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In *The Annotated Sherlock Holmes*, edited by William S. Baring-Gould (Wings Books, 1992), it’s mentioned that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle originally planned to call his famous detective by the name of: “Sherringford Holmes”, but then changed the name to “Sherlock Holmes.”

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Also in the same reference work it's mentioned that the name of “Holmes” was probably taken from the name of one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s heroes: Oliver Wendell Holmes. The name of “Sherlock” may have come from the name of landowners in the part of Ireland where the Doyle family had once held its estates (County Wicklow).

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-- Nanaea