The section starts, "Once I wrote down on the empty spaces of a time-table the names of those who came to Gatsby’s house that summer. It is an old time-table now, disintegrating at its folds, and headed 'This schedule in effect July 5th, 1922.' But I can still read the gray names, and they will give you a better impression than my generalities of those who accepted Gatsby’s hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him."
Nick then goes on to mention "the Chester Beckers and the Leeches," as well as names like Bunsen, Civet, the Hornbeams, the Willie Voltaires, a whole clan named Blackbuck, the Ismays and the Chrysties, Edgar Beaver, Clarence Endive, the Cheadles, the O. R. P. Schraeders, the Stonewall Jackson Abrams of Georgia, the Fishguards, the Ripley Snells, the Dancies, S. B. Whitebait, Maurice A. Flink, the Hammerheads, Beluga, the Poles, the Mulreadys, Cecil Roebuck, Cecil Schoen, Gulick the state senator, Newton Orchid, Eckhaust, Clyde Cohen, Don S. Schwartze, Arthur McCarty, the Catlips, the Bembergs, G. Earl Muldoon, Da Fontano, Ed Legros, James B. Ferret, the De Jongs, Ernest Lilly, Gus Waize, Horace O’Donavan, Lester Meyer, George Duckweed, Francis Bull, the Chromes, the Backhyssons, the Dennickers, Russel Betty, the Corrigans, the Kellehers, the Dewars, the Scullys, S. W. Belcher, the Smirkes, the young Quinns, Henry L. Palmetto, Benny McClenahan, Faustina O’Brien, the Baedeker girls, young Brewer, Mr. Albrucksburger, Miss Haag, Ardita Fitz-Peters, Mr. P. Jewett, and Miss Claudia Hip.
I'm sure it's too much to give an extensive guide, but are there key names in there that a historian of your era must recognize, like (say) the George Clooneys, Kim Kardashians, and Chris Christies of our day? Is there some theme that Fitzgerald is trying to get across in the types of people he lists?
Edit: I'm not sure why this was flair'd as "China," apologies for that and mods please let me know if I should resubmit.
You may want to cross-post to r/AskLiteraryStudies
Fitzgerald might have picked the names to suggest the prominence of the guests. None of the names correspond exactly to real people (as far as I know), but several of the surnames are either shared with, or similar to, well-known wealthy families or prominent companies or brands of the period. For instance:
There's probably some other symbolism in the choice of the names and their ethnic origins, but the resemblance of certain names to what would have been well-known corporate dynasties of the period stood out to me.
There's probably some significance to the fact that quite a few of the names are obviously of Irish or Jewish origin, rather than Protestant North European (English, Dutch, North German, etc) origins. But what if anything Fitzgerald intended to communicate by that I cannot say with confidence.
Fitzgerald always had a penchant for satirical and/or symbolic nomenclature, and this list is evidence of that (elsewhere, Daisy Fay’s name, for example, suggests the pretty ephemerality of a flower in contrast to the hardy Myrtle bush nominatively connected to her sexual rival. Her maiden name Fay evokes the French homophone ‘fée’, meaning fairy: Daisy is the heroine of a fairy story fantasy for Gatsby; she is the old money damsel in distress ‘high in a white palace’ whom he must rescue).
In the list itself, some names have a slightly juvenile comic effect (like the reference to Vladimir Tostoff’s music elsewhere in the novel): Ripley Snells is very close to Ripely Smells - a comedic odour of corruption and scandal; Smirkes and Haag are pretty clear plays on words too. Legros also means the Fat One in French, and Leeches suggests the parasitic hedonism which feeds on Gatsby’s ill-gotten wealth.
There are more floral echoes in Orchid and Lilly (a recurring motif for the decorative transience of the society), as well as several instances of piscine language - Beluga suggesting caviar and its luxurious decadence; Hammerheads conveying a shark-like danger which was a feature of the financially/entrepreneurially successful upper classes in the early 20s. Chromes conjures up shiny metallic connotations, fitting for a text full of the cruel velocity of the motorcar, while Stonewall Jackson obviously links to the Civil War general - the type of guest who would have happily drunk Gatsby’s champagne but - like Tom and his friends later in the novel - also sneered at the arriviste faux pas of ‘Mr Nobody from Nowhere’.
The sheer length of the list indicates just how many people found themselves on Gatsby’s ‘blue lawn’ for his Prohibition-defying parties, and there are perhaps echoes of real social celebrities of the day. However, as with many names in Fitzgerald’s works, they present amusing, satirical and figurative connotations of a post-World War One ‘Jazz Age’ saturated in careless affluence, artificiality and arrogance.
The other names will be difficult or impossible say for certain, but there was, at the very least, no state senator named Gulick in 1922. The state of New York publishes a book every year called the Red Book, containing names, biographies and portraits of all state officials, including senators. These have been digitized and published online up to 1923, the relevant section is this one. No Gulick (first or last name) appears in the list.