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

harpsi - I read a book as a child with a Dickon in it, or possibly a Diccon? no a Dickon, and a Perdita, and I've never been able to find it again. So it is a literary name

• actually it's also in The Secret Garden, so pace hanaflower's wonderful question, it is indeed a literary name

Is it The Armourer's House by Rosemary Sutcliffe? Or have we already had that discussion?

We haven't had that, Kathy6" ... I've whined about having lost the book a number of times on here & nowt has come of it ... till now ...

oh yes! so it is

Kathy ... I have done some further work with your clue, and I don't think it is The Armourer's House - but I DO think it is RS's very first novel, The Queen Elizabeth Story!

What reward would you like?

Titty, Roger, Susan and Peter? (Arthur Ransome)

Susan, Peter, Edmund, Lucy (CS Lewis)

Lolita? (kidding)

I knwo sisters Esther and Ada, from Charles Dickens I believe? Total coincidence anyway!

I love Bathsheba (Thomas Hardy) for a girl!

I wanted Clover, but Dh said no.

I have one from George Elliott.

And one from, er, Roald Dahl.

have heard of a wee girl called Bronte

Oh I adore Bathsheba, Belgo.

I did seriously contemplate it, in that phase where everything goes - before reality hits in and you realise you have to give your child a workable name...

roald dahl is valid - George and Matilda to name but a few

Anne of green gables also had the swoony
Gilbert Blyth
Diana the best friend
Matthew the foster dad (can't remember the name of his sister but still wept when he died in the field with the cows)

dizzy.

shirley
villette
heathcliffe
angel

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.

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.

syllable, doh!

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

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)

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

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

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.

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