Literary Names

[hannahfaith]

DH and I are considering using a theme of literary Names for middle names for girls
We're set on doing a theme but are unsure of what kind of theme.
Recently the idea of literary Names has come up and we like the idea but are struggling to find female characters with short names.

Please help us come up with some shorter female bookish names

(We have a long surname and all of the first names we like are long)

Cruella

Jane, Emma, Tess.

Maeve - queen from Irish saga
Alice - in Wonderland
Anne - of Green Gables
Anna - Karenina
Daisy - The Great Gatsby
Lucy - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Molly - Bloom, Ulysses
Lyra - His Dark Materials
Jo - Little Women
Amy - ditto
Beth - ditto
Meg - ditto
Lorna - Doone
Heidi - self explanatory
Lara - Doctor Zhivago
Laura - Little House on the Prairie
Mary - ditto
Carrie - ditto

Pick from your favourite books. Otherwise you're a bit of a poseur trying to seem literate.

I agree that ‘literary names’ is an odd theme if you don’t already have a bunch of names that you like from your favorite books? Choosing names from books for the sake of it (despite having potentially never even read the books) is a bit - fake?! Like a PP said. I mean that’s how it would potentially come across.

Well, what do you read? Who/what is your favourite author/period/ genre?

This is a weird idea anyway, but it’s a lot weirder if you don’t really read.

Points to own user name ^^

(Not the Jones bit )

Both DH and I love to read. Ideally I was hoping to go for classic names from books such as Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna, Heidi, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird etc. all classic books I read and loved as a child. While we still love to read and have quite the collection of books most of his are science fiction and mine are thrillers and neither of us want to name a child after those types of characters.
The main reason I had asked as it's been many years since I've read some of these I was trying to remember all of the characters and had hoped that people on here may remember some of the less obvious names characters more than I could.
I know the obvious names from these stories but I can't remember many of the side characters names.

books such as Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna, Heidi, Great Gatsby,

Obviously names like Scout & Pollyanna will be more obviously book-inspired than Laura or Anne. Do you want it to be obvious and a bit quirky?

Then google characters from the books you mentioned.
Any name can be literary because almost any name has been in a book at some point.

Here’s a wild idea. Reread these old childhood favourites. Or admit you only read sci-fi and thrillers and call the baby Bene Gesserit or Ghanima.

I think OP just wants some memory joggers.

How about Cassandra from I Capture the Castle?

I knew one of four sisters once: Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Catherine.

I also know someone middle names Radclyffe after Radclyffe Hall.

But I agree with pp, if you’re not so literary that you don’t remember the names in the classics, it’s all a bit poserish.

Scout
Daisy
Jay - I know it's a boy's name in the GG but it works for a girl
Mariela
Diana
Josie
Minnie

Marilla not Mariela if you want AofGG names

Lots of short names in the books you mention - and why not reread them! (Are you American? I only ask because these are mostly N American kids' books.)

Anne
Diana
Rilla (and Marilla)
Jem (a boy, but could be a cute girl's nn)
Josie
Gertie
Ruby
Jane
Bertha (Anne's mother)
Walter
Nan
Shirley
Faith
Una
Mary

Meg
Jo
Beth
Amy
Sally
Daisy
Josie
Estelle/Esther

Maeve
Bronte

Alice from Alice in the looking glass
Emma from book Emma

Beautiful Shakespearean names: Imogen, Ophelia, Viola, Portia, Miranda, Isabella, Juliet, Beatrice, Bianca, Cordelia, Jessica

My friend was named Madita after a character from a book. I think it’s really pretty!

Dorothea - then everyone will think you love Middlemarch. Or they will think that you want them to think that you love Middlemarch.

But I can't talk, my daughter is named Polly after Magician's Nephew, Love in a Cold Climate and Cazalets.

Dorothea - then everyone will think you love Middlemarch. Or they will think that you want them to think that you love Middlemarch.

I once had an older colleague whose adult children from a former marriage had literary surnames as names, and were something like Larkin, Lawrence, Bronte and Eliot.

I might be wrong about Eliot -- might have been Byron? Or maybe I just didn't know which Eliot they were named for.

@MuscatelGrapes Eliot could be from George Eliot which is the pen name of the author for Middlemarch