Image to come: a bird of the Caribbean, such as the Cuban tody, from Birds of the West Indies.
James Bond, ornithologist
“Where did James Bond get his name?”
The real James Bond never carried a gun. He was an American ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and in 1936 he published Birds of the West Indies, which became the standard field guide to the birds of the Caribbean.
Ian Fleming was a keen birdwatcher. He spent his winters at Goldeneye, his house in Jamaica, and Bond’s book was one of his favourites. In early 1952, when he sat down to write his first spy novel, Casino Royale, he wanted his hero to have an unremarkable name. The exciting things would happen around him; the man himself would be neutral.
The author’s name on the spine of the bird book was perfect. Fleming later told The New Yorker it was “the dullest name I ever heard”. He said it was much better than something fancier, like Peregrine Carruthers.
Years later the ornithologist’s wife, Mary Wickham Bond, wrote to Fleming about it. He replied with good humour, offering her husband unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming in return. The two men eventually met at Goldeneye in 1964.
Look closer: The quietest name in a library became one of the loudest names in film.