Girl's name | Mumsnet

username12345T · 2021-04-13T02:24:13+00:00

I'm looking for a girl's first name and middle name Something boho - botanical - literary Literature is very important and it can be the name of a writer or poet Eg Dylan Gray (Dylan Thomas/Dorian Gray) Taisia Nyx Anais Rose Tudor Snow Savannah Binx I'm just throwing things together to see what sounds good. Any ideas?

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Original poster

username12345T · 16/04/2021 16:21

I think some of these suggestions are lovely. I am still researching and having a think. I think that Isolde Beloved is really, really lovely and it's the most wonderful book but given the fact that Beloved is (spoiler alert) the spiteful, murdered baby of a slave, I'm not sure it's quite suitable but wonderful none the less.

@OolieMacdoolie I think the name Arren is really lovely too. I was looking at Errith as well, after one of the characters. I've gone off Byron as well...

OP posts:

OolieMacdoolie · 15/04/2021 12:36

If you love Earthsea then what about Arren? I think it could work just as well as a girl’s name and it’s lovely.

Orphlids · 14/04/2021 05:11

I always thought Beloved would be a nice middle name. Very dramatic. Isolde Beloved would be rather good.

Tillygetsit · 13/04/2021 22:38

Zadie Fevvers.

Original poster

username12345T · 13/04/2021 22:23

@IamnotwhouthinkIam

If you love Dracula, then surely you've got to bring back Wilhelmina! - then she can be "Mina" like in the novel or even "Willa" like the American author Willa Cather (although she was really a Wilella).

Other girls names from Gothic poems/novels I love-
Christabel (Coleridge poem)
Laura (Rosetti's Goblin Market)
Antonia (Lewis's The Monk)
Claudia (Rice's Interview with the Vampire)

Someone after my own heart! There just isn't enough Gothicky goodness.

But I prefer something like Harker or Hesling. I was even thinking of Ruthven after Polidori's Vampyre. I think that's how I got to Raven. Then I was thinking about Whitby because I have ancestors from there...I also think Rossetti is a lovely name as well. Then I wandered over to Wizards, as I love wizards.

OP posts:

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 13/04/2021 21:55

If you love Dracula, then surely you've got to bring back Wilhelmina! - then she can be "Mina" like in the novel or even "Willa" like the American author Willa Cather (although she was really a Wilella).

Other girls names from Gothic poems/novels I love-
Christabel (Coleridge poem)
Laura (Rosetti's Goblin Market)
Antonia (Lewis's The Monk)
Claudia (Rice's Interview with the Vampire)

Original poster

username12345T · 13/04/2021 17:14

@OolieMacdoolie

I like the Classics and would include philosophers in that such as Plato, Ovid, Herodotus, Aristotle, Euripides etc etc I also love Greek and Roman Myths although I am also a fan of other world mythologies such as Norse

I am very fond of the Romantics such as Shelley, Byron, Keats, Blake, Wordsworth
I also love Japanese writers such as Basho, Buson and Shiki
Modernists writers and poets such as Eliot, Joyce, Pound, Conrad
Fantasy writers such as Tolkein, Le Guin, Pratchett , Garner and Cooper
French existentialists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Satre, Camus
I love Japanese writers such as Murakami, Yoshimoto and Kakuta
I like South American writers such as Garcia Marquez and Borges
I love playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Mamet, Beckett, Pinter
Other poets I love are Hughes, Plath, ee Cummings, Frost, Neruda
I love horror writers such as Shelley, Stoker, MR James, Jackson, Barker, Lovecraft
I also like a lot of American writers such as Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, Henry James, Faulkner

So more or less absolutely everything then

How about a literary first name:

Harriet (after Beecher Stowe)
Sophia (Sappho)
Athena
Diana
Louisa (May Alcott)
Danae
Penelope
Caroline (Lamb)
Blake (after William)
Harper (Lee)
Ophelia
Cordelia
Portia
Delilah

With a botanical / nature middle name:

Hazel
Brook
Vale
Eurus
Anemone
Rose
Nightingale
Narcissi
Marguerite
Rosemary
Minty

I love the name Minty. I have no idea why. Anyway after some thought and this lovely thread I've been having lots of ideas.

And yes, everything and anything literary.

I love the name Byron for a first name. And I want something a bit Gothic/Fantastical for a second name.

It's because I'm into earthy things and also love the Gothic, so have been looking at Pagany things, which is why I had the botanical idea but can't really see anything.

I was thinking about Raven but it's a bit silly. Byron Raven is too out there, so I started looking at bird names. I love Wizard of Earthsea by Urusua Le Guin so was looking at character names from there. It's ok for the second name to be 'odd' and Poe like but not too Camden ballroom circa 1980. I also looked at Ravenna as well which is an Island.

I like folk horror, fantasy, folk lore so was also looking at things like Selkie which is a sea changeling. I also looked at Morgana and things from the Merlin myths, things from Norse mythology. I love the sea and went through all the different variations on the sea but nothing really grabbed me.

You can see the Wizard of Earthsea characters here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Earthsea

It was my favourite children's book until Bram Stoker's Dracula took over! I'd love to pay homage to Le Guin and a book from my childhood, These are all ideas as yet though, I'm just having a think and doing some research.

OP posts:

Original poster

username12345T · 13/04/2021 16:59

[quote AnxiousAnnie86]@username12345T we also like hera or Juno from the Greek gods [/quote]
I was going to suggest Juno! I think Juno is a wonderful compromise and Juno Amelia is lovely!

OP posts:

TatianaBis · 13/04/2021 16:47

Good choices OP. You'll recognise my name then

OolieMacdoolie · 13/04/2021 16:04

I like the Classics and would include philosophers in that such as Plato, Ovid, Herodotus, Aristotle, Euripides etc etc I also love Greek and Roman Myths although I am also a fan of other world mythologies such as Norse

I am very fond of the Romantics such as Shelley, Byron, Keats, Blake, Wordsworth
I also love Japanese writers such as Basho, Buson and Shiki
Modernists writers and poets such as Eliot, Joyce, Pound, Conrad
Fantasy writers such as Tolkein, Le Guin, Pratchett , Garner and Cooper
French existentialists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Satre, Camus
I love Japanese writers such as Murakami, Yoshimoto and Kakuta
I like South American writers such as Garcia Marquez and Borges
I love playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Mamet, Beckett, Pinter
Other poets I love are Hughes, Plath, ee Cummings, Frost, Neruda
I love horror writers such as Shelley, Stoker, MR James, Jackson, Barker, Lovecraft
I also like a lot of American writers such as Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, Henry James, Faulkner

So more or less absolutely everything then

How about a literary first name:

Harriet (after Beecher Stowe)
Sophia (Sappho)
Athena
Diana
Louisa (May Alcott)
Danae
Penelope
Caroline (Lamb)
Blake (after William)
Harper (Lee)
Ophelia
Cordelia
Portia
Delilah

With a botanical / nature middle name:

Hazel
Brook
Vale
Eurus
Anemone
Rose
Nightingale
Narcissi
Marguerite
Rosemary
Minty

AnxiousAnnie86 · 13/04/2021 15:59

@username12345T we also like hera or Juno from the Greek gods

PollyThePony · 13/04/2021 15:52

Or Theodora (for Ted Hughes), shortened to Teddy maybe?

PollyThePony · 13/04/2021 15:51

Fitzgerald*

PollyThePony · 13/04/2021 15:49

If you like F Scott Firzgerald and nature names, then Daisy? Daisy Sylvia maybe.

Original poster

username12345T · 13/04/2021 15:46

And of course the Russian greats such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Mikhail Lermontov, Gogol, Pushkin

OP posts:

Original poster

username12345T · 13/04/2021 15:39

@tuttifuckinfruity

What authors / literary characters do you like, OP?

I don't see the merit in choosing a name purely because it's "literary".

That's a great question.

I like the Classics and would include philosophers in that such as Plato, Ovid, Herodotus, Aristotle, Euripides etc etc I also love Greek and Roman Myths although I am also a fan of other world mythologies such as Norse

I am very fond of the Romantics such as Shelley, Byron, Keats, Blake, Wordsworth

I also love Japanese writers such as Basho, Buson and Shiki
Modernists writers and poets such as Eliot, Joyce, Pound, Conrad
Fantasy writers such as Tolkein, Le Guin, Pratchett , Garner and Cooper
French existentialists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Satre, Camus
I love Japanese writers such as Murakami, Yoshimoto and Kakuta
I like South American writers such as Garcia Marquez and Borges
I love playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Mamet, Beckett, Pinter
Other poets I love are Hughes, Plath, ee Cummings, Frost, Neruda
I love horror writers such as Shelley, Stoker, MR James, Jackson, Barker, Lovecraft
I also like a lot of American writers such as Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, Henry James, Faulkner

OP posts:

TatianaBis · 13/04/2021 15:29

I dunno - do people choose Bear because they really really like Cheryl or because Cheryl popularised it? Ditto Everly - because they like Channing Tatum?

tuttifuckinfruity · 13/04/2021 15:08

@TatianaBis

Presumably became literature is really important to her.

Same way other people choose the names of celebrities or celebrity offspring for their children.

Well, yes, but presumably a celebrity that they like? Hence, asking what literature the OP likes.

TatianaBis · 13/04/2021 14:48

Presumably became literature is really important to her.

Same way other people choose the names of celebrities or celebrity offspring for their children.

tuttifuckinfruity · 13/04/2021 14:43

What authors / literary characters do you like, OP?

I don't see the merit in choosing a name purely because it's "literary".

TatianaBis · 13/04/2021 14:39

Anaïs Lily
Viola Iris
Iris Amelia
Yseult Beatrice
Guinevere Briar

Tatiana Natasha

AnxiousAnnie86 · 13/04/2021 13:45

@username12345T it's such a beautiful name, would you do something like juniper Jane? Or juniper Emily? As in Jane Austin and Emily Dickinson

We have our middle name as Amelia, we let my gramps choose the middle name and he chose his mother's name, so I like Juniper Amelia. He may change his mind :) x

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 13/04/2021 13:00

Christabel Briony (Coleridge poem and used by AS Bryant plus the suffragette, then the plant name used by McEwan)
Christina Ianthe (Poet Rossetti and floral meaning name used by Shelley and others)
Viola Jessamine (Shakespearean and floral name, then the classical variation of Jasmine)

Mix and match.

Original poster

username12345T · 13/04/2021 12:57

[quote AnxiousAnnie86]@username12345T I really really really want to call our little girl juniper but husband says no :( x[/quote]
I was thinking about Juniper, I think it's a lovely name. How about as a middle name instead?

OP posts:

Ejm02 · 13/04/2021 10:03

Mira Wilde
Astrid Rain
Ania Bronte
Nyah Wren
Reagan Kennedy
Juliet Ariadne