There’s a school project where we need to write from the perspective of a famous authors fictional sibling. I’m doing [name_f]Emily[/name_f] [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m], but am really struggling with what to call the character.
Emily’s siblings were called [name_u]William[/name_u] [name_u]Austin[/name_u] (Austin) and [name_f]Lavinia[/name_f] and her parents were [name_u]Edward[/name_u] and [name_f]Emily[/name_f]. I’ve looked through family names, but there isn’t really much.
Some ideas I’ve had are;
[name_f]Harriet[/name_f]
[name_f]Beatrice[/name_f]
[name_f]Adeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Alice[/name_f]
[name_f]Josephine[/name_f]
[name_f]Mabel[/name_f]
[name_f]Martha[/name_f]
[name_f]Violet[/name_f]
But I’m not really sure which of these go the best with the original names, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
@decembersmoon this post was made for you to answer! I know you’ll have some great ideas!
That’s so fun! I’m obsessed with the show [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] so I know quite a bit about that family lmao. [name_f]Emily[/name_f] [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] was named after her mother (as you can guess), [name_f]Lavinia[/name_f] [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] was named after her mother’s sister [name_f]Lavinia[/name_f], and according to a quick Google search, [name_u]Austin[/name_u] [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] was named after his father’s brother William/his mother’s brother William/his mother’s brother [name_u]Austin[/name_u]. I think if they had more kids they would most likely name them after their siblings again. That means a son could be [name_m]Samuel[/name_m], [name_u]Timothy[/name_u], [name_m]Frederick[/name_m], [name_m]Hiram[/name_m], [name_u]Eli[/name_u], [name_m]Alfred[/name_m], [name_m]Joel[/name_m], [name_m]Otis[/name_m] or [name_u]George[/name_u] and a daughter could be [name_f]Lucretia[/name_f], [name_f]Mary[/name_f], [name_f]Catharine[/name_f], [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], [name_f]Fay[/name_f], [name_f]Elvira[/name_f], or [name_f]Nancy[/name_f]. What I personally think fits best is [name_m]Samuel[/name_m], [name_m]Otis[/name_m] or [name_m]Frederick[/name_m] for a boy and [name_f]Fay[/name_f] or [name_f]Catharine[/name_f] for a girl. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] this helps!
This is such a cool assignment! I love the whole [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] family lore as well as names of the period. I think your list is perfect. Any of those choices are sublime, but I do think a few stand out as really great matches. I’ll write a bit more about those below…
1: [name_f]Harriet[/name_f] - I think this is a perfect bridge between the various styles of the elder three. Feminine and interesting, fits right in!
2: [name_f]Josephine[/name_f] - Also a good bridge between the styles of the other three. Plus, comes with a sweet, bouncy nickname (Jo) to match older sisters’ nicknames (Em and Vinnie)!
3: [name_f]Alice[/name_f] - Very much fits the style of the era, also feels just as sweet and spunky as sisters’ names. The flow with [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] as a last name is particularly great here!
And now, here are a few other ideas! The [name_m]Dickinson[/name_m] children are named after relatives, so I’ll list out a few names that would have been potential contenders, I’d imagine, for a third daughter.
[name_f]Lucretia[/name_f] (paternal grandmother)
[name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], nicknamed [name_f]Betsy[/name_f] (maternal grandmother)
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[name_f]Harriet[/name_f], [name_f]Alice[/name_f] and [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f] work really well to me.