What's in a Name?

One of the quirks of UK-style cryptic crosswords is that setters, when they are credited, normally use pseudonyms rather than their given names. On the rare occasions that crossword setters get together in person, one topic of conversation is quite often "So, where did you get that name from?"

When I first met our esteemed MyCrossword head honcho Raider in a pub in York this conversation did indeed ensue around the table. In the split-second before it was Raider's turn to enlighten us, I had a sudden realisation: his real name is Tom Blackwell. Tom B... Tom B Raider! Genius 😁

Thus started my ongoing fascination with this subject. Just how do setters choose their monikers? And can I guess before they tell me? [spoiler: no, not very often].

I set about gathering setter name origin stories. Some are in the public domain (Alan Connor of the Guardian did an excellent 'Meet the Setter' series of interviews between 2011 and 2023, which became an invaluable research source) and some I've picked up contemporaneously through chatting to other setters online and in person.

Over time it became apparent that one can group setter names under a few (admittedly arbitrary) headings, under which I will now attempt to crowbar the stories that have entertained or educated me thus far...

Use your own name as inspiration

I'll start with this as it's kind of what Tom/Raider did as mentioned above, although his is really one step removed.

Others that have spun something around their surname include Otterden aka Gordon Holt (as everyone knows, otters live in holts), Tramp aka Neil Walker (although his main reason for the name is a fondness for the band Supertramp, so that's a two-for-one there), Weatherman aka Jamie Thunder, Screw aka Dave Warder, Styx/Stickler aka David Stickley and Bluth aka Dave Gorman (in Gaelic 'gorm' is 'blue' and 'an is the, so Gorman becomes 'Bluethe'... although he also likes the connection to the family in the sitcom Arrested Development).

Another of Gorman's pseudonyms is Django, a conflation of David JAmes 'N' GOrman, demonstrating a willingness to play not just with a surname. Similarly Don Manley chose names based around his first name, like Pasquale, Bradman, Duck, Giovanni and Quixote.

Anto was born Anthony Davis and his family vetoed his preferred choice of diminutive so he reclaimed it when he became a crossword setter. Paul Henderson chose Phi simply as his initials with a self-referential 'I' added, and another of his names is the fabulous alternation of Pedro derived from PhEnDeRsOn. Perhaps his most convoluted pseudonym is Kcit, a reversal of 'tick', a slang word for retail credit, or 'hire purchase' (HP flipped becomes PH...)

Others who have played with parts of names or initials include the legendary Rufus aka Roger Frank Squires, Orlando aka Michael Curl (who took a Mediterranean twist on his middle name Roland), Vigo aka VI-ctoria GO-dfrey and Methuselah aka Charlie Methven (first four letters of his surname wrapped up in an ironic joke when he was the Independent's youngest setter).

Names coined for other uses have inspired a few interesting setter names. Becky Moore made up Liari over 25 years ago for Dungeons & Dragons and resurrected it for crosswords. Not that long ago Rob Jacques made his Guardian debut as Hat. It took me a good while to spot the link to Hattie Jacques (readers of a certain vintage will know who I mean) and Rob says it was one of his nicknames at school.

Speaking of nicknames, Rachel Playforth had her first name amusingly miswritten as 'Archel' which got expanded to Archangel which subsequently got shortened to Angel, which she now sets as.

And Adam Sanitt had already used the ridiculously unpronounceable Phssthpok (a character from a Larry Niven novel) for pre-internet online chat.

Family ties

Paul aka John Halpern is named for his elder brother. Eccles aka Andy McCarroll took his mother's maiden name as a tribute to her (he did add "I don’t think that knowledge will give access to my bank accounts!"). Simon Griew sets as Coot in tribute to his shiny-pated father who taught him crosswords.

Jennie Wilson's Dice is an amalgam of the names of her grandpa Dick and aunt Joyce as family members she associated with crosswords (the latter worked at Bletchley Park, recruited via the Telegraph crossword!)

Along similar lines but with an inadvertent twist, Shirley Curran originally chose Chalice as a portmanteau of Charles (husband) and Alice (mother) then Tom Johnson, the editor of 1 Across, accidentally added an 'A' which stuck, thus Chalicea was born.

My favourite one of these is however Hectence, a childhood imaginary friend of Wendy Law who eventually became real, kind of!

Non-human inspiration

Wendy Law's other name Zamorca is the Bosnian word for guinea pig, her favourite pet.

My own pseudonym came about because my first puzzle here on MyCrossword was themed around dogs and so I chose the name of one of ours, Henry (but Frenchified it to Henri as we live in France)... and when I needed a second name I looked no further than the other dog Jasper, with a slight spelling tweak to Jaspa.

The setter mainly known as Vlad also sets as Tyrus, which sounds classical but is an anagram of Rusty, a childhood dog. Knut (Rob Jacques again) is named after a briefly-viral polar bear cub and is based on his wife likening him to a bear, and another of Rob's aliases is Magnus, his old Great Dane.

Liari mentioned above also sets as Apus and Pavo, constellations that are named after birds (she loves birds, you see). And on birds, Dave Williams chose Skirwingle for the amusingly vague OED definition: 'n. Some kind of bird'.

Places

Sometimes a meaningful place can provide a setter with their name. Eccles mentioned above also sets as Snape, his home village in Yorkshire. Michael Lloyd-Jones sets as Deri, part of his street address, while Dean Mayer is Loroso, which sounds wonderfully Italian but is in fact based on LOndon ROad SOuth.

The aforementioned Rufus also set as Hodge and Bower, the two halves of the street name where he lived. Dan Dickens is Brockwell as his house overlooks the London park of the same name.

Emma chose Heron as it's the emblem of Herne Bay where she lives, and another of her pseudonyms is Turnstone, another bird seen on the beach there.

Crucible aka RD Anderson is named after the Sheffield theatre and snooker venue, his first published puzzle being snooker-themed. Ashley Knowles chose Boatman from his 100-foot barge, which he spent 10 years converting. And Tom Johnson came up with Gozo while on holiday on the island.

The art of the crossword

The nature of the crossword itself - setting the challenge and demanding the answers - has inspired quite a few setters: three legendary trailblazers all worked with names of 'Grand Inquisitors': Edward Powys Mathers was Torquemada, followed by Derek Somerset Macnutt as Ximenes, then Jonathan Crowther who reversed Deza to become Azed.

David Moseley chose Gordius of the mythical knot problem. Jim Toal picked Vlad as 'Vlad the Compiler' sounded like a more civilised version of the namesake Impaler. Sarah Hayes aka Arachne says she likes the image of "slightly nervous victims becoming entangled in the web". Paul Facey-Hunter liked Puck for the implication of mischief. And of course Araucaria (John Graham) was named after the monkey-puzzle tree.

Such crossword-inspired names are sometimes a little more self-deprecating, like Dogberry, or John Young, named for the character in Much Ado About Nothing who keeps getting his words mixed up. Others are more subtle, like Paul Bringloe's Tees who at first glance suggests the river but was in fact chosen for its aural proximity to 'tease'.

Saving the best for last

I know this is subjective, but the one pseudonym I encountered in my research that made me properly laugh out loud was that of Christopher Brougham in the Spectator. His pseudonym was Dumpynose, which is of course an anagram of... no - I'll let you work it out! 😆

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Your turn

In the comments below, let us know the story behind your setting name...