The shadowy world of film noir, those stark black-and-white, often low-budget films with single-word titles—Possessed, Pursued, Trapped, Tension, Decoy, Detour, Breakdown, Blackmail—produced in Hollywood from roughly the early 1940s to the late 1950s, were populated with smoldering femmes fatale, hard-boiled detectives, corrupt cops, cynicism, intrigue and suspense
A lot of the female characters had a distinctive style of forgotten two-syllable names like Veda, Velma, Verna, Meta, Mida and Nita, while the tough guys who weren’t named Nick or Tony or Barney were occasionally given some wildly eccentric monikers.
Here, from both classics of the genre like The Maltese Falcon to barely remembered B-movies, some of the more interesting examples:
GIRLS
Althea – The Unsuspected
Angel – Guilty Bystander
Barby – The Fallen Sparrow, Sleep, My Love
Brandy – Two of a Kind
Brigid – The Maltese Falcon
Candy – Pickup on South Street, Breakdown
Carmen—The Big Sleep
Cecily – The Two Mrs Carrolls
Celia – The Secret Behind the Door
Cora –The Postman Always Rings Twice, Brute Force
Dell – Shadow on the Wall
Della — The Burglar
Eden – Murder is My Beat
Edwina/Eddie – Fingers at the Window
Effie – The Maltese Falcon
Evangeline – T-Men
Fay – The Killing
Frennessey – World for Ransom
Fritzie – The Big Bluff
Georgette – The Big Clock
Greta –They Won’t Believe Me
Gilda — Gilda
Gilly – Moonrise
Hatti – Black Tuesday
Holiday — Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Iva – The Maltese Falcon
Jojo – Parole Inc
Kitty – The Killers
Leona – Chicago Deadline
Leonora – Caught
Leslie – The Letter, Dark Water
Lilah –Johnny Angel
Lilith – Nightmare Alley
Lola — Double Indemnity
Lucia – The Reckless Moment
Merl – Manhandled
Meta – Out of the Past
Mida – Grand Central Murder
Millie – Scarlet Street
Mona – The Big Sleep
Morgan – Where the Sidewalk Ends
Nita – Shakedown
Noel – The Web
Nora –Key Largo
Paulette – Johnny Angel
Petey – The Man I Love
Poppy – Scarface
Rica – Thieves Highway
Stella – Out of the Fog
Storm – The Hidden Room
Teena – Cry of the City
Thor (!) –Pursued
Veda – Mildred Pierce
Vera – Loophole
Velma – I Died a Thousand Times
Venus – The Long Wait
Verna – White Heat, They Won’t Believe Me
Vivian – The Big Sleep
Willa – The Night of the Hunter
Wilma – The Accused
Zeena – Nightmare Alley
BOYS
Alonzo – The Asphalt Jungle
Alvah – Cloak and Dagger
Axel –Edge of the City
Ballin – Gilda
Barton – Double Indemnity
Bowie – They Live By Night
Bruno – Strangers on a Train, The Raging Tide
Calder – This Side of the Law
Celestial – Johnny Angel
Cleve – The File on Thelma Jordan
Crane — Shadow on the Wall
Cricket – To Have and Have Not
Dix – The Asphalt Jungle
Dixon – In a Lonely Place
Guy –Strangers on a Train, Shanghai Gesture
Hardy – The Dark Corner
Kasper – The Maltese Falcon
Lash – The Big Sleep
Maxim – Rebecca
Miles – The Maltese Falcon
Monte – Mildred Pierce
Noll – I Walk Alone
Pike – Shadow on the Wall
Ranney – Cause for Alarm
Rex – Whiplash
Shelby – Laura
Smith – Caught
Torsten – A Woman’s Face
Waldo – Laura
Walter –Double Indemnity
Ward – Rage in Heaven
Webb – The Prowler
Ziggy — Blackmail
