The last name of Justin Saint-Etain in "Return on the Downward Road" is not French; Étain is a heroine of Irish myth, but I no longer remember why I thought her appropriate.
Possibly because there is a more common surname "Saint-Etienne"; which is a city in France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-%C3%89tienne) and an indie band (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Etienne_%28band%29) (not to mention, of course, a Saint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen)). The two probably sound similar if mangled by American English, causing more people to associate with the French rather than the Irish, obscuring the origin of the name. In any case, it was the logical jump that I immediately made when I saw the name.
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Possibly because there is a more common surname "Saint-Etienne"; which is a city in France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-%C3%89tienne) and an indie band (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Etienne_%28band%29) (not to mention, of course, a Saint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen)). The two probably sound similar if mangled by American English, causing more people to associate with the French rather than the Irish, obscuring the origin of the name. In any case, it was the logical jump that I immediately made when I saw the name.
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I know the name Saint-Etienne; Saint-Etain is a coinage. What I cannot remember is why I coined it in the first place.