Howard’s name is a reference to
Howards End, the novel by E.M. Forster that loosely inspired
On Beauty. It may also be a reference to Howard University, a famous historically Black university whose alumni include the author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston (a possible namesake for Howard’s daughter Zora). Howard is himself white. His marriage to Kiki forces him to consider race in a way that his other white colleagues at Wellington College often don’t, although Howard maintains some of his own blind spots.