It has been stated that the character fagin in Oliver Twist was named after an older boy that Dickens worked with in the labeling Factory, Bob Fagan. Bob fagin was actually pretty nice to Dickens so why would Dickens name such a horrible character after his new friend? Couldn't Bob fagin also Sue Dickens for using his name like that, assuming he was still alive at the time the story of Oliver Twist was published.
- The simple answer is that we'll never know exactly why Dickens chose to give Fagin that name. Writers often use names of people they know/have known and it doesn't always necessarily mean they're aligning the character with the real person (in fact, it's entirely possible that Bob Fagin's kindness to the young Dickens during a period of great trauma in his childhood helped his name stick in his mind and thus more likely to be used); it's entirely possible that Dickens simply liked the idea of "Fagin" as a name that he felt happened to fit with the character. As to the question of Bob Fagin suing him, libel laws didn't work back then as they do now and even if they did, Bob Fagin would still have to prove that Dickens was intentionally drawing a parallel between him and the fictional character. Which he clearly wasn't. We're never even told if Fagin is a surname or a given name since it could be either, and since the character isn't called "Robert Fagin"...well, he wouldn't really have a leg to stand on were modern libel laws a thing back then. When it comes down to it, Fagin as a character, if based on anyone, was likely based on Ikey Solomon (a notorious fence who often recruited and groomed children to become criminals).
