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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Bird Names

37 replies

StellaAlpina · 17/05/2015 13:09

Not for an actual baby though Grin. I'm writing a short story and would quite like the main (female) character to have a bird name.

So far I can only think of Robin, or the surnames Sparrow and Nightingale

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LittleNel · 25/05/2015 20:47

Swan, Dandelion, Chaffinch, Serafina, Belle

Greydog · 24/05/2015 15:09

Llinos is Welsh for linnet

DampAndRotten · 24/05/2015 15:06

Avis

bumblebeeee · 24/05/2015 11:08

Polly

WellErrr · 23/05/2015 07:29

Orville.

MaElsie · 23/05/2015 07:24

Branwen means fair raven

BeautifulStars93 · 22/05/2015 19:35

Maggie (magpie)

florascotia · 21/05/2015 11:15

Mavis means song-thrush

maggiethemagpie · 20/05/2015 19:35

Didn't Nicole Richie call her son Sparrow?

Icedfinger · 18/05/2015 19:14

Phoebe is a type of bird.

BlueChampagne · 18/05/2015 14:03

Merlin

Grin at KatoPotato, and offer Kitty Wake

KatoPotato · 18/05/2015 04:32

Albert Ross

kiritekanawa · 18/05/2015 04:03

Really depends what your book character's like, and who your readership is.

To those of a certain age Linnet has very strong resonances to Linnet in The Children of Green Knowe, and (somewhat less as it apparently got republished with a different title) Linnets and Valerians.

I was going to suggest T?i for someone bright-eyed, intelligent, cheerful and inquisitive (in NZ white population it's a fairly common nickname, particularly of little beady-eyed old ladies in their 90s; and a legitimate M?ori name, though I know so little about Te Reo M?ori that I wouldn't recommend using it without checking the cultural implcations first).

I've always wanted to name kids after seabirds like fulmars, mollymawks and albatrosses - they have such glorious competence and freedom. However none of them have particularly nicely evocative names in English. You could try Toroa, which is albatross in M?ori... gives you the glorious freedom and avoids the automatic reference to Coleridge.

For a less attractive character of spectacular competence, how about Sparrowhawk? Grin

wesH · 17/05/2015 20:36

Sylvia. Not an actual bird, but a genus of bird from the family sylvidae.

Instituteofstudies · 17/05/2015 18:06

Surnames:Finch, Wren, Sparrow, Starling, Swift, Dove, Swan, Drake, Eagle/Eagling, Gosling, Dunlin, Jay, Crow, Rook, Martin, Wagtail,

First names: Serin, Linnet, Jay, Martin, Piper,

PelvicFloorClenchReminder · 17/05/2015 17:47

Tweety Pie?

bugoven · 17/05/2015 17:44

Paloma?

Original poster
StellaAlpina · 17/05/2015 16:37

Thanks all :) I especially like Wren and Merle or Swift as a surname. Nice and birdlike without doing that thing where you give all your characters ridiculously fancy names.

OP posts:
Sophronia · 17/05/2015 16:00

Raven
Lark
Phoenix
Dove
Kestrel
Linnet

IsadoraQuagmire · 17/05/2015 14:33

Not to go with Lark as a first name though! Grin

IsadoraQuagmire · 17/05/2015 14:33

Swan as a surname

IsadoraQuagmire · 17/05/2015 14:32

Lark

NormanTheForeman · 17/05/2015 14:19

Merle means blackbird.

NormanTheForeman · 17/05/2015 14:18

Martin (as in house)

ememem84 · 17/05/2015 14:16

Flamingo.

Albatross

Peregrine

Ptarmigan

Or more sensibly:

Wren
Jay
Sparrow