Beginnings

Welcome friends! I have started this entry in the global technosphere because I have been in love with books since the age of 2. Among the busy business of being a new teacher, this is my outlet for sharing thoughts on a love of reading a wide variety of books. My inspiration can be summed up with a yearbook quote from a teacher written when I was 8: "To the only girl at recess I see reading a book. Good for you!"
My blog title is quoted from a classmate who asked me this once. Believe it or not, I've also heard it as a teacher :D

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday- Characters to Name Your Children After

A weekly meme hosted @ The Broke and the Bookish.

I'm on a hiatus from most midweek memes, but I decided to chime in on this week's topic:

Top 10 Characters/Literary Figures That I'd Name My Children After

Great idea!  I don't have any children but I've often thought of names I like, especially when an interesting one rings in my ear.

At the moment, my favourite girls' names are:  Gwen (not sure where I first heard this name) and Eva (from WALL-E, and yes I know that her name is actually Eve, but how cute is Wall-E saying her name that way?)
and for boys:  Elliott (from E.T.) and Charlie (I love the way Katharine Hepburn says Humphrey Bogart's character's name in The African Queen like CHAW-LEE :D).

So, I have to admit that most names I've thought of are from movie characters, but here's some literary character names I like, an even 5 for girls and 5 for boys:

GIRLS

1)  Ramona~ from Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary~ A unique name that's stuck with me since childhood.  I heard that this is Maggie Gyllenhaal & Peter Sarsgaard's daughter's name, which sounds so sweet.

2)  Briony~ from Atonement by Ian McEwan~ not that I condone her actions in the book but Briony is another unique-sounding name...the only thing is that you would probably think of deception whenever you heard it :/

3)  Ada~ from The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver~ I'd drop the "h" so it was a palindrome, a nifty reference to her hobby in the book :)

4)  Marilla~ from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery~ I always think of a generosity of spirit when I hear her name (albeit over time when it came to adopting Anne).

5)  Celie~ from The Color Purple by Alice Walker~ It makes me think of freedom and sisterhood.

BOYS

6)  Finn~ from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain~ a symbol of boyhood curiosity & adventure

7)  Harry~ from Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling~ but of course!

8)  Jacob~ from Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen~ reminds me of courage, perseverance & strength

9)  Grady~ from Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon~ fresh in my mind since I recently finished it :)

10)  Laurie~ from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott~ this is probably a set-up for teasing but I love this character!

I was wondering if any book bloggers who have kids named them after literary characters?  And what names did you come up with for your top 10?

14 comments:

  1. I love these. I never would have thought of Marilla, but she's such a wonderful character.

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  2. I don't have children either, but my brother named one of his daughters Marlowe after the playwright Christopher Marlowe.
    And going with your movie theme, my best friend named one of her daughters Sloane after Ferris Bueller's girlfriend.
    I like the name Briony as well, but based on Atonement that name has such negative connotations for me that I don't think I could use it on my child.

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  3. I totally loved this list! Can't believe I overlooked Ramona. Marilla almost made it onto my own list as well. Also, I love Laurie. You're right about it being a setup for teasing, but still. :)

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  4. My daughter is named after a movie character, whose name is in the title of the movie. We didn't do it because of the movie, but whenever we tell people her name, they say "oh like the movie!"

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  5. Good list!

    My Mom wanted to name my sister Amy, after Little Women, but her sister-in-law had her baby first and named her Amy (which caused a major rift between them!), so my mom chose Beth instead.

    Sue

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  6. Celie occurred to me when I was making my list, but I kept going back and forth with it. I love how strong and wise she ended up being, but I just couldn't get the scenes with Whoopie Goldberg getting the you-know-what beat out if her out of my mind, so ultimately I left it out.

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  7. I like your list. I had a student this year, who has since moved on to another school, who was named Marilla. Every time I'd ask her name she'd remind me that her name was Marilla like in Anne of Green Gables. Literary kids!

    I think, as a teacher, that parents should really think about the spelling of their kids names to avoid mispronunciations or confusion at school.

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  8. I would choose Elizabeth/Eliza for Elizabeth Bennet, Margaret for heaps of literary authors and characters that I enjoy or Ayla from Clan of the Cave Bear.

    Boys names are harder - maybe Roberto for Roberto Bolano.

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  9. I really love the name Briony

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  10. I like Briony also. I wasn't thinking about the characters themselves as much as whether I liked the name when I made my list. If I were going to chose by character, I would go for Atticus without a doubt.

    I like Finn, which could also be from Great Expectations.

    http://hawthornescarlet.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-ten-tuesday-namesakes.html

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  11. Great list! There are so many on here that I like. Briony is my favorite girl name and Finn is my favorite boy name!

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  12. Great names! Briony is really lovely and interesting and Celie is pretty as well!

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  13. Ah,i love this! My given name is from a certain Daphne DuMaurier book. I've never felt it fit me,though.
    I tended to lean toward author names when choosing baby names. My oldest kid was named after Dylan Thomas...the youngest came very close to being Cormac (as in McCarthy) and if he'd been a girl, he would have been Evangeline Harper...Evangeline for the poem, Harper for Harper Lee.

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