So, if Defoe's choice of Crusoe's name "suggests" that Crusoe is a "particular individual in the contemporary environment," his emphasis on Moll's need for anonymity insists that she is. In order to make use of this ongoing fictional device, Defoe has to give Moll some way of referring to people that conceals their "actual" identities, but keeps them distinct in her reader's mind. Her chosen method is to identify people by their family roles, their occupations, or their social statuses. As we will see, she also identifies herself quite frequently by the same means, with the result that we can make virtual catalogues of types of people Moll says she was, or wanted to be, or was thought of as being.
BUTLER, MARY. “‘ONOMAPHOBIA’ AND PERSONAL IDENTITY IN ‘MOLL FLANDERS.’” Studies in the Novel, vol. 22, no. 4, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, pp. 377–91, jstor.org/stable/29532744.
