silly topic: Feminist Girls' names?

[blackcurrants]

I'm in a rather silly mood today - lighthearted topic time!

I mentioned on the 'which political parties' thread that my fabulously egalitarian DH has put a moratorium on my (mainly humorous) suggestions for feminist-heroine baby names. So sorry, Millicent Fawcett - no Millies in my house. Ditty Emmelines, even though Mrs Pankhurst was kinda awesome. Why? Cos his DS is Emily and it would be 'too confusing'...
Also no Florence (though Flo Nightingale's status as 'feminist' is a bit questionable), no Margaret.. basically, as he put it, 'no old lady names!'. Damnit, before I'd even suggested Edith!

So, which girls' names do you love that are strong, graceful, and sound like they could grow up to run the country/build their own empires in the future?

(Disclaimer: we might have a DS and that's ok, cos we've got a couple of boys' names that we mutually love. If it's a DD, though, the shortlist is rather less certain. No pressure, though - you're not actually NAMING our DD for us, I just like hearing cool girls' names, and if they're associated with strong, awesome women, all the better!)

Is it not more feministy to give all children unisex names?

I mean why should future employers/exam markers etc know a person's sex by their name?

There is evidence that girls with 'girly' names are discriminated against compared to more masculine sounding names such as those ending with consonants.

But in the spirit of the thread...

I like
Charlotte (Perkins Gilman)
Mary (Wollstonecroft)
Athena (the greek goddess)
Delilah

Or you could make one up

Dungaria perhaps

Amelia or Amy if you like flying heroines.

stumbled upon this. She sounds like an amazing woman but under no circumstances would I name a child Geraldyn.

Bessie (Braddock)?

ROFL @ "Dungaria"

BOF: I smirked, if that makes you feel better?

Eleanor (of Aquitaine, Rathbone, Marx and Roosevelt)

Simone (de Beauvoir)

Sylvia (Pankhurst)

What about literary heroines? Lots of Shakespeare's women are very strong characters who don't conform to expectations of femininity - Portia, Rosalind, Juliet, Miranda, Viola, Cleopatra.

He might not go for Lady Macbeth though.

Mae (West) don't know if she was a feminist but she always struck me that she took no shit.

I'll take a smirk if I can't gat a ROFL

BOF, I'm so dense I didn't get it

My DD is Lilith as well Ghosts, I love the story and wanted a feminist name which is also pretty. Apparently she was a Mesopotamian or Sumerian Goddess before her legend was corrupted (like the witches)

I can't wait to tell her the story of her name (she's 4 months!)

Mis sojourner stwat...

OH!

Marion Halcombe in Wilkie Collins The Woman in White is pretty fab (although efemulated - ^is there an equivalent to 'emasculated' - at the end iirc)

Not exactly, erm, fashionable though

Thought I was losing my touch

GhostInTheBackOfYourHead love that name

baboom BOF!

BoF - I sniggered - will that do?

OBM - Marion in The Woman In White is brilliant, I agree.
My cleaner is called Marion too and she can mend tractors.

Dungaria is rather pretty.

Hands off Aphra - I love it and we're using it if we have a girl! it's unusual and lovely and we're having it. Plus, she was a spy as well as a playwright - so cool.

We're considering Ada too, mind, but Aphra is the front-runner for a girl's name.

The thing is that we want a boy's name that is not (too) associated with hacking & slaying - does that also count as a feminist wish? So far we have considered names like Alfred (wise king), Isaac (Newton and Asimov, for their learning), and the current front-runner Theodore (the nearest we can sensibly get towards Theodoric the Great, king of the goths; obviously was a warrior too, but big on law and peace and one of DP's fave historical characters).

comixminx - me and my DP have had similar conversations about Theodoric It's his favourite name (though apparently he was king of the Austro-goths) and Theodore is our compromise name.

I love Aphra (well having written a whole PhD on the woman I feel close to her...), would have considered it for a girl.....