Some names are distinctive…

… if you hear names like Captain Ahab, Starbuck, or Queequeg, your mind immediately opens the Moby Dick chapter, and you’re transported to the epic battle on the high seas between Ahab and the white whale.

But at the same time, one wonders in what OTHER works those names have appeared. This isn’t totally crazy–some characters appear in more than one work of fiction. Merlin, the wizard, appears in scores of books, as do other fictional characters from history.

Having a character with a distinctive name (Starbuck, Queequeg) might be seen as a direct allusion to the earlier work. For such uncommon names this is probably intentional, but if you’re a writer, you want to be sure to not accidentally use a name that has overtones and allusory power of which you’re blind.

So… this makes me wonder how often these names from Moby Dick appear as characters in other works of fiction. Let’s assume this cross-pollination is intentional.

1. Can you find a way to identify other major works of fiction (leaving out fan-fiction for the moment) in which the names of “Starbuck” and “Queequeg” appear (either independently or together)?

I’ve found a way to do this that I believe does a pretty good job of finding the answer to this Challenge. Big hint: My method is pretty non-obvious, so I hope you’ll stick around for the solution in next week’s big reveal!

Search on!