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Literary Names: Fitzgerald names beyond the great Gatsby

Literary Names: Fitzgerald names beyond the great Gatsby

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

ArlieThe Last of the Belles

Axia—This Side of Paradise

BirdyLove 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

HildegardeThe 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.

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

Jannekin—Family in the Wind

Jemina—Jemina

JobinaThe Perfect Life

JonquilThe Sensible Thing

JordanThe Great GatsbyJordan 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

MariceFirst Blood

Mercia—The Rubber Check

MusidoraThe 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.

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

TudyImage 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

BreckDiamond Dick and the First Law of Women

Brickthe Basil and Josephine stories

Brunswick—Mightier Than the Sword

BurneThis Side of Paradise

Carpenter—That Kind of Party

Carty—The Popular Girl

Caxton—The Intimate Strangers

ChaunceyThe Adjuster

CollisTender is the Night

Crenshaw—The Fiend

Draycott—Bernice Bobs Her Hair

Ewing –The Great Gatsby

HamiltonThe Bridal Party

HoraceHead and Shoulders

Jebby –The Bridal Party

Knowleton—Myra Meets the Family

Lincoln Babylon Revisited

LlewellynThe Adjuster

Madison_Dice, Brass Knuckles and Guitar—_when it was unheard of for girls

Mayall—The Captured Shadow

MerlinHe 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 ButtonBenjamin and Hildegarde‘s son

RoyalTender is the Night

RudolphAbsolution—_The character _of Rudolph Miller is considered to be a precursor of Jay Gatsby

San JuanPresumption

Satterly—Inside the House

Tanaduke—This Side of Paradise

ThayerThis Side of Paradise

TudorThe Beautiful and the Damned

Waldron—The Smilers

WesselTarquin 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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About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.