'Robinson' does not sound Swiss
The name "Robinson" seems not to sound like a surname of the three main Swiss linguistic group (Germans, French, Italians). So I wonder if that name was chosen in honor of another shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe.
shareJohann Wyss (the author) was a swiss father who read Robinson Crusoe outloud to his sons. Then he and his sons started making up their own adventures about what they would do if the were stranded on an island. I guess it was a bedtime ritual for them. In any case, the father never intended to have the story published, but I think one of the sons published it after his death.
The family name Robinson is indeed a tribute to Robinson Crusoe.
Well, if you want to really get pedantic... it turns out that in the book, the name of the family is never given; they only refer to each other by "mamma," "papa," and the kids' first names. Its title is meant to signify "story of a Swiss family that wound up in the same circumstance as Robinson Crusoe," not that the family's name itself was Robinson. In the course of the story, the family does namecheck Crusoe a few times, but no one ever says anything like, "hey, what an amazing coincidence that our given name is the very un-Swiss 'Robinson' and here we are shipwrecked on an island!"
True, sort of like "Robinson Crusoe on Mars". The stranded astronaut's name is Christopher Draper, not Robinson Crusoe. The title just refers to the Defoe novel because of the similarity of the situation the guy is in.
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