Yeah, I have a feeling it might be the similarity of Niles to other "British" names that makes it seem like one to me. There's Miles, Giles, Nigel, etc. Plus other names with long "I" sounds like Clive and Simon. Long 'I' sounds in male names seems generally British now that I think about it :p
I think Algernon is definitely one of the classic "old stereotypical British person" names, a la Barnaby (to me). There's Algernon Moncrieff from
The Importance of Being Earnest and there's also a fellow named Algernon in
Help!.
This message was edited 2/2/2011, 2:28 PM