatha Christie was writing in when People were more Patriotic..

taliavishay-arbel

Tommy_A_Jones said:

All the names you have mentioned tali have one thing in common they are all Regnal names or whatever the female equivalent is, they are all names of Kings or Queens, 2 other popular names are William and Edward, this reflects the time Agatha Christie was writing in when People were more Patriotic..

I'm not sure whether this was patriotism or just the custom to give one of a small set of popular names, and a disinclination to give unusual names. In Jane Austen's "Persuasion", Admiral Croft can't remember the name of Louisa, and says: ". I wish young ladies had not such a number of fine Christian names. I should never be out if they were all Sophys, or something of that sort". I think it was meant as irony - since Louisa (the name he was trying to remember) was more common than Sophy (his wife's name), but the basic idea is a preference for "simple", i.e. well known names.