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Film Noir Names

Linda Rosenkrantz
By Linda Rosenkrantz
Updated Mon Oct 18 2010

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

    • 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 Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.