One of the best female leads in the Bond film series is without a doubt Carole Bouquet’s Melina Havelock of ”For your eyes only”. The character kept her surname from the Fleming short story, also titled ”For your eyes only”, but had her first name changed from Judy to Melina.
Screenplay writers Dick Maibaum and Michael Wilson set a large portion of the film in Greece as they drew inspiration from ”The Guns of Navarone” (1962). This film alongside Hitchcock’s ”North by Northwest” (1959) was stated by ‘Cubby’ Broccoli to have been precursors of the Bond films. With the location of Greece the female lead was written to be half Greek, half British.
Melina is a Greek first name and means ”Honey”. Personally I have two theories where they got this name from. One is the Greek actress Melina Mercouri (1920-1994) who had a highly successful career in films before becoming the Greek Minister of Culture in the 1980’s and early 90’s. Her films include ”Stella”, ”Topkapi” and ”Never on a Sunday”. The same year she was selected Minister of Culture in Greece was also the year of the release of ”For your eyes only”, 1981.
The other is simply a translated reference to one of the first Bond girls: Honey Ryder in ”Dr No”.
As for Havelock, this is a Fleming original name and would come from the ”light-coloured cover for an army cap with a flap hanging down at the back that protects the neck from the sun.” (Chancellor).
It was named after Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857), major general of the British army. Havelock was active in warfare in India and Afghanistan. If you ever go to Trafalgar Square in London, there is a statue of Havelock.
Melina Havelocks father’s name is Sir Timothy Havelock (as in the Fleming short story) and her mother’s first name, although never mentioned on screen, is Iona.
Source reference: ”James Bond: The Man and his world”, by Henry Chancellor
“James Bond: The Legacy”, by John Cork and Bruce Scivally.
007 Under the Mango Tree 
Posted on March 8, 2013
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