I have this thing with names. I love names. I have a Word document dedicated to some of my favorites. Whenever I go to Starbucks, I use a different name for my order, you know, just to give it a test run. I find names from movies, friends, cities, dogs, waiter name tags, but there is no better place to steal a new name for my growing list than from the characters of books.
If you’re just as big of a name freak as you are a literary lover, take a look at this list of fifteen names first used in literary works:
1. Cora - the heroine from James Fenimore Cooper’s American classic “The Last of the Mohicans."
2. Evangeline - I first heard this name in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” (remember the firefly in love with the star?) but this name was first coined by Longfellow in his poem “Evangeline.”
3. Glinda - the “good witch” from Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz.”
4. Miranda - the only female character to appear in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest."
5. Claribel - many people believe this name to be another creation of our friend William Shakespeare when it appeared in “The Tempest," however this name was actually first seen in the poem “The Faerie Queene” by Edmund Spenser.
6. Beezus - I know, I know, the full name for Ramona’s older sister from Beverly Cleary’s memorable Ramona series is Beatrice ,but Beezus is too cool to leave off the list. Someone should name their kid Beezus. Heck, I’ll name my kid Beezus.
7. Pamela - created by Sir Philip Sidney for his poem “Arcadia.”
8. Olivia - another name given to us thanks to Shakespeare from his play “The Twelfth Night” (however, whenever I hear this name, I will always think of my favorite picture book).
9. Vanessa - a name invented by Jonathan Swift for his poem “Cadenus and Vanessa.”
10. Heidi - this nickname for Adelaide was first used independently in Johanna Spyri’s classic novel “Heidi.”
11. Cedric - although invented by Walter Scott in “Ivanhoe” this name will forever bring to mind the image of Robert Pattinson (RIP Cedric Diggory).
12. Thelma - created by Marie Corelli for her best-selling novel “Thelma: A Norwegian Princess.”
13. George - This is by far my favorite name. Yes, George is a very common name, however it was first used as a girl's name (not a nickname, but a full, given name) for Nancy Drew’s best friend in Carolyn Keene’s famous detective series. I don’t care how many people tell me this is a horrible name for a girl, I’m using it.
14. Caspian - this name was invented by C.S. Lewis, author of the beloved Narnia series. Any kid named Capsian is hella cool because he is named after a Narnian prince.
15. Wendy - and finally, the most famous of all invented literary names, the heroine of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.”
