Earlier today we discussed Jenny Grace’s question about the name Eloise. At the beginning of that question she writes “I have been VERY MUCH enjoying the discussion of various names that originate in children’s literature, such as Heidi, Wendy, Alice, Dorothy, the names from The Children’s Hour, the names of the Little Women, stuff like that. And…um…some boys’ names too I suppose (not really, I’m not good at naming boys),” and at the end of that question she writes: “I also want to know what you’re favorite literature-based names are, if you have any.” I thought we should have that as its own separate discussion.
Let’s see…my own favorite names from children’s literature seem to be mostly girl names. Josephine for sure, from Little Women, and Margaret/Meg from there too. Genevieve from the Madeline books: even though Genevieve is the dog, it was when I was reading those books (as an adult, reading them to a child) that I thought, “…Hey, the name Genevieve is pretty awesome.” Anastasia from the Lois Lowry series. Margaret/Meg and Charles from A Wrinkle in Time—with conflicting feelings about preferring the nickname Charlie, which would be incompatible with naming a baby in honor of the book. Fern from Charlotte’s Web. Frances from the Russell and Lillian Hoban books. Phronsie (short for Sophronia) from The Five Little Peppers. Phoebe from The Children Who Stayed Alone. And it was Kevin Henkes who, during one of my pregnancies, caused me to give serious consideration to the name Chrysanthemum.
But it is a little hard to say which of those names I love because of the books, and which names I love because they were/are in style and REMINDED me of the books. I didn’t like the name Genevieve when I was reading the books as a child, after all, but only later on. And I like Charles/Charlie, but not the middle name Wallace unless I’m actively reading the book at that moment. And I probably liked Margaret mostly/only for the nickname Meg, and Megan was near the top ten when I was the age to read those books.
I think it’s often that the name starts coming into style—and then, when people are considering the name, the childhood book connection seals the deal. The name Charlotte came into style and, as it did, people remembered the pleasing connection to the book Charlotte’s Web—but without also turning to names like Fern and Wilbur, because those two names were NOT coming into style. Same with Genevieve: I was reminded of the name by seeing it in a Madeline book, but the name was already on its way up at that point.
Other names, though, I loved for the first time BECAUSE OF the book: the name Anastasia was not at all in style (or even on my radar) when I was a child, but it rocketed up my favorites list as I was reading the books, dethroning previous queens Megan and Stephanie.
Discuss: What are YOUR favorite names from children’s literature? And are any of them BOY names, because Jenny Grace and I seem to be heavily covering the girl names.
Ok so I realize this is a stretch but I named my most recent son Brendan because of the meaning in Irish which is “little prince” which is one of my all time favorite book by St. Exupery. Tops on my girls’ name list is Cordelia because of the “you may call me Cordelia” line in Anne of Green Gables. I love literary names.
So mine, as I mentioned, are Heidi, from Heidi, Wendy from Peter Pan, Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
I also love Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz association.
ALSO.
I love Alice, Allegra and Edith, from The Children’s Hour. I worry that Allegra may now have an allergy meds association (although that seems to be fading). And I like Edith w/nn Edie, but I worry that it sounds like you have a lisp when you say it.
I love the name Beth because of Little Women, but I’ve never been TOO fond of Elizabeth. Although Beth is considered a standalone name.
Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia!
Oh, here’s a boy: Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh!
I love love love the name Anastasia, mainly because of Anastasia Krupnik, but also because that’s Stacey McGill’s full name (from BabySitter’s Club).
Other names I loved because of books: Linnea, from Linnea’s Garden. Stephanie from Just As Long As We’re Together (which I lost interest in after I started watching Full House). And Winnie (Winifred) from Iggie’s House.
Boys’ names: I also love the name Sam, from All About Sam (Anastasia Krupnik’s brother), because I used to read that book to my baby brother on car trips and he thought it was about him. (Although his name is not Sam.)
Carson and Watson I always liked – Carson Drew from the Nancy Drew books and Waston Brewer from BabySitter’s Club.
And Blair from The Headless Cupid. (Which reminds me that I had a short-lived desire to name a future daughter Zilpha after Zilpha Keatley Snyder. No longer my style.)
I used to love the name Trixie because of the Trixie Belden mysteries… but I am not quite as big a fan now, although I do like Beatrix.
And Bess and George are names I can never ever use purely because they are so tangled up with Nancy Drew’s “plump, pretty” friend and “boyish” cousin.
I’ve gone on much too long. And this is making me want to re-read a bunch of these books!
I’ll jump in. And tackle boys as well. Mine aren’t quite “children’s” literature, but here goes.
Huck (But not huckleberry)
Finn (Both from….Huck Finn)
I first loved Sawyer after reading …Tom Sawyer
Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird
Holden from Catcher in the Rye
Hardy because of the Hardy Boys (never really cared for Frank or Joe, but the dad, Fenton? Liked that, still do)
Jonas, Gabriel, Asher – All from the Giver. That was the first time I heard Asher and fell head over heels for that name.
Max from Where the Wild Things Are (see I did read a children’s book)
Edmund and Caspian from Chronicles of Narnia
For girls? Alice (from her adventures in Wonderland) Ramona, Margaret from Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and Beatrix, AFTER Beatrix Potter.
That’s the “short” list. I’m one of the odd ones who finds boys easy and girl names impossible. So this was fun for me!
I can’t give this the attention i want to because we’re leaving for vacation tomorrow to EUROPE and I have a ridiculous amount to do. But while I’m stuck on the couch nursing a baby, I have to plug Milo from the Phantom Tollbooth! I love that name.
I know a family with kids Harry, Alice & Lucy. I have always wanted to ask if they were named after Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia. The co-incidence of three names from children’s fantasy lit struck me.
Oh Oh OH.
Names I LOVE that come from some of my favorite books (although I have hundreds of favorite books and some of the names I may have liked before, but it’s all very chicken and egg!) I wouldn’t use all of these for children–some are a bit out there–but I need a puppy named Hermione like yesterday.
Claudia (baby sitters club)
Max (Where the Wild Things Are: one of my top 5 boys names)
Eloise!
Margaret/Meg (Wrinkle in Time)
Huck Finn (maybe just Finn, but I worry that now it’s all Glee-d up)
Atticus, Scout (TKAM)
Hermione, Neville (HP)
I love the idea of naming a child after a favorite book character. I think I’m most likely to do that with Max. I’ve also always loved Anastasia and could see having a daughter with that name. But books have been such a huge part of my life (yes, I am a dork) that naming a child after my favorite character feels only natural. I am going to think some more and come back!
Yay! I’m de-lurking in order to be nostalgic. Some of these aren’t my style anymore (to common).
Jonas and Fiona from The Giver.
Mili from Maurice Sendak’s Dear Mili.
Lots of names from Harry Potter, but especially Sirius.
Stellaluna, from Stellaluna.
Amalthea, the name given to the unicorn in human form, in The Last Unicorn.
Griffin and Sabine, from the Griffin and Sabine trilogy (I know these aren’t kids books, but I read them when I was a kid).
Tobias from the Animorphs series.
Tendai, Rita, and Kuda from The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm (I had an obsesion with African culture for a while).
Imogene, from Imogene’s Antlers.
That’s all I can remember at the moment.
Anne from Anne of Green Gables. I have always loved this name–Anne with an ‘E’, of course. In fact, as a child, I named my Barbie dolls Anne!
And Louisa, as in Louisa May Alcott of Little Women. Louisa has always been one of my favorites, although, that might be in part due to The Sound of Music as well.
Yay for all the literary names! LOVE the already mentioned Milo, Atticus, Holden, and Beatrix
My little girl, Afton, is named for a poem, but that’s not really what you’re asking for…
Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables
Also just love Blythe
and Coraline – the Neil Gaiman book is a little creepy, but the girl character is cool and spunky. Plus I like that it was actually a typo from Caroline =D
I named my son after a character in a book I had read when I was in fifth grade. I’m pretty sure no one here is old enough to remember the book “Karen” and “With Love From Karen”. There are biographies of a girl with cerebral palsy,
written by her mother. The girl has a brother Rory and I fell in love with the name and used it for my son fifteen years after I had first read it. Of course, I did not know that it was also a girl’s name or I would have reconsidered. I went back and read the book just recently and found out that the brother’s full name was James O’Rourke but he was always called Rory. That was really neat because my son’s middle name is James!
Other book names:
Hans (Hans Brinker)
Cedric (Little Lord Fauntleroy)
Almanzo(Little House on the Prairie) – I loved unusual names
Sarah- (Little Princess) This would be a perfect girl’s name if it were not just a little too popular
Irene (The Princess and the Goblin) My all-time favorite girl’s name, and it means peace.
Yes, the Sound of Music! The comment above reminded me of how much I liked the names of all the little girls, especially Marta and Brigitta.
As another avid reader since childhood, this post really resonated. One of my favourite books as a child was an old, British thing I got secondhand from family – it’s been out of print forever – “Pomeroy’s Postscript”. I didn’t fall for the name Pomeroy, but his twin sister is called Marguerite (which I like sooooo much more than Margaret, which I actually don’t like at all) but is known as my favourite name ever, Daisy. I also liked Clover from the What Katy Did series.
It would seem, in fact, that I like flower names: I liked Posy from Ballet Shoes too!
For boys, I liked Julian from Famous Five series, and Emil from Emil and the Detectives.
How fun!
I used to love most of the names of the girl’s in The Baby-Sitter’s Club. Mary Ann was my favourite as a child, because my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother all have names that begin with “Mary __”, and I’m the one who DOESN’T (my mother is NOT someone who likes ‘traditions’). So, growing up, I used to want to be named Mary Ann so I could have the same tradition.
Now, I’m not actually a fan of that name anymore, haha. Claudia and Stacey/Anastasia were my other two favourite names from those books!
Hmmm… I read a ton of children’s books every day, because I teach the first grade. However, none of the characters from books I’ve read lately have names that have resonated with me. I love Kevin Henkes books, Swistle! I like Lily and her purple plastic purse, but my best friend has a cat named Lily so I just couldn’t name a kid that anymore (sadly).
I also used to love the name Owen (another of Kevin Henkes little mice), however that was what my ex-boyfriend and I had decided on for a son if we ever had one together, so now that name is ruined for me and I feel the need to consider something else.
How could I have forgotten about MILO??? I love that name and I love that book! Milo and Max…hmm is that too close for brothers? I dont like repeating initials but if I ever end up with twin boys…oh man. And what namesakes!
Caroline and Louise (the twins from Jacob Have I Loved)
Jesse (Bridge to Terabithia)
Karana (Island of the Blue Dolphins)
Maggie (Muggie Maggie)
Portia, Foster, and Julian (Gone-Away Lake)–Had to google for the title, but I’ve always remembered and loved the name Portia because of this book!
The book Ginger Pye didn’t have names I would use for a baby, but such great characters’ names: Mrs. Speedy, Sam Doody, Jerry and Rachel Pye.
All of the names from Little Women, especially the lesser characters’ names: India, Daisy, Hannah, Estelle
I wasn’t a reader as a child, but my husband was and I’ve read his “childhood” books as an adult. Does that count? Some may not classify as classic “children’s” books, but my husband didn’t sit around reading Little Wonen, if you know what I mean? :)
Edmund from Chrinicals of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Ender from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Valentine also from Ender’s Game
Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Lena in a book titled Lena <- this is my name and as a result is one of the only books I read as a kid. I was fascinated to learn there was another Lena out there somewhere.
Gilbert Blythe… LOVE! I re-read the Anne series while pregnant and fell in love with the name Gilbert. And the name Blythe :D Do you think it would be to much to have those names on siblings?
Alas, it doesn’t matter to much, my husband has vehemently nixed both, though I’m still gunning for Blythe on the next baby girl :D
I love literature (and song) based names!!! I love the idea of reading or singing to a child and having it be “their” book or song.
My favorites are Matilda (from Matilda) and Theodore (which has several literary connections, including Theodore “Laurie” Laurence from Little Women, and being Dr. Seuss’ real first name)
Just thought of some more!
Violet, Jessie, Benny and Henry from The Boxcar Series
Caddie from Caddie Woodlawn
-Rubeus (Hagrid’s first name in Harry Potter; I love it, but thought it may be too out there for a child, so I have a dog named Rubeus.)
-Gorham from New York: the Novel
-Colum (McCann) is an author not a character
-Ciaran (KEY-ah-reen) from Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
-Balthazar and Oswin, both from The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
-Raisele (RAY-zah-leh) from Away by Amy Bloom (my other dog’s name :))
-Annalisa from One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (one of our finalists for our first child)
-Lisbeth from the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series
-Tana (French) is an author, not a character. (This is also one of my sisters’ names, which is why I gave the author a chance and ended up loving her work!)
Glad to see someone else mention Trixie Belden. It’s funny that the name Trixie makes some people think of a stripper, because it just makes me think of Trixie Belden, definitely not a stripper.
The Famous Five got me loving girly names with boyish nicknames: Georgina, Samantha, Josephine, etc.
My favourite name from a grown-up book is Ayla from Clan of the Cave Bear.
A Little Princess was my absolute favourite childhood book. I adored the name Lottie (Charlotte) from that book and of course I wanted to be Sara.
Also…
Pippi – Pippi Longstocking (though I would use Phillipa and Pippa now)
Celeste – Babar
Arwen – Lord of the Rings
Cedric – Harry Potter
Danae – The Elenium trilogy by David Eddings
And most recently Theo from one of my son’s picture books – and I seriously considered it for boy number 2 but hubby wasn’t keen because of Theo Hucstable(?) from the Cosby Show.
Has anyone else read “Ballet Shoes” by Noel Streatfield? It was one of my favorites as a child. The three adopted sisters in the book are named Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil. I LOVE Pauline and I think Petrova is worthy of attention. Posy is too cute for my taste but it would make an adorable nickname.
Actually most names on my list are literary: Edith after Edith Wharton (not a children’s writer but a great one), Alice from “Through the Looking Glass”, and Frances from my all time favorite “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” For a boy I love Dickon from “The Secret Garden” but I probably wouldn’t use it for fear of teasing. :(
Not a children’s book, but we just named our daughter Juliet!
My very, very favorite name from a children’s book is Indigo, the title character from Hilary McKay’s Indigo’s Star. He and all his siblings are named after colors: Cadmium (Caddy), Saffron (Saffy), Indigo, and Rose. Indy (as they call him quite often) is the only boy.
I’ve fallen so hard for the name that I don’t know what to do. It’s so far from my usual style, I doubt I’ll ever get to use it. Maybe as a middle name.
My brother was three-going-on-four when I was born and his absolute favorite book was Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton ~ Katy, in this case, is a a red crawler tractor/snowplow. My parents named me Katharine (a family name) but from the moment of my birth I have been Katy. 6 months later they discovered that my brother had a brain tumor and when I was just over a year old, he passed away. I’ve never “known” him but I have always LOVED that he got to be the one to name me from his favorite book!
I have also always loved to tell people that I was named after a red snowplow (if you haven’t read the book, go do so ~ it’s delightful!!)
Although it is not a children’s book, when we named our son Gavin three years ago, I ran right out and bought a copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Night.
I am currently pregnant with our second child (a girl) and have to admit that I was amazed to see this topic come up as I just decided during yet another naming discussion this past week that I really do need the name to have some sort of literature (children’s or otherwise) connection because SOME day, I want my little girl to read a story and make the connection with her own name!
Oh and here are a few of my favorites!
I too agree w/ Trixie and the Trixie Belden mysteries. LOVED those as a child and I HATE when people say it sounds like a “stripper” name.
I have always loved Betsy from the B is for Betsy series by Carolyn Haywood (actually, I also love how Betsy named her little sister ~ who was born on Christmas ~ Star … but not sure I could use that as a name even for a Christmas baby!)
And I loved the All-of-a-Kind-Family books so for girls names I liked Ella, Henrietta (Henny), Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertrude (Gertie).
Huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder, so Laura, Mary, Carrie, Grace, Rose and I agree w/ the previous poster on Almanzo!
There are so many books/names that I could go on and on…
Dallas “Dally” from The Outsiders :)
Meg,Jo, Beth, and Amy from Little Women. I prefer their nicknames to their full names ( Maragaret, Josephine and Elizabeth.) And of course Theodore/Teddy/Laurie.
Sara from The Little Princess.
Scout and Jeremy/Jem from To Kill a Mockingbird.
Fern, Avery, and Charlotte from Charlotte’s web.
Hermione, Ginny, Lily, Bellatrix, and Cedric from Harry Potter.
Lucy, Digory, and Shasta from the Chronicles of Narnia.
Alice from her Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Esme – from Anne of Green Gables, NOT Twilight
Sal – Blueberries for Sal
Owen – Owen by Kevin Henkes
Claire & Becca – younger sisters in Babysitters Club series
Caddie – Caddie Woodlawn
Tzipporah & Susannah from a book that is out of print but I would love to find if someone knows the title :-)
Ramona! I named my daughter Ramona because I loved the name and Beverly Cleary’s brave and unique heroine.
My husband and I are thinking about the name Emily Elizabeth from the Clifford series.
-Julia
Definatly Matilda from Matilda! Such a beautiful name with such a great assosiation! I also love Ramona and Huck Finn.
Very belated but love this topic too much not to comment. My favorite is Saskia from The Moorchild :)