What's my name?

November 20, 2009 1:39 AM

Help me guess this person's name. I've been given some clues.

I share a given name with the poor-but-virtuous protagonist of one of the first English novels, but it's more likely that I was named for an actress who played a girl detective on a 1970s TV series.

It's not Rumpelstiltskin, in case you were wondering.

posted by Cogito to grab bag (12 comments total)

Pamela.
posted by Ashley801 at 1:47 AM on November 20, 2009

Pamela Martin?

One of the first English novels: Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded.

1970s girl detective: Pamela Sue Martin, who played Nancy Drew on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977).
posted by Georgina at 1:49 AM on November 20, 2009

Candidates for the first English novel.

Pamela.
posted by zippy at 1:49 AM on November 20, 2009

Emma, of the novel and from the avengers. Though if that's the case the person you're flirting with is wrong on both counts.
posted by smoke at 1:49 AM on November 20, 2009

Pamela Sue Martin played Nancy Drew in the 1977 series of the same name.

Pamela or Virtue Rewarded was a novel published in 1740 by Samuel Richardson, regarded as one of the first english novels.

So... Pamela?
posted by benzo8 at 1:53 AM on November 20, 2009

Yeah yeah - so on (non-)preview - we all got there!
posted by benzo8 at 1:54 AM on November 20, 2009

You're not playing trivial pursuit, are you? Because getting metafilter to help would be bad form.
posted by b33j at 1:55 AM on November 20, 2009

Wikipedia trivia re one of the first English novels:

The Arcadia contains the earliest known use of the feminine personal name Pamela. Most scholars believe that Sidney simply invented the name.
posted by zippy at 2:08 AM on November 20, 2009

Except for me! Gloriously wrong! Definitely Pamela.
posted by smoke at 2:25 AM on November 20, 2009

Have you considered the possibility that it's Pamela? :-)

And now that you've got us all going, I think it would be only sporting to explain how you got into this situation. Is this indeed an online dating game or something?

(Though being named John, I doubt I'll try to adapt this to my own flirtations. "I'm named after something you have in your house...")
posted by Naberius at 6:28 AM on November 20, 2009 [3 favorites]

Naberius guessed it. It was on online dating thing. I tried a couple guesses on my own, but in the end I knew the hivemind wouldn't fail me. Do you think I cheated?
posted by Cogito at 8:50 AM on November 20, 2009

Do you think I cheated?

cogito ergo deludo
posted by jabberjaw at 7:02 PM on November 20, 2009