Bookish name questions

[Greyblue]

[name_m]Hi[/name_m] everyone!

Some bookish name questions for you today!! [name_m]Feel[/name_m] free to answer only those that interest you or that you have an answer for!!

1. What are your all time favourite character names (and what books are they from)?

2. What are your favourite character names that you’ve discovered this year?

3. What are some character names that don’t quite “work” for you in some way? (whether that’s based on personality, siblings, time period etc.)

4. What are your favourite place names from books?

5. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any author names that you like?

6. Books with just a great set of names?

Apolgies to those who aren’t into.reading, but anyone is welcome to take the questions and adapt them for other interests

Thanks everyone!

[clair.de.lune]

What are your all time favourite character names (and what books are they from)?

[name_f]Josephine[/name_f] + [name_f]Amy[/name_f] (Little Women), [name_m]Nathaniel[/name_m] ‘Nat’ (Little Men)
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f], [name_f]Maruca[/name_f], [name_m]Keefe[/name_m] (Keeper of the Lost Cities)
[name_f]Heidi[/name_f] (Heidi)
[name_f]Alice[/name_f] + [name_f]Dinah[/name_f] (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
[name_u]Kitty[/name_u], [name_f]Lydia[/name_f], [name_m]Fitzwilliam[/name_m], [name_f]Georgiana[/name_f], [name_u]Darcy[/name_u] (Pride and Prejudice)
[name_f]Lucy[/name_f], [name_m]Caspian[/name_m], [name_m]Edmund[/name_m], [name_f]Jill[/name_f], [name_m]Eustace[/name_m] (The Chronicles of Narnia)

What are your favourite character names that you’ve discovered this year?

[name_m]Inali[/name_m], [name_f]Hialeah[/name_f], Fyrian, [name_f]Azura[/name_f], [name_f]Enid[/name_f], [name_u]Xan[/name_u], [name_f]Ignatia[/name_f]

What are some character names that don’t quite “work” for you in some way? (whether that’s based on personality, siblings, time period etc.)

Honestly, I’ve come to love all of the characters’ names in my books, and I do think they reflect the characters!

What are your favourite place names from books?

[name_f]Narnia[/name_f], Telmar, Lumenaria, and Wonderland, to name a few!

[name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any author names that you like?

[name_f]Louisa[/name_f] [name_f]May[/name_f] [name_u]Alcott[/name_u], [name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_u]Austen[/name_u], [name_f]Enid[/name_f] Blyton, and [name_f]Frances[/name_f] [name_m]Hodgson[/name_m] [name_m]Burnett[/name_m]

Books with just a great set of names?

The [name_u]Pevensie[/name_u] siblings and the [name_u]March[/name_u] sisters have wonderfully cohesive names! I also love the way [name_f]Alice[/name_f] in Wonderland keeps with the quirky theme while still being mystical!

[Rosebeth]

What are your all time favourite character names (and what books are they from)?

[name_m]Alexei[/name_m] “Alyosha” - The brothers Karamazov
[name_f]Katerina[/name_f] “Kitty” & [name_u]Konstantin[/name_u] - [name_f]Anna[/name_f] Karenina
[name_m]Justus[/name_m] [name_m]Johann[/name_m] [name_m]Kaspar[/name_m] “Hanno” - The Buddenbrooks

What are your favourite character names that you’ve discovered this year?

[name_m]Hamnet[/name_m] - Not the first tome I heard of it, but reading the book just made me fall in love with it

[name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any author names that you like?

[name_f]Agatha[/name_f] [name_u]Christie[/name_u]
Arnaldur Indriðason (Icelandic writer - his name sounds so pleasant when said out loud)
[name_u]James[/name_u] [name_u]Baldwin[/name_u]
[name_u]Henry[/name_u] [name_u]David[/name_u] [name_u]Thoreau[/name_u]
[name_u]John[/name_u] [name_u]Keats[/name_u]

Books with just a great set of names?

[name_m]Hamnet[/name_m] - [name_f]Maggie[/name_f] O’Farrell
The song of [name_m]Achilles[/name_m] - [name_f]Madeline[/name_f] [name_u]Miller[/name_u]
Any classic Russian novel

[Greyblue]

@clair.de.lune thank you for answering [name_f]Josephine[/name_f] and [name_f]Amy[/name_f] are wonderful! I adore [name_f]Heidi[/name_f], [name_f]Lucy[/name_f], [name_m]Caspian[/name_m], [name_u]Kitty[/name_u], [name_f]Lydia[/name_f], [name_f]Georgiana[/name_f] and [name_u]Darcy[/name_u] too!!
And those names from this year are so cool - especially [name_f]Ignatia[/name_f], [name_f]Azura[/name_f], [name_m]Inali[/name_m], [name_f]Hialeah[/name_f] and [name_f]Enid[/name_f]!
[name_f]Louisa[/name_f] [name_f]May[/name_f] [name_u]Alcott[/name_u] is such a stunning name to have!

@Rosebeth thank you for answering!! [name_f]Katerina[/name_f] and [name_u]Konstantin[/name_u] are great and [name_m]Alexei[/name_m] ‘Alyosha’ is very cool - Russian nicknames are fascinating. [name_u]Love[/name_u] [name_m]Hamnet[/name_m] too - distinct and interesting (and a great book!) - oh, and [name_u]Keats[/name_u] - [name_u]Keats[/name_u] is wonderful
This reminds me that I reallllly need to try classic Russian lit again

[persephonescrown]

What are your all time favourite character names (and what books are they from)?

[name_m]Caspian[/name_m] (Chronicles of Narnia)
[name_m]Frederick[/name_m] (Persuasion)
[name_m]Orlando[/name_m] (Orlando, As You Like It)
[name_m]Aloysius[/name_m], [name_m]Sebastian[/name_m] (Brideshead Revisited)
[name_m]Sherlock[/name_m] (Sherlock Holmes)
[name_m]Theobald[/name_m] nn [name_f]Tibby[/name_f] (Howard’s End)
[name_u]Loveday[/name_u] (The [name_m]Little[/name_m] White Horse, Nancherrow)
[name_f]Hatty[/name_f] (Tom’s [name_u]Midnight[/name_u] Garden)
[name_f]Amalthea[/name_f] (The Last Unicorn)
Karigan (Green Rider)
[name_f]Eowyn[/name_f] (Lord of the Rings)
[name_f]Phryne[/name_f] (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries)
[name_f]Ysabeau[/name_f] (All Souls trilogy)

What are your favourite character names that you’ve discovered this year?

I really haven’t read a lot this year tbh but one I’m newly appreciating is [name_f]Lucienne[/name_f] (The Sandman).

What are some character names that don’t quite “work” for you in some way? (whether that’s based on personality, siblings, time period etc.)

I feel like [name_m]Simon[/name_m] is a disappointing name for the duke in Bridgerton

What are your favourite place names from books?

Pemberley, Cair Paravel, Moonacre, Nancherrow, Ithilien

[name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any author names that you like?

[name_f]Jane[/name_f] [name_u]Austen[/name_u], [name_f]Cicely[/name_f] [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_m]Barker[/name_m], [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] [name_m]Townsend[/name_m] [name_m]Warner[/name_m], [name_f]Virginia[/name_f] [name_m]Woolf[/name_m], [name_u]Evelyn[/name_u] Waugh

Books with just a great set of names?

A classic but I do love [name_f]Meg[/name_f], [name_u]Jo[/name_u], [name_f]Beth[/name_f], [name_f]Amy[/name_f] and [name_u]Laurie[/name_u]! (Little Women)

[name_m]Cyril[/name_m] nn Squirrel, [name_f]Anthea[/name_f] nn Panther, [name_u]Robert[/name_u] nn Bobs, [name_f]Jane[/name_f] nn Pussy, and [name_u]Hilary[/name_u] nn the Lamb (Five Children and It)

[name_f]Diana[/name_f], [name_m]Matthew[/name_m], [name_f]Ysabeau[/name_f], [name_m]Marcus[/name_m], [name_m]Hamish[/name_m], [name_f]Miriam[/name_f], [name_f]Sarah[/name_f], [name_f]Em[/name_f], Philippe…could go on! (All Souls)

[name_m]Orlando[/name_m], [name_u]Sasha[/name_u], [name_f]Harriet[/name_f] and [name_m]Marmaduke[/name_m] Bonthrop Shelmerdine (Orlando)

[Greyblue]

@persephonescrown thank you for answering!! [name_m]Orlando[/name_m], [name_m]Caspian[/name_m], Karigan, [name_f]Eowyn[/name_f] and [name_f]Ysabeau[/name_f] are fabulous and I love the sound of Pemberly and Cair Paravel!

[EdgeOfTheMeadow]

Books with just a great set of names?

I’m reading my way through my late Grandma’s [name_f]Georgette[/name_f] Heyer collection. Starting with the author herself, I really rate the name [name_f]Georgette[/name_f] (and Georgetta) and I’d root for this to make a comeback! She wrote in the mid 1900s about the Regency [name_f]Era[/name_f]. I’ve read about how historically accurate her work is in terms of the lifestyle and vernacular of the day, I hope this applies to her name choices too. Nonetheless, they’re amazing!

In The [name_u]Unknown[/name_u] [name_m]Ajax[/name_m] there are matriarchs [name_f]Elvira[/name_f] and [name_f]Aurelia[/name_f]. Elvira’s children are called [name_f]Anthea[/name_f] and [name_m]Richmond[/name_m]. [name_f]Aurelia[/name_f] has a brother named [name_m]Claud[/name_m] (no ‘e’!) and children named [name_m]Vincent[/name_m] and [name_m]Claud[/name_m].
The main character is [name_m]Hugo[/name_m], who is named after his father and Elvira’s brother.

[name_m]Ajax[/name_m] isn't a character's name

It’s used as a pejorative nickname for the main character.

In [name_f]Venetia[/name_f], the titular character has brothers named [name_m]Conway[/name_m] and [name_u]Aubry[/name_u].

[Greyblue]

@EdgeOfTheMeadow [name_f]Georgette[/name_f] is fabulous - there’s a [name_f]Georgette[/name_f] in one of my fave books and I always thought it was sort of clunky-cute but somehow stylish too.

What a great family set too - [name_f]Elvira[/name_f] and Aurelia!! [name_f]Anthea[/name_f] - Richmond!! [name_m]Claud[/name_m] and [name_m]Vincent[/name_m] are very charming too. And [name_m]Conway[/name_m] and [name_u]Aubry[/name_u] very NB-esque!

[name_m]Ajax[/name_m] is an intriguing nickname - funnily enough, there’s another [name_m]Ajax[/name_m] in literature whose name isn’t really [name_m]Ajax[/name_m]. In [name_u]Toni[/name_u] Morrison’s [name_f]Sula[/name_f], there’s an [name_m]Ajax[/name_m], whose real name is [name_m]Albert[/name_m] Jacks, but the mc hears ‘A Jacks’ and just assumes it’s [name_m]Ajax[/name_m]!

[soleil_de_minuit]

[name_f]My[/name_f] all time favourite character names are probably…
[name_m]Selwyn[/name_m] (Legendborn)
[name_f]Primrose[/name_f] (Hunger Games)
Celaena (Throne of Glass)
[name_u]William[/name_u] [name_u]Will[/name_u] (the Infernal Devices)
[name_u]James[/name_u] [name_u]Jem[/name_u] (the Infernal Devices)
[name_f]Clarissa[/name_f] [name_f]Clary[/name_f] (the Mortal Instruments)
[name_f]Livia[/name_f] [name_f]Livvy[/name_f] (The [name_u]Dark[/name_u] Artifices)
[name_m]Tiberius[/name_m] [name_m]Ty[/name_m] (The [name_u]Dark[/name_u] Artifices)
[name_f]Drusilla[/name_f] [name_u]Dru[/name_u] (The [name_u]Dark[/name_u] Artifices)
[name_m]Octavian[/name_m] Tavvy (The [name_u]Dark[/name_u] Artifices)
[name_f]Christina[/name_f] (The [name_u]Dark[/name_u] Artifices)
Kaz (Six of Crows)
Inej (Six of Crows)
[name_u]Maven[/name_u] (The [name_u]Fire[/name_u] Star)

That I’ve discovered this year?
I discovered [name_u]Maven[/name_u], Inej, and Kaz this year.

I love [name_u]Jasper[/name_u] Fforde’s name!

All the Shadowhunter books have fantastic names (In fact, all books by [name_f]Cassandra[/name_f] Clare)! Throne of Glass also has a great set of names!

[Greyblue]

@soleil_de_minuit [name_m]Selwyn[/name_m], [name_f]Livia[/name_f], [name_f]Clarissa[/name_f] ‘Clary’, Kaz and [name_u]Maven[/name_u] are wonderful!! Thank you for sharing

[Zeno8]

Fun to think about these!! Surnames are definitely important to a lot of these…would answer differently if just going for names I’d use! Curious for yours @Greyblue !

What are your all time favourite character names (and what books are they from)?

Elizabeth Bennett! (Pride and Prejudice)
+Charlotte Lucas, Caroline Bingley, Fitzwilliam Darcy

Sybilla and Ludo (The Last Samurai)

Rafaella Cerullo nn Lila (My Brilliant Friend / The Neapolitan Novels)

Kenneth Widmerpool, this one not as a name I like exactly, but so memorable for this great villain type (A Dance to the Music of Time)
+Sunny Farebrother from the same books

Lucy Honeychurch, George Emerson, Eleanor Lavish (A Room with a View)

Charles Swann, Marcel, Odette, Gilberte, Albertine (In Search of Lost Time)

Pierre, Natasha, Anatole (War and Peace)

Ramona Geraldine Quimby! Plus Beatrice and Howie (the Ramona books)

A fun sibling set, including girls Anne, Ernestine, Martha, Lillian, and Jane (Cheaper by the Dozen)

Lyra Belacqua (His Dark Materials)

Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby, of course)

What are your favourite character names that you’ve discovered this year?

Ruth Wilcox, Helen and Margaret Schlegel, and Theobald “Tibby” Schlegel! (Howards End)

What are some character names that don’t quite “work” for you in some way? (whether that’s based on personality, siblings, time period etc.)

Leonard Bast in Howards End — just a bit flat and cardboard seeming
Pamela Flitton in A Dance to the Music of Time — seems too on-the-nose
Elinor in Sense & Sensibility — distracted by that spelling!

What are your favourite place names from books?

Pemberley!
Winterfell

Do you have any author names that you like?

Jane Austen
Jules Verne
Tove Jansson
Penelope Fitzgerald
Iris Murdoch
Oscar Wilde

Books with just a great set of names

Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time! Such a great world of names…surnames are a big part of it, and one drawback is so few female characters!

(Kenneth Widmerpool, Sunny Farebrother, Charles Stringham, Peter Templer, Jean Templer, Hugh Moreland, Dicky Umfraville, Edgar Deacon, St. John Clarke, JG Quiggin, Mark Members, Sir Magnus Donners, Isobel Tolland, Norah Tolland, Eleanor Walpole-Wilson…so many memorable ones. Also one volume with a name in the title: At Lady Molly’s.

Also an occultist in those books named Dr. Trelawney had to be inspiration for Trelawney in HP?!)

[Zeno8]

[name_f]Elena[/name_f] [name_m]Ferrante[/name_m] is also a great author name, even more so because it’s a pseudonym! Obliquely honoring the writer [name_f]Elsa[/name_f] Morante, so the theory goes

[Greyblue]

@zeno8 thank you for answering!! Elizabeth Bennett and Caroline Bingley do have such a great sound! Rafaella Cerullo is gorgeous, Kenneth Widmerpool is an excellent villain name and Sunny Farebrother is charming!
And the names from Room with A View are fabulous - I thought that when I read it!
Ramona Geraldine Quimby is such a bold name - I like it - and Lyra Belacqua has always appealed Jay Gatsby is such a sparky one too!
Tove Jansson is a wonderful name, as are Jules Verne and Oscar Wilde!

@Zeno8

Curious for yours @Greyblue

I will do mine now

[Greyblue]

My answers for those interested!!

1. What are your all time favourite character names (and what books are they from)?

Ginevra Fanshawe and Lucy Snowe (Villette by Charlotte Bronte - no surprise to anyone there )

Ozias Midwinter and Franklin Blake (The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins)

Hareton (Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - an acquired taste, but you know)

Wilhelmina ‘Mina’ and Quincey P Morris (Dracula - Bram Stoker)

Katri (The True Deceiver - Tove Jansson)

Lux (Winter - Ali Smith)

Hester Rose (Sylvia’s Lovers - Elizabeth Gaskell)

Jam, Aloe, Redemption, Malachite, Hibiscus and Moss (Pet - Akwaeke Emezi)

Robin, Anthea and Imogen (girl meets boy - Ali Smith)

2. What are your favourite character names that you’ve discovered this year?

Valentine Blythe (Hide and Seek - Wilkie Collins)

Crispin (Despised and Rejected - Rose Allatini)

Denver and Sethe (Beloved - Toni Morrison)

Irina, Florence and Finch (Boy Parts - Eliza Clark)

3. What are some character names that don’t quite “work” for you in some way? (whether that’s based on personality, siblings, time period etc.)

I feel like this is an unpopular opinion, but it really bothers me that all the March sisters have long names with short nicknames besides Amy. Like, I think Amy suits her, but I want her to be an Amelia ‘Amy’ or something, since the others are Margaret, Josephine and Elizabeth

4. What are your favourite place names from books?

East Lynne, Manderley, Lucille and Cair Paravel

5. Do you have any author names that you like?

I know they’re aliases, but Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell are very cool. And Bronte, of course.

I like Wilkie Collins, Judy Blume, Brontez Purnell, Candice Carty-Williams, Harper Lee, Virginia Woolf, Jamaica Kincaid, Ocean Vuong and Christopher Marlowe

6. Books with just a great set of names?

I love the names from The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennet: Stella, Desiree, Adele, Jude, Reese, Kennedy, Blake, Early

Also:

The Prophets by Robert Jones JR: Samuel, Isaiah, Amos, Essie

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston: August Landry, Biyu ‘Jane’ Su, Niko, Myla, Isaiah, Wes

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters: Nancy ‘Nan’, Kitty, Florence, Diana, Davy, Ralph, Cyril, Zena

The Accidental by Ali Smith: Alhambra/Amber, Eve, Astrid and Magnus

[Zeno8]

Oooh [name_f]Katri[/name_f] is a great one! And I love this unpopular opinion re: [name_m]Little[/name_m] Women…good point

[Zeno8]

[name_f]Judy[/name_f] [name_f]Blume[/name_f] is a great name too. So succinct and evocative

[camellia1]

What are your all time favourite character names?

[name_f]Theodora[/name_f] (The Haunting of [name_m]Hill[/name_m] House)
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] ‘Mina’ (Dracula)
[name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] ‘Merricat’ (We Have Always Lived in the [name_m]Castle[/name_m])
[name_f]Cosette[/name_f] and [name_m]Marius[/name_m] ([name_u]Les[/name_u] Misérables)
[name_f]Louisa[/name_f] and [name_f]Henrietta[/name_f] (Persuasion)
[name_f]Eulalie[/name_f] and [name_f]Lenore[/name_f] (from [name_u]Poe[/name_u] poems)
[name_f]Celia[/name_f] (Middlemarch & As You Like It)
[name_u]Willoughby[/name_u] (Sense & Sensibility)

What are some character names that don’t quite “work” for you in some way?

I agree about [name_f]Amy[/name_f] in [name_m]Little[/name_m] Women! That always bugged me. In my head she is [name_f]Amelia[/name_f] nn [name_f]Amy[/name_f].

What are your favourite place names from books?

Wildfell [name_m]Hall[/name_m] stands out. There’s also so many nice place names in ASOIAF. Meereen, Sunspear, Highgarden, [name_f]Lys[/name_f], Summerhall, Valyria, etc.

[name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any author names that you like?

A ton!

[name_m]Byron[/name_m], [name_u]Emerson[/name_u], [name_m]Emile[/name_m], [name_m]Hugo[/name_m], [name_f]Louisa[/name_f], [name_m]Tennyson[/name_m], [name_f]Ursula[/name_f], [name_f]Willa[/name_f], [name_f]Zora[/name_f]

Books with just a great set of names?

—The [name_u]Night[/name_u] World Series by L.J. [name_m]Smith[/name_m]! I credit that series for getting me into names as a teenager and I still love most of them even if my style has expanded a lot.

—All of Shakespeare’s works. Absolutely love most names in his plays.

—Anne of [name_u]Green[/name_u] Gables has a plethora of fantastic names.

[Amber_Joy]

I feel I need to think more on this post! But to question 5 I really like the author names [name_m]Orson[/name_m] [name_u]Scott[/name_u] [name_m]Card[/name_m] & [name_m]Ian[/name_m] [name_m]Fleming[/name_m].

[Greyblue]

@carmella [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] ‘Merricat’ is so cool! I like [name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f], [name_f]Cosette[/name_f], [name_m]Marius[/name_m], [name_f]Celia[/name_f] and Wiloughby too! [name_f]Glad[/name_f] I’m not the only one to find [name_f]Amy[/name_f] jarring [name_m]Byron[/name_m], [name_m]Hugo[/name_m], [name_m]Tennyson[/name_m], [name_f]Willa[/name_f], [name_f]Zora[/name_f] and [name_u]Emerson[/name_u] are great!!

@Amber_Joy [name_m]Orson[/name_m] [name_u]Scott[/name_u] [name_m]Card[/name_m] is very cool

[shanade213]

1. [name_f]Linnea[/name_f] from [name_f]Linnea[/name_f] in Monet’s Garden
2. [name_f]Thisbe[/name_f] from The [name_m]Scorpio[/name_m] Races, Rivendell from The Hobbit
3. The [name_u]Dark[/name_u] Artifices by [name_f]Cassandra[/name_f] [name_u]Clare[/name_u]