Real names in historical fiction

Another probably daft question from me, but...(actually I was sure there was a thread on this before but couldn't find it).

I've got an incident I want to include in my novel, as it fits in with the theme etc and gives a really good reason for my MC to get involved in things. It's also something that's not all that well known about, basically a court case in the assizes.

The defendant in that case is really well known and so I'm not concerned about using his real name. He admitted to the case in his own book. However, I also have the names of the two prominent local men who obtained the writ against him. Since my MC is a lawyer it'd work in very well if the plaintiffs went to him for advice on obtaining the writ (as cases had to fit within the very specific remit of existing writs or were not actionable, and people frequently employed lawyers to give advice before going to Chancery).

So obviously these are real people but not prominent historical figures, so would there be a problem using them as characters, so you think? I know this might sound odd, since I have real people in the book, but somehow it feels different for the ordinary 'man in the street' kind of thing. Perhaps because I'm twisting the events slightly to fit in with my narrative.

My other plan, since probably no one would know the names of these men without doing some serious trawling in various archives, was to have my MC just refer to them by their first names as if he is protecting their identities (since this is in 1st person and he would be very careful not to incriminate anyone in the events he's describing). Or else I thought of referring to them as Henry B-- and John C--, or something like that.

Would that sound really stupid or am I making a fuss over nothing here? It just feels odd to kind of appropriate real people just to back up my (fictional) version of events.

tallus83 said:

This is just a guess, but would there be any possibilty of a relative claiming slander or defamation of character?

I don't know what the time period is that you are working with, but you did mention that a person would need to do some deep research to verify the names.

I'm not quite sure what it is you want the characters to do, but this is the only thing I could think of at the moment.

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This would be 17th century, which is possibly why it bothers me. If it was Ancient Rome it wouldn't feel so close to home. These men were both quite prominent in local government, both of them being offered the position of town mayor (although one refused). That just made me think that their relatives would be more likely to know about them than, say, if they'd been farm labourers.

All I really want the man to do is meet with my MC and ask him about his case, casually dropping into conversation that he was given the MC's name by a mutual friend, whom the MC hasn't heard from in ages. My MC then gets caught up with that case for a while and through it meets the plaintiff, who is a notable historical figure.

I mean, it would seem quite natural in the voice of the piece for my MC to hold the names back, even to say he was substituting different names to protect their identities. Or would that jar someone out of the narrative? Would it be better just to make up new names and leave it to anyone who wants to look up the details of the case to find out actually it wasn't Joe Bloggs, it was So-and-So?

I know this is probably an issue over nothing. It just felt 'wrong' to me to use the real names.

Thanks folks. I never actually thought of the relatives being flattered, but that's a good point. The two men are actually the 'good guys' for their small part in the story, so hopefully nothing defamatory there.