Southern Aristocrat Names

[jennwarwick]

I think of the name Scarlett for the "Gone with the Wind" connection. I think it pairs well with Rowan. Virginia might be another good option and would also compliment Rowan.

[rowangreeneyes]

@notcinnamon, First of all, Wellsley is such a cool name for a girl. Do you call her Wells? I actually have friends and relatives with a lot of these names!

Anyway, the names I like and are usable are as follows...

Mabry
Maren
Hollis
Lael
Riordan (always worry about pronunciation issues with this one)
Merritt
Callaway

I like Wilder, Abram, Lennox, Reece, and Archer for boys.

[garnet]

I've lived a majority of my life in the same place that your grandmother is from, so hopefully I can help!

These are all women/girls I've come across:
Capers
Dunlap
Preller
Darden
Greer
Satterlee (middle name, but it still counts)
Collins
Simms
Kittrell nn Kitty
...and more.

[missusaytch]

I am from the South, and I have always been slightly obsessed with all things Southern. And I'm not talking Larry the Cable Guy or anything from the "modern" South. I'm talking Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, live oaks, Mark Twain, balmy Southern nights, fireflies, sweet tea... I love Rowan's name for so many reasons, but one of them is because my 88 year old Southern aristocratic grandmother, with her lilting Charleston SC accent, approved of it and said it was a perfect name for "a strong, Southern lady." So, what are some more names that give you that image? I'm looking for more surname-y type names, so no Charlotte's or Josephine's. Help berries!

I am a Texan now living in South Mississippi and I too love old Southern names. Rowan is one of my fave for a girl. It will always be a girl name for me.

Here are some other ideas, some from Anne Rice novels, where I first saw Rowan as a teenager. Her books are of questionable literary value unless you are 15, but some great names!

Clancy
Quincy
Destry
Alafair - an old peculiar Louisiana name
Haviland
Mayfair
Wells
Yeats
Yardley
Walker
Lee
Shiloh
Jasper
Rue
Blair
O'Hara
Laramie
Darby
Lane
Leighton

This site has a list of old Southern surnames: http://www.heiseonline.com/southern/wgbsurs.html

A few from here:

Abbott
Darcy
Flynn
Frost
Garland
Gatlin
Holloway
Lindley
McVeigh - kidding! Seeing if yre paying attention ;-)
Snowden
Sutton
Wimberly

Bet you'd get a lot of ideas just browsing genealogy sites. Good luck!

[maltwin1]

Alabama native here that wanted the EXACT same thing as you when we were naming our first, now at it again for potential #2 some day. Personally, I don't think it gets more southern than using unique names from your own family tree! I actually joined ancestry.com just for baby naming. DS is Jackson Fielding (Fielding is a name that has been used by my grandfather's family for generations) and if we have a little girl next time she will be Annabelle Montgomery (Montgomery is my great grandmother's maiden name). I also know several other kids named the same way.

Some other southern surnames I know:
Mills - boy
Reid - Girl
Mary Owen - girl
Ivy Livingston "Livy" - girl
Bradford - boy
Forsythe - girl
Carlton - girl

In the mean time, Rowan makes me think of place names since Rowan Oak is the name of William Faulkner's home in Oxford, MS so here are some other place names that you might like:
Evangaline (city in LA)
Georgiana (city in AL)
Augusta
Florence

[garnet]

Just thought of some more - Leland, Campbell, and Callie.

[grecianern]

One of the contributing anchors on the Today Show on NY's Day was Kit from MTV's Road Rules (#1) - a true Southern Belle! Her kids had the coolest names - daughters Campbell and Hayes and son Crowley. I love them all.

My Dad's family is Southern on all sides. Great names include:

Boys:
Brooks, Carter, Harrington, Casey, James, Neal, Samuel

Girls:
Flora, Lillian, Elizabeth (all the great nicknames: Betsy, Betty, Libby), Lydia, Evelyn, the Marys (Mary Alice, Mary Elizabeth, etc), Kathryn, August (nn Peaches)

[maltwin1]

All that reminds me that I forgot to include my own family in my southern name list.

New babies in my family:
Emerick Bellum - girl
Emmett Rockmore - boy
Hight Fielding - boy
Hayes Fielding - boy

We are big on family names.

[namenerdia]

You have to look up Sallie Ward. Being a Sally I'm rather biased, but she was THE Southern Belle of the 19th century, aka the Queen of Kentucky. She had dances named after her, children named after her, shoes named after her, steamboats (!) named after her, hats named after her, etc. If you had the best of anything you had a "real Sallie Ward." She was awesome - and real! -and put Scarlett O'Hara to shame.

[rowangreeneyes]

I am a Texan now living in South Mississippi and I too love old Southern names. Rowan is one of my fave for a girl. It will always be a girl name for me.

Here are some other ideas, some from Anne Rice novels, where I first saw Rowan as a teenager. Her books are of questionable literary value unless you are 15, but some great names!

Clancy
Quincy
Destry
Alafair - an old peculiar Louisiana name
Haviland
Mayfair
Wells
Yeats
Yardley
Walker
Lee
Shiloh
Jasper
Rue
Blair
O'Hara
Laramie
Darby
Lane
Leighton

This site has a list of old Southern surnames: http://www.heiseonline.com/southern/wgbsurs.html

A few from here:

Abbott
Darcy
Flynn
Frost
Garland
Gatlin
Holloway
Lindley
McVeigh - kidding! Seeing if yre paying attention ;-)
Snowden
Sutton
Wimberly

Bet you'd get a lot of ideas just browsing genealogy sites. Good luck!

Funny you say that, when I told my husband about my love for the name Rowan long before she was even an idea, he was like "Oh, like Rowan Mayfair from the Anne Rice book?" I'm not an Anne Rice fan, so it's kind of become an ongoing joke with us.

I love Shiloh, Rue, Garland, and Alafair (how cool is that?) from your suggestions. Definitely what I'm looking for, very unusual surnames that have deep roots and history.