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Silent Screen Names: Vintage names of vamps and villains

Posted August 5th, 2009

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Maybe they didn’t have voices then, but lots of the silent screen stars did have intriguingly exotic looks and equally exotic names–even if many of them were invented by studio publicists. Theda Bara, for example, the quintessential vamp, was not the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor whose name was an anagram of Arab Death, as the PR people proclaimed to the public, but was actually Cincinnati-born Theodosia Goodman, daughter of a Jewish tailor. Likewise, Nita Naldi’s real last name was Dooley, Olga Petrova was born Muriel Hardy and Alla Nazimova’s birth name was Miriam Leventon.

But real or concocted, these names–primarily short, with two-syllables and heavy on the vowels–still retain vestiges of that sultry 1900′s-1920′s glamour, and could have some vintage appeal today:

LYA

ORMI

VOLA

And then there were those that had slightly more elaborate, tango-type names:

FRANCELLA

The men’s names tended to fall into three groups:

STRONG, SILENT, SINGLE-SYLLABLE TYPES:

HOOT

HOUSE

Sophisticated, cigarette-holder, surname types:

ANTRIM

CASSON

CULLEEN

VAN DYKE

And the exotics to co-star with Vilma and Vola:

LUPINO

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11 Responses to “Silent Screen Names: Vintage names of vamps and villains”

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realpraise Says:

August 5th, 2009 at 9:11 am

Nice list! I like: Leila, Marceline, Crane, Webster and Philipe.

Charlotte Vera Says:

August 5th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

Nice list! I read a short story by Wodehouse once in which he made fun of this Hollywood trend in names. The story centred around an aspiring actress who decides to call herself Minna Nordstrom so as to fit in with the other silent stars of the time.

linda Says:

August 5th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

Do you happen to rememberthe title of the Wodehouse story? I’d love to read it.

Charlotte Vera Says:

August 5th, 2009 at 11:48 pm

I googled it because it’s been a very long time since I’ve read the story, which, incidentally, is called “The Rise of Minna Nordstrom”. It’s in the Blandings Castle collection of short stories.