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Baby names

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

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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Titsalinabumsquash · 17/05/2015 13:09

Wren

AuntieStella · 17/05/2015 13:10

Linnet, Jay

Titsalinabumsquash · 17/05/2015 13:10

Or the surname Starling or Nightingale or Skylark.

Maybe Maggie (as in Magpie)

FatWalda · 17/05/2015 13:13

Mavis is an old name for the song thrush.

GlitzAndGigglesx · 17/05/2015 13:15

Phoenix or jazz it up as Phoenyx

Titsalinabumsquash · 17/05/2015 13:17

Other bird related surnames

Swan
Finch
Drake

DampAndRotten · 17/05/2015 13:21

I love Starling (dp will have none of it though..)

FatWalda · 17/05/2015 13:24

Raven

TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl · 17/05/2015 13:35

Kestral?

MokunMokun · 17/05/2015 13:45

Titty? Sorry couldn't resist.

Sparrow? Dove?

PennilynLott · 17/05/2015 13:48

Swallow

ilovemargaretatwood8931 · 17/05/2015 13:58

Surname Swift is lovely.

And swifts are such amazing birds. They never stop flying on their migration from Africa to Europe, they even sleep in the air.

ememem84 · 17/05/2015 14:16

Flamingo.

Albatross

Peregrine

Ptarmigan

Or more sensibly:

Wren
Jay
Sparrow

NormanTheForeman · 17/05/2015 14:18

Martin (as in house)

NormanTheForeman · 17/05/2015 14:19

Merle means blackbird.

IsadoraQuagmire · 17/05/2015 14:32

Lark

IsadoraQuagmire · 17/05/2015 14:33

Swan as a surname

IsadoraQuagmire · 17/05/2015 14:33

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

Sophronia · 17/05/2015 16:00

Raven
Lark
Phoenix
Dove
Kestrel
Linnet

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:
bugoven · 17/05/2015 17:44

Paloma?

PelvicFloorClenchReminder · 17/05/2015 17:47

Tweety Pie?

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,

wesH · 17/05/2015 20:36

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

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