Literary Names: Fitzgerald names beyond the great Gatsby

Posted June 13th, 2012

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The spirit of Francis Scott Fitzgerald  is alive and well.  In the baby name world, Gatsby is one of the new attention-grabbing names on the block.  In the world of entertainment, there is the theater piece Gatz, and now there’s eager anticipation for the latest version of The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Lurmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Isla Fisher,which is  scheduled to open at the end of the year.  A propitious time, then, to look at the author’s approach to literary  names.

Fitzgerald’s novels and stories are populated with people with ordinary names like Nick and Dick, with typical Jazz Age period choices such as Bernice and Rosalind and Marjorie for girls, Chester and Percy for men, and a number of sophisticated Princetonesque surnames.  He played with name changes reflecting shifting identities as well—Jay Gatsby having been born James Gatz.

Fitzgerald also made some interesting and highly unusual choices—some of which were ahead of their time—and here are the most provocative examples, from the novels and the endless series of short stories he churned out to survive :

Girls

Amanthus—from the story Dice, Brass Knuckles and Guitar

Ardiota –from The Offside Pirate

Arlie—The Last of the Belles

Axia—This Side of Paradise

Birdy—Love of the Last Tycoon

Cecilia –This Side of Paradise–  Fitzgerald liked this name so much he used it three times—but with two different spellings—in Love of the Last Tycoon and the short story Coward, the character’s name was the less common version Cecelia (actually the spelling of Pam and Jim’s baby on The Office). 

Ede—The Baby Party –This is the toddler daughter of an Edith, making it hard to know if this was her full name or a nickname of her mother’s.

Ermine (aka Minnie), in several Basil and Josephine stories

Glenola—Trouble

Hepezia—Pain and the Scientist

Hildegarde –The Curious Case of Benjamin Button– Fitzgerald chose a Germanic name for the wife of reverse-aging Benjamin—curious as her last name, Moncrief, is anything but.  Hildegarde is scarcely heard today—when even short form Hilda is a rarity.

Honoria—Babylon Revisited (Honoria was the name of the daughter of Fitzgerald’s great friends, Gerald and Sara Murphy.)

Jannekin—Family in the Wind

Jemina—Jemina

Jobina—The Perfect Life

Jonquil—The Sensible Thing

Jordan—The Great Gatsby—Jordan was unheard of as a girl’s name when the book appeared in 1925; in fact, it didn’t reach the Top 1000 list until 1978.

Kismine –The Diamond as Big as the Ritz

Marice –First Blood

Mercia—The Rubber Check

Musidora—The Dance

Nicole –Tender in the Night– Though it sounds far from unusual now, it certainly was in 1934 when the book was published—Nicole didn’t enter the US Top 1000 until eight years later.

Sigourney –The Great Gatsby –the inspiration for Susan Weaver’s name change

Tudy—Image in the Heart

Vienna- The Bowl

Yanci—The Popular Girl

Boys

Amory –This Side of Paradise

Bomar—The Honor of the Goon

Book—The Woman from Twenty-One

Bradogue –The Love of the Last Tycoon

Breck—Diamond Dick and the First Law of Women

Brick—the Basil and Josephine stories

Brunswick—Mightier Than the Sword

Burne—This Side of Paradise

Carpenter—That Kind of Party

Carty—The Popular Girl

Caxton—The Intimate Strangers

Chauncey—The Adjuster

Collis—Tender is the Night

Crenshaw—The Fiend

Draycott—Bernice Bobs Her Hair

Ewing –The Great Gatsby

Hamilton—The Bridal Party

Horace –Head and Shoulders

Jebby –The Bridal Party

Knowleton—Myra Meets the Family

Lincoln –Babylon Revisited

Llewellyn—The Adjuster

Madison—Dice, Brass Knuckles and Guitar–when it was unheard of for girls

Mayall—The Captured Shadow

Merlin—He Thinks He’s Wonderful

Monroe– The Love of the Last Tycoon

Oates—The Honor of the Goon

Orrison—The Long Way Out

Roscoe –The Curious Case of Benjamin Button–Benjamin and Hildegarde‘s son

Royal—Tender is the Night

Rudolph—Absolution—The character of Rudolph Miller is considered to be a precursor of Jay Gatsby

San Juan—Presumption

Satterly—Inside the House

Tanaduke—This Side of Paradise

Thayer—This Side of Paradise

Tudor—The Beautiful and the Damned

Waldron—The Smilers

Wessel—Tarquin of Cheepside (we’ll take Tarquin over Wessel)

Wister–Six of One…

Frances Scott Key Fitzgerald himself was, of course,  named for the composer of The Star Spangled Banner, who was a distant cousin of his; Scott was also the surname of his deceased older sister.  The name Zelda has long been associated with Fitzgerald’s colorful wife.  Their only child, Frances Scott Fitzgerald, was always known as Scottie.

And if you want to be reminded why The Great Gatsby is so great, just read this.

Any interesting discoveries here?

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