Literary names

[Heh1991]

Looking for inspiration- what are your favourite literary names for either a boy or a girl??

I mean most names are literary in some respect? So if your favourite author is Jane Austen and you name your daughter Jane then that name has literary inspiration for you?

Maybe pick a name from a favourite book or short story for the literary association. No point choosing something like Atticus just to say it’s ‘literary’ because it’s strongly Me and DS were on holiday this year and one of the boys got friendly with my DS. He came upto me and started to ask why my Son has black skin and why my hair is black too.... honestly I was gobsmacked... I just said we were born that way and we are ALL beautiful. associated with a specific literary work.

Okay ignore the second paragraph! It was accidentally quotes from a different thread.

But yeah choose a name you like. Not one that feels ‘literary.’

William for a boy! (Shakespeare, Blake, Wordsworth, Godwin, Yeats, Golding, Somerset Maugham, Faulkner, Wharton etc - loads of the most prominent/classic male writers seem to have been called William as well as it being used for characters from Shakespeare, Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Tennyson... ). Mary/Maria or maybe Jane would probably be the girls equivalent.

But I'm guessing you mean names that instantly make you think "literary character" because they are relatively uncommon or invented by the writer - so Atticus, Lysander, Orlando, Caspian, Holden, Lyra, Coraline, Miranda, Perdita, Cordelia, Ophelia are some of my fave more obvious character names (even if I don't always like the characters themselves).

Matilda
Alice
Maya
Lyra
Lisbeth
Harper
Beatrix

Arthur
Holden
Atticus
Finn
Willoughby

I like Laurie/Lawrence inspired by Little Women (though I don't think it was his actual name- I think it was his surname?) and also Josephine from the same book.

I'm sure there are more, but it's still early!

What books do you like and which characters in those books? Go for something you feel a connection to. Otherwise it's a bit pretentious I think.

@MyOtherProfile

What books do you like and which characters in those books? Go for something you feel a connection to. Otherwise it's a bit pretentious I think.

Exactly this. And more than pretentious it’s just a bit daft. I mean why name your child Atticus just because it has literary connections? Surely better just to pick a name you like, and even better if it’s connected to a book that touched you.

My favourite names/characters

Elinor (Sense and Sensibility)
Lyra (His Dark Materials)
Imogen (Cymbeline)
Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)

Benedict (also from Much Ado)
Sam (after Sam Vimes from Discworld )

Odd thread. Why would you choose a literary name, just because it’s ‘literary’, and not because you read a book, connected with the character and like the name?

If someone comes comes up with a name you like, are you going to scurry off, read the book and claim it’s your favourite?

@LoveGrooveDanceParty

Odd thread. Why would you choose a literary name, just because it’s ‘literary’, and not because you read a book, connected with the character and like the name?

If someone comes comes up with a name you like, are you going to scurry off, read the book and claim it’s your favourite?

Maybe they're writing a book and need a name for the firstborn of a well-read character. Maybe they're organising a pub quiz and want to see which characters are memorable. Maybe they're planning a literary-themed event and need recognisable characters. Maybe they're making a crossword.

Does it matter?

Surely most names have some sort of literary connection if you look. What books do you like and are there any names you can think as a starting point? Charlotte and James are literary, but so are Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin. Or Harper and Holden. Or Frodo and Galadriel.

OK, so that being the case, give the OP some suggestions @ThirdElephant.

Maybe they're writing a book and need a name for the firstborn of a well-read character. Maybe they're organising a pub quiz and want to see which characters are memorable. Maybe they're planning a literary-themed event and need recognisable characters. Maybe they're making a crossword.

Think it’s probably more likely that they’re looking for inspiration as they’ve said in the op. And it is silly to ask for ‘literary’ names. Probably the most used names in literature are something plain like John and Jane or similar.

Can you tell us a bit about what you like to read, OP?

@LoveGrooveDanceParty

OK, so that being the case, give the OP some suggestions *@ThirdElephant*.

I did.

And I'm not saying that is the case. I'm saying it could be.

Nancy (Blackett)
Huckleberry (Finn)

Heathcliff
Tybalt, Orlando, Sebastian, Lysander (Shakespeare)
Gabriel (Oak)
Dimitri, Alyosha (Alexei) (Bros Karamazov)
Tatiana (Larina - Eugene Onegin)
Bathsheba (Everdene)
Guinevere
Yseult
Ossian

Forgot Beatrice, Imogen and Viola from Shakespeare

Clover, Dorian, Johanna (What Katy Did)
Cecilia and Louisa (Hard Times)
Ishmael (Moby Dick)
Robinson (Crusoe)
Gulliver
Annabelle Lee, from the poem of the same name. Bit of an ill-fated one though.
Rudyard

Julia or Donald or David or Walliam

My daughter was named Hester as I was re-reading Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter when pregnant. Americans seem to find this weird!

D'arcy
Heathcliff
Linton
Hareton
Knightly
Atticus
Jem
Piggy
George
Lennie
Curley
Hamlet
Othello
Falstaff
Ulysses

Curley's Wife
Scout
Elinor
Ophelia
Cleopatra
Mistress Quickly
Lady Macbeth
Desdemona
Mariana
Aunt Clara

Thanks for suggestions so far! Just to confirm I didn’t ask this question for purposes of naming a child. I’m a teacher and writing a school play based on literary characters- was hoping this may be a source for more unusual names than the typical literary names that a quick google brings up!

Really love some of the suggestions, thanks!

@ThirdElephant

I like Laurie/Lawrence inspired by Little Women (though I don't think it was his actual name- I think it was his surname?) and also Josephine from the same book.

I'm sure there are more, but it's still early!

It was his surname - his first name was Theodore

Romola