Be Honest--Whomst Among Us Named Their Kids After Book Characters?

[Thalionwen Hunigfolm]

Inquiring minds want to know.

I have a Maggie (Margaret) named after Margaret Murry from A Wrinkle in Time, and a Rosie (Rosalie) named after, of course, Rosie Cotton.

Who else from among the Plaza's denizens ended up naming their kids after book characters?

[Arnyn]

Not me. Though my son Wodan is named after the Germanic supreme god, so if legends count...

[Veowyn]

I have an Arthur

[Thalionwen Hunigfolm]

Legends DEFINITELY count, @Arnyn. And I love both of these!!!

[Aodh Hammerhelm]

My wife doesn't realise it, and neither did I at the time, but our first born, Ellie, is almost certainly named after Elanor Gamgee. When I held her in my arms for the first time, the unresolved list of names went out of the window. "How about Eleanor?" I asked. "Yes, she's an Eleanor isn't she!" was Innes's reply

[Thalionwen Hunigfolm]

That's such a lovely story, @Aodh Hammerhelm! And Eleanor is such a beautiful name.

[Aodh Hammerhelm]

@Thalionwen
Thanks, it is... and I'm sure at the time (21years ago last weeks) this was running in my subconscious:

'Well, Mr. Frodo,' he said. 'I'm in a bit of a fix. Rose and me had settled to call him Frodo, with your leave; but it's not him, it's her. Though as pretty a maidchild as any one could hope for, taking after Rose more than me, luckily. So we don't know what to do.'

'Well, Sam,' said Frodo, 'what's wrong with the old customs? Choose a flower name like Rose. Half the maidchildren in the Shire are called by such names, and what could be better?'

'I suppose you're right, Mr. Frodo,' said Sam. 'I've heard some beautiful names on my travels, but I suppose they're a bit too grand for daily wear and tear, as you might say. The Gaffer, he says: "Make it short, and then you won't have to cut it short before you can use it." But if it's to be a flower-name, then I don't trouble about the length: it must be a beautiful flower, because, you see, I think she is very beautiful, and is going to be beautifuller still.'

Frodo thought for a moment. 'Well, Sam, what about elanor, the sun-star, you remember the little golden flower in the grass of Lothlórien?'

'You're right again, Mr. Frodo!' said Sam delighted. 'That's what I wanted.'

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 9, The Grey Havens

[Elarith]

@Aodh Hammerhelm I always wondered if that was intentional!

Youngest is a Lucy which always makes me think of Lucy from Narnia. Not sure my husband knows this! Mostly just went with it because we like it. Oh! And her middle name is Robin for Robin Hood because we do archery (although not recently) and we like birds.

[Nessila]

Sadly, I didn't name my kids after any characters, but I did name our pets after Tolkien's character:

Bilbo our cat
Beren our German Shepherd

[Mojo]

I haven't specifically named any of my kids after Tolkien characters, though they all have Scotch-Irish names so they have a similar "sound" to Tolkien names.

[Aodh Hammerhelm]

@Elarith ,
Robin very cool. Callum isn't named from any literary character. He was nearly a Bono, but Innes put her foot down. In the end it was a trade-off between Paul as a first name or Edge as a second. The latter won

[Bereth]

I’m afraid none of my kids were named after fantasy book characters (although several have names found in the Old Testament, and try as I might, can’t nudge any of the grandkids to adopt fun names like Finduilas, haha!) ... but my favorite cat was named Aerlinn, which I understood to mean “Song of the Sea” I still absolutely love that name.

[Taethowen]

No kids to name yet here, and I have too many old-fashioned family names I'm attached to to be willing to swap them out for other character names, but our two tabby cats are named after tv/game characters. Tiberius is named after Capt. James T. Kirk, and Zelda is named after, well... Zelda. For clarification, I named Tiberius and my husband named Zelda.

[KingODuckingham]

I named my son Hector after the character in the Iliad. I conceived (heh) of the idea many years before the child was born, with only a general feeling of "I'd like a classical name", but later as the birth approached and I re-read the Iliad, this passage re-convinced me:

Grant this boy, my son,
may be like me, first in glory among the Trojans,
strong and brave like me, and rule all Troy in power
and one day let them say, 'He is a better man than his father!'—

That's actually Hector speaking, but I thought, that is what I want my son to be like, and what I want my son to want for his son. And I am a big believer in imitative and qualitative naming.

P.S. Also, it's kind of hard to explain, but we are planning on naming a dog "Slab" after reading some of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

[Elarith]

@Aodh Hammerhelm Edge is an awesome middle name!! Definitely got the better deal by not being a Bono.

@KingODuckingham That's a lovely reasoning, it's a great story to tell him when he asks why you chose it. (Better than the 'it sounded nice to us' that we went with! Might have to create some kind of more profound back story for ours...)

Loving all the literary and geeky pet names too! My mum had a dog back when I was v. small called Benjamin Baggins. He was the bestest boy.

[Taethowen]

Loving all the literary and geeky pet names too! My mum had a dog back when I was v. small called Benjamin Baggins. He was the bestest boy.

Benjamin Baggins is a FANTASTIC name!

[Shivased]

Sadly no kids for me, but my pets are named after characters. I have:

Eowyn the dog
Hermione the cat
Hagrid the cat
Gollum and Thorin the betta fish
Thorin Oakenshield the hamster (though this is my niece's pet).

[Culfinwen Lihtarwe]

I have a Maggie (Margaret) named after Margaret Murry from A Wrinkle in Time, and a Rosie (Rosalie) named after, of course, Rosie Cotton.

As someone who follows you on Twitter, this threw me. I think I did know the first at one point but not the second! Both beautiful names though.

I named my son Hector after the character in the Iliad. I conceived (heh) of the idea many years before the child was born, with only a general feeling of "I'd like a classical name", but later as the birth approached and I re-read the Iliad, this passage re-convinced me:

Grant this boy, my son,
may be like me, first in glory among the Trojans,
strong and brave like me, and rule all Troy in power
and one day let them say, 'He is a better man than his father!'—

That's actually Hector speaking, but I thought, that is what I want my son to be like, and what I want my son to want for his son. And I am a big believer in imitative and qualitative naming.

As a classicist, I APPROVE. So beautiful. And Hector is the best in all Greek mythology. (And a better name than Astyanax.)

A side note, but one of my favourite students ever was named Hector. He once did a presentation on Nero's sex life in the Lives of Suetonius that turned into a psychoanalysis ending with "I think Nero just wanted to be loved". I think every young woman in the room sighed dreamily. Just saying, your son is in good company of Hectors.

My husband and I maaaaaay have had discussions of what fantasy names would actually work for kids... LOTR, WOT, GOT, etc. But I don't think we settled on anything. TBH it's more likely we go with a classical name if we can find one that works in English and Danish. I'm still peeved my husband's friend named his daughter Livia, which was always my top girl's choice. I have, however, vetoed Alexander (my husband's perpetual research topic). In return, I have graciously said we will also not have a Constantine or Maxentius. :smiley8:

[Dincairwen]

No kids, but my cat is named after Arya Stark. Little kick-ass stick them with the pointy end Stark. Her middle name is Spock. Cats need middle names!

[Taethowen]

I completely forgot about our roosters. My husband has always named the roos, and he likes to name them after GOT characters. The first one was Ned Stark, and our current one is Jon Snow.

[Tari]

I named my kid "Howie" (short for Howard after my grandfather) so...I clearly failed. That said, my partner has never read the books and refuses to watch the movies with me.

[Amadhrill]

Well, if legend counts... my kids are named Olav and Sverre which are names dating back to the Viking age (but also names of Norwegian kings from the Viking ages and until today), so there are plenty of literature with those names. Also, they are perfectly normal Norwegian names of a not-Christian origin, even if there is a Saint Olav/ Olav the Holy in Norwegian history...

[MistressofJesters]

I haven't specifically named any of my kids after Tolkien characters, though they all have Scotch-Irish names so they have a similar "sound" to Tolkien names.

Well, they're also saint names, so they definitely have great history. :smiley8:

[Wamba_the_Fool]

I'll admit to throwing Elanor and Simbelmyne at the wife and hoping she wouldn't catch they were Tolkienisms until it was too late - but of course she caught me out.

Still, our girls are all flowers and our boy is a tree, so they sound right Hobbitish enough for me. I am content.

[Giliathriel]

I didn't name my son after a book character, but he did end up being named after Tangled as it's our favorite movie. So he ended up as Flynn lol. If we have another I may try to convince my husband to go with something from a book though! He doesn't read so I don't even have to tell him where it's from

[Tharmáras]

Speaking about my furbaby, I named my grey-and-white tabby cat after Princess Aredhel from Tolkien's Silmarillion. And my mother named me after Stephen, the Martyr from the book of Acts though a different spelling.

[Eamila Bolger]

Not the kids, but like some here our pets do have Middle Earth names! Hobbits of course ;-)
After Plato (yep) and Max (who was a girl) we now have Fili (labrador of almost 1 year) and Kili (tiny cat who has just turned 1 year but still looks like a kitten, but is as fierce as Kili the dwarf anyway. He climbs on rooftops and in trees and manages to kill even rats and then brings them to our backdoor.)