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Literary names

64 replies

tortoiseSHELL · 13/03/2008 12:44

From another thread...

What literary names are there? (I'm not pg btw, just thought it would be interesting to see what literary characters have called their children!).

I'll start with the one from the other thread.

Anne of Green Gables

Joyce
James Matthew
Walter Cuthbert
Anne (Nan)
Diana
Shirley
Bertha Marilla

And the children from What Katy did

Katherine (Katy)
Clover
Theodore (Dorry)
Elsie
Joanna (John)
Phil

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kateri · 13/03/2008 18:42

I'd have loved to call DD Fuchsia from the Gormenghast books, but noone'd ever spell it, and she'd get called F---sia, so a no-go. But I do love it.

used2bthin · 13/03/2008 18:21

My middle name is Jessamy, I always thought my mum made it up, now I know she didn't!

dizzydixies · 13/03/2008 18:04

PMSL Califru

will retreat now and stop trying to make you swoony all over

Califrau · 13/03/2008 18:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

dizzydixies · 13/03/2008 17:52

califrau

reuben. reuben, reuben, reuben, reuben

reuben, reuben, reuben, reuben, reuben

reuben, reuben, reuben, reuben, reuben

[wink

francagoestohollywood · 13/03/2008 17:48

I'm quite ashamed to confess that I tend to forget the names of the characters of the books I read and love .
I wanted to name dd Natalia, after my favourite italian writer.

Anna8888 · 13/03/2008 17:39

Jessamy is another one I hankered after but vetoed... Not as hard to bear as Bathsheba, but definitely very odd in France

belgo · 13/03/2008 17:39

I love Lysander from Jilly Cooper's The Man Who Made Husband's Jealous

Anna8888 · 13/03/2008 17:38

serenity - my stepsons are Alexandre (as in Alexander the Great) and Guillaume (as in William the Conqueror)

Pollyanna · 13/03/2008 17:37

Felix, Jessamy, Frederica, Edmund, Sylvester, Dominic, Arabella, Charis

(from Georgette Heyer - I'm highbrow me )

I do want to call dc5 Felix actually...

belgo · 13/03/2008 17:36

Anna - fortunately my dh vetoed Bathsheba (actually he suggested Vladimir for a boy which I vetoed - fine if we lived in Russia but we don't!)

serenity · 13/03/2008 17:33

We did Greek literature/history for our middle names - Alexander (the Great), Lysander (Spartan Commander) and Athene - first names are AngloGreek, but biblical, I think that counts as literature too

Califrau · 13/03/2008 17:32

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

dizzydixies · 13/03/2008 17:31

if dc3 is blue in flavour reuben is right up there for us too

MaryAnnSingleton · 13/03/2008 17:30

ds would have been Flora, if a girl...

Kathyis6incheshigh · 13/03/2008 17:28

We name our boats after Cold Comfort Farm characters. We currently have an unusable wooden dinghy called Ada Doom and a lovely green canoe called Elfine.

If we ever get our perfect boat it will be Flora.

Ellbell · 13/03/2008 17:28

Dd2 was going to be Reuben if she'd been a boy.

Anna8888 · 13/03/2008 17:27

That's why I can't have a Reuben if I have a DS - I already have a Flora.

The very sound of the name Reuben makes me swoon

Ellbell · 13/03/2008 17:27

For Califrau

Benedetto sia 'l giorno, et 'l mese, et l'anno,
et la stagione, e 'l tempo, et l'ora, e 'l punto,
e 'l bel paese, e 'l loco ov'io fui giunto
da'duo begli occhi che legato m'anno;
et benedetto il primo dolce affanno
ch'i' ebbi ad esser con Amor congiunto,
et l'arco, et le saette ond'i' fui punto,
et le piaghe che 'nfin al cor mi vanno.
Benedette le voci tante ch'io
chiamando il nome de mia donna ò sparte,
e i sospiri, et le lagrime, e 'l desio;
et benedette sian tutte le carte
ov'io fama l'acquisto, e 'l pensier mio,
ch'è sol di lei, sí ch'altra non v'à parte.
(RVF, 61)

MaryAnnSingleton · 13/03/2008 17:26

has anyone said Cold Comfort Farm ?
Flora
Seth
Reuben
Big Business
Ada
Adam
Elfine etc etc

talkingmongoose · 13/03/2008 17:25

syllable, doh!

talkingmongoose · 13/03/2008 17:24

I think it would be harder to think of a name that hasn't got a literary connection, tbh.

Obviously with the exception of the Tayla/Jayden/keisha/random sullable generating school of nomenclature.

Ellbell · 13/03/2008 17:24

Also the seven female narrators of the Decameron (since someone got in before me with Beatrice and Laura) have good names:

Pampinea
Neifile
Filomena
Fiametta
Elissa
Lauretta
Emilia

My dd1 has a literary name (from French literature) but she's named after a biscuit rather than a character. (Quite obvious...!)

I quite like other medieval names, like Cressida or Yseult/Isolde.

controlfreakyagain · 13/03/2008 17:20

shirley
villette
heathcliffe
angel

Califrau · 13/03/2008 17:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.