Literary names

[tortoiseSHELL]

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

my two dds both have literary names:

one is called after a famous adultress
and the other is named after Byron's wife
if I have a third, she will be named after Rembrandt's wife
because I am a super-ponce

I remember looking at Shakespearean names when I was pregnant with ds2 - was very taken with Elbow and Moth.

Elbow and Moth would be brilliant names for dcs. Unless they were identical twins, in which case Elbow and Arse would be perfect.

My dd's name is from a Noel Streatfeild book.

I wanted Clover, but was shouted down.

Dh wouldn't let me have Darcy or Brandon for a boy, (disappointed Austen addict emoticon!)

Harpsi: Cleopatra? Mata Hari?

I have a Sylvia and Heidi, not after Plath or the book, just because we liked the names. Also a Dominic, there is a French book I read decades ago, but it wasn't from that.

no, it's the name of a book and a film
no more clues
Clover is great

oh I also wanted Clarissa but dh went and again
god I am a MEGA ponce

What literary names aren't there? (Well, I suppose Minky-Mae hasn't yet appeared anywhere.)

And now I come to think of it I can't think of a book with ds's name in it.

However, dd has The Literary Name of all time, I think - she is Laura.

I like Scarlett, and Darcy but DP doesn't
I also like Miranda, I read a book once where the childrens monkey was named Miranda after the Tempest.

What Lauras are there Bink? I can think of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Petrarch's Laura - are there more?

A friend DSs are Ruben and Byron.

Her DD is Kendal.

I wanted Clarissa too harpsi

Ones that did not make it onto any of our shortlists include

Jocasta
Antigone
Zuleika
Ethelberta (or indeed Bathsheba, or Jude)
Hannibal
Ulysses

Petrarch's one. Nearly 700 years of poetry inspired by hardly more than a name. Lesbia possibly only has the longer pedigree. Oh, and Catullus's one, who's that?

Alhough I do think Zeal-of-the-Land Busy might have suited dd quite well with hindsight

pauline, petrova and posy in ballet shoes?

Nope. (one of her middle names is Pauline, but that was after a dead auntie). A more obscure NS book.

Catullus's was Lesbia/Clodia.
I think Ovid had Corinna.

I have remembered another Laura - in The Woman in White.

(my dd is also Laura, hence my interest).

Shocking muddle there from me. The "longer pedigree" one I was thinking of was whomever it is that Sappho writes about - which I thought was Lesbia, which is such a gaffe I will now shrink into a hole.

Doesn't Flora-Lark-Rise-to-Candleford call herself Laura?

Threadworm your elbow and moth comment just made me snigger out loud

I think that my Eleanor was probably inspired by Sense and Sensibility. And Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Lesbos was the island where sappho lived I think.
There's Dante Beatrice

oh and I wanted Gabriel for a boy
or Kester (from Precious Bane)
or Dickon (not literary just poncey)

Googled the book about Dominique. It was the only novel written by Eugene Fromentin.