The name Cormoran appears in Cornish folklore. He was a giant who lived in a cave on St. Michael's Mount off Cornwall's southern coast. 18ft tall he used the low tide to access the countryside and pillage the local community until he met his match in "Jack the Giant-Killer", a trapping pit and a mattock (pickaxe).
Strike's full name is Cormoran Blue Strike. Robin's is Robin Venetia Ellacott.
The office of Cormoran Strike is at 6 Denmark Street, which was also the "home base" for The Sex Pistols in 1976. Guitarist Steve Jones and bassist Glen Matlock temporarily lived upstairs.
In the "Troubled Blood" season, the role of current-day Janice Beattie is played by actress Anna Calder-Marshall, who is the real-life mother of actor Tom Burke (Cormoran Strike). (During the the 1970s scenes, younger Janice Beattie is played by Eliza Collings.)
The scar on Strike's upper lip is not a part of his characterization, but rather the real scar (the repair of a hare lip) of actor Tom Burke.