'one' before a person's name

[ucracc]

Recently I'm reading a novel Christine Falls by Benjamin Black and ran into a confusing phrase as follows:

“Here she is—Christine Falls. If it’s the same one. Wasn’t down the country, though—she was collected in the city. They picked her up at one fifty-seven A.M., Crimea Street, Stoney Batter. Number seventeen. Key holder there is”—he peered more closely—“one Dolores Moran.”
He looked up with a smile of modest triumph—one Dolores Moran; he was proud of that—expecting at least a hint of gratitude for his alertness.

The man here is one working in a hospital. Being requested to find out in the files where the girl, Christine, had been collected, the man answered as above. I don't know why he placed 'one' before the name, Dolores Moran and why he felt proud of it. The novel's background is Ireland in 1950's.

I found there was an American actress, Dolores Moran, in 1920's. She was not the one mentioned in the novel, who is a normal lady. Did he put 'one' before the name, because there was a famous one with the same name?

 

[perpend]

For me, it's just a figure/manner of speech in the context.

"one XXX YYY".

 

[natkretep]

One here just means a certain person called xxx, and the speaker is drawing attention to the point that other people might have the same name.

I encounter this often in depictions of police or investigation contexts, and rather unusual elsewhere. Perhaps the man is proud of mastering this style of speaking?

 

[Hildy1]

Example: "One Mary Spengler" = someone called Mary Spengler, someone who happens to be named Mary Spengler. It can be used as a joking way to say: precisely the person we were looking for.

 

[Prairiefire]

I've always understood that idiom to indicate that the speaker did not know the person he or she was naming (as in the example provided), or (less frequently) wanted to acknowledge that the person he/she was addressing probably does not know the person.

And no, I've never heard it used to indicate that the speaker is aware that there is a celebrity or other person by that name. If the person knew of the actress Dolores Moran and assumed that the listener also knew of her, he would have said, "Key holder there is Dolores Moran. Not likely THAT Dolores Moran.”

 

[pickarooney]

One here just means a certain person called xxx, and the speaker is drawing attention to the point that other people might have the same name. I encounter this often in depictions of police or investigation contexts, and rather unusual elsewhere. Perhaps the man is proud of mastering this style of speaking?

I agree with this. Having read the page in question, the clerk, although he holds the officer (and everyone else by the looks of it) in some contempt, is proud of the fact that he has used police jargon and hopes the officer will notice this and thank him for his precision in finding the girl's file despite the incorrect details given by the policeman.