What is Inspector Morse's Christian name, why was he given it and, because he did not use his given Christian name, what did his university friends nickname him?

The author of the Morse novels, Colin Dexter, was a fan of cryptic crosswords, and Morse is named after champion solver Jeremy Morse, one of Dexter's arch-rivals as a clue-writer in the crossword world. Dexter used to walk along the bank of the River Thames at Oxford opposite the boathouse belonging to 22nd Oxford Sea Scout Group, the building is named "T.S. Endeavour". Morse went to the same public school, Stamford School, that Colin Dexter and his brother were both pupils in.

Morse's unusual Christian name "Endeavour" is due to a combination of his parents' interests. Its origin is the vessel HMS Endeavour, as Morse's mother was a Quaker (Quakers have a tradition of "virtue names") and his father was a fan of Captain James Cook. Because of his unwillingness to use his Christian name and his insistence on simply being referred to as "Morse", his Oxford friends gave him the nickname "Pagan"