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ArchivesRe: Bartleby
in reply to a message by RabidFangirl90
Bartleby seems to have been created by the American author Herman Melville for the title character of his famous short story "Bartleby the Scrivener", which was originally published in 1853:
http://www.bartleby.com/129/
Bartleby is probably meant to be the character's surname in the story, as at that time in history most men would have normally been addressed by their surnames outside of their families. Melville seems to have created the name by blending the sound of other similar names. Bartle, Bartlett, and Bartley all exist as English surnames, and there are many English surnames ending in -by that go back to places in England, such as Barrowby and Barsby, where -by was a suffix meaning "village". So Bartleby was created to sound like a real English surname, though it doesn't seem to really be one. If it had existed, presumably a place named Bartleby would have been "Bartholomew's village", since "Bartle" was a medieval English pet form of Bartholomew. But I can't find any record of such a place having really existed.
http://www.bartleby.com/129/
Bartleby is probably meant to be the character's surname in the story, as at that time in history most men would have normally been addressed by their surnames outside of their families. Melville seems to have created the name by blending the sound of other similar names. Bartle, Bartlett, and Bartley all exist as English surnames, and there are many English surnames ending in -by that go back to places in England, such as Barrowby and Barsby, where -by was a suffix meaning "village". So Bartleby was created to sound like a real English surname, though it doesn't seem to really be one. If it had existed, presumably a place named Bartleby would have been "Bartholomew's village", since "Bartle" was a medieval English pet form of Bartholomew. But I can't find any record of such a place having really existed.
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