Need Names from Jane Austen's Time!

Writers' Corner
1

:slight_smile: I am writing a book that’s set in the 1800’s [name]England[/name] and the setting would be out of a [name]Jane[/name] [name]Austen[/name]!
Currently obsessed with [name]Jane[/name] [name]Austen[/name] and kinda always have been! :smiley:

My MC family’s last name is the Sweet.

[name]Esther[/name] [name]Naomi[/name] Sweet - main character
[name]George[/name] [name]Isaac[/name] Sweet
[name]Matthew[/name] [name]Benedict[/name] Sweet
[name]Louis[/name] [name]Uriah[/name] Sweet
[name]Simon[/name] [name]Gabriel[/name] Sweet

Loving Parents:
Mr. [name]Benedict[/name] Sweet
Mrs. [name]Caroline[/name] Sweet
plus the family dog & cat: Chester & Minny

But I’m stuck with names for minor characters? I have the people but they don’t have any names.
I need old, victorian-ish names for men, women and children!
It would be super helpful! thanks!
I would like to hear how you like the names i’ve already chosen.

2

Not all of your names ring true for me at the moment
maybe it’s just me, but [name]Morgan[/name] and possibly Levo jar a little bit for me.

Girls names
[name]Agatha[/name]
[name]Alice[/name]
[name]Amelia[/name]
[name]Bertha[/name]
[name]Bridget[/name]
[name]Caroline[/name]
[name]Cecilia[/name]
[name]Clara[/name]
[name]Claudia[/name]
[name]Daphne[/name]
[name]Dorothea[/name]
[name]Emma[/name]
[name]Esther[/name]
[name]Elizabeth[/name]
[name]Georgiana[/name]
[name]Harriet[/name]
[name]Isabel[/name]
[name]Julia[/name]
[name]Lydia[/name]
[name]Margaret[/name]
[name]Mary[/name]
[name]Matilda[/name]
[name]Penelope[/name]
[name]Rebecca[/name]
[name]Sophia[/name]

Boys’ names
[name]Arthur[/name]
[name]Augustus[/name]
[name]Charles[/name]
[name]Christopher[/name]
[name]Edgar[/name]
[name]Edmund[/name]
[name]Edward[/name]
[name]Frank[/name]
[name]Frederick[/name]
[name]George[/name]
[name]Henry[/name]
[name]James[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Philip[/name]
[name]Richard[/name]
[name]Robert[/name]
[name]Sidney[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]Walter[/name]
[name]William[/name]

Try this list of Georgian names

3

These are from a book of mine which lists the most popular names of the 1700s:

Girls: [name]Mary[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Ann[/name], [name]Sarah[/name], [name]Jane[/name], [name]Margaret[/name], [name]Susan[/name], [name]Martha[/name], [name]Hannah[/name], [name]Catherine[/name], [name]Alice[/name], [name]Frances[/name], [name]Eleanor[/name], [name]Dorothy[/name], [name]Isabel[/name], [name]Grace[/name], [name]Joan[/name], [name]Rachel[/name], [name]Agnes[/name], [name]Ellen[/name], [name]Maria[/name], [name]Lydia[/name], [name]Ruth[/name], [name]Deborah[/name], [name]Judith[/name], [name]Joanna[/name], [name]Marjorie[/name], [name]Jenny[/name], [name]Barbara[/name], [name]Bridget[/name], [name]Lucy[/name], [name]Eliza[/name], [name]Nancy[/name], [name]Emma[/name], [name]Charlotte[/name], [name]Dinah[/name], [name]Sally[/name], [name]Harriet[/name], [name]Caroline[/name]

Boys: [name]John[/name], [name]William[/name], [name]Thomas[/name], [name]Richard[/name], [name]James[/name], [name]Robert[/name], [name]Joseph[/name], [name]Edward[/name], [name]Henry[/name], [name]Samuel[/name], [name]Francis[/name], [name]Charles[/name], [name]Daniel[/name], [name]Benjamin[/name], [name]Edmund[/name], [name]Matthew[/name], [name]Peter[/name], [name]Nicholas[/name], [name]Christopher[/name], [name]Abraham[/name], [name]Jonathan[/name], [name]Philip[/name], [name]Michael[/name], [name]Hugh[/name], [name]Joshua[/name], [name]Anthony[/name], [name]Ralph[/name], [name]Andrew[/name], [name]David[/name], [name]Roger[/name], [name]Alexander[/name], [name]Laurence[/name], [name]Nathaniel[/name], [name]Walter[/name], [name]Timothy[/name], [name]Martin[/name], [name]Luke[/name]

As for the names you already have I think they’re generally fine, but [name]Rosemary[/name], [name]Chester[/name] and [name]Morgan[/name] seem to stand out. In all my years of doing family research, I’ve never really come across these names pre-1850s. That’s not to say they weren’t used, it’s just they weren’t very common at all. Also, [name]George[/name] [name]Chester[/name] looks like the odd one out because he doesn’t have a biblical name, yet his siblings do.

Good luck with your writing :slight_smile:

4

I’m not sure about the [name]Rebecca[/name] part, so try something like [name]Margaret[/name] nn [name]Maggie[/name] for one of the girls, and try names like [name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Edward[/name], and [name]James[/name] for the guys.

5

http://www.jobev.com/regname.html

This is a really useful list of names around the late Georgian/Regency period. As you can see, there wasn’t a lot of variation, especially for women.

[name]Rebecca[/name] is okay for a girl, and [name]Susannah[/name], but as that link points out Old Testament names weren’t generally used by the upper classes. So it depends on what class your family belongs to, as well.

Be very careful and err on the side of conservative, because if anything pulls people out of a historical story it’s anachronistic names. They WERE all called [name]Jane[/name] and [name]Mary[/name], it’s just how it was.

6

Minerva (possible nn, Min), Lavinia (Vina or Vinney), and Beatrice come to mind.
Also Katherine, Virginia, Coralie, Marjorie, Nicholas, Tobias, Jasper, Sebastien, even Corbin. Classics never steer you wrong!!

I really like the Esther, Benedict, Chester references - they seem to really fit :slight_smile:

7

[name]Adelaide[/name]
[name]Amy[/name]
[name]Arabella[/name]
[name]Augusta[/name]
[name]Christiana[/name]
[name]Diana[/name]
[name]Euphemia[/name]
[name]Fanny[/name]
[name]Helena[/name]
[name]Henrietta[/name]
[name]Hester[/name]
[name]Jemima[/name]
[name]Kitty[/name]
[name]Louisa[/name]
[name]Margery[/name]
[name]Marianne[/name]
[name]Olivia[/name]
[name]Patience[/name]
[name]Phoebe[/name]
[name]Selina[/name]
[name]Susanna[/name]
[name]Theodosia[/name]
[name]Wilhelmina[/name]

[name]Allan[/name]
[name]Ambrose[/name]
[name]Bartholomew[/name]
[name]Cornelius[/name]
[name]Cuthbert[/name]
[name]Erasmus[/name]
[name]Ernest[/name]
[name]Gabriel[/name]
[name]Giles[/name]
[name]Horatio[/name]
[name]Humphrey[/name]
[name]Isaac[/name]
[name]Jonas[/name]
[name]Leonard[/name]
[name]Louis[/name]
[name]Mark[/name]
[name]Marmaduke[/name]
[name]Miles[/name]
[name]Moses[/name]
[name]Nathan[/name]
[name]Octavius[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Stephen[/name]
[name]Theophilus[/name]
[name]Valentine[/name]