Literary Baby Names: 77 Quirky Characters from 20th Century Lit
By Linda Rosenkrantz
If you’re looking for a really unusual name, you might not have to look any further than your nearest library.
What follows is a melange of quirky character names—a mix of word names, surname names, nickname names, invented names–found in modern literature. To keep it from going on into infinity, I’ve limited the list to mainstream twentieth century novels and plays, avoiding for the most part the often bizarre nomenclature of sci-fi and other genre lit.
Alivina Houghton, The Lost Girl, D. H. Lawrence
Amaranta Ursula, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Marquez
Amaryllis, Back to Methuselah, George Bernard Shaw
Ayla, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel
Caithleen Brady, The Country Girls, Edna O’Brien
Cathinka, The Monkey, Isak Dinensen
Edmée, Chéri and The Last of Chéri, Colette
Elya Gruner, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Saul Bellow
Fortitude, Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh
Kismine Washington, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lenina Crowne, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Lindo, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
Love Simpson, Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns
Melanctha Herbert, Melanctha, Gertrude Stein
Meridian Hill, Meridian, Alice Walker
Monina McLeod, Barbary Shore, Norman Mailer
Oedipa Maas, The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Prairie Wheeler, Vineland, Thomas Pynchon
Praxis Duveen, Praxis, Fay Weldon
Sabbath Lily Hawks, Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
Tallis Browne, A Fairly Honourable Defeat, Iris Murdoch
Tristessa, Tristessa, Jack Kerouac
Zazie, Zazie, Raymond Queneau
Zilla Riesling, Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
Antanas Rudkus, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Athens Ebanks, Far Tartuga, Peter Matthiessen
Barley Blair, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John Le Carré
Bascom Pentland, Of Time and the River, Thomas Wolfe
Battle Fairchild, Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty
Binx Bolling, The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
Blazes Boylan, Ulysses, James Joyce
Brackett Omensetter, The Sunlight Dialogues, William Gardner
Brick Pollitt, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
Brinker Hadley, A Separate Peace, John Knowles
Commerce St. Croix, The Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
Coverly Wapshot, The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever
Cross Damon, The Outsider, Richard Wright
Cutler Walpole, The Doctor’s Dilemma, George Bernard Shaw
Darl Bundren, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Doremus Jessup, It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis
Duddy Kravitz, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler
Elyot Chase, Private Lives, Noel Coward
Ensor Doone, Lorna Doone, R. D Blackmore
Fenian McCreary, U.S.A., John Dos Passos
Finch McComus, You Never Can Tell, George Bernard Shaw
Florentino Ariza, Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Foxhall Edwards, You Can’t Go Home Again, Thomas Wolfe
Guitar Baines, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Gulley Jimson, The Horse’s Mouth, Joyce Cary
Hoover Shoats, Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride, William Goldman
Japhy Ryder, Dharma Bums, JAck Kerouac
Jester Clane, The Ballad of the Sad Café, Carson McCullers
Jolyon Forsyte, The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
Joxer Daly (nn), Juno and the Paycock, Sean O’Casey
Kilgore Trout, Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Leonce Pontellier, The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Manx Martin, Underworld, Don DeLillo
Melchior, Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
Orest Mercator, White Noise, Don DeLillo
Plinio Designiori, The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse
Rockingham Napier, Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
Seneca Doane, Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis
Soames Forsyte, The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
Solace Layfield, Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
Stingo, Sophie’s Choice, William Styron
Tadzio, Death in Venice, Thomas Mann
Taggert Hodge, The Sunlight Dialogues, John Gardner
Tradd St. Croix, The Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
Utah Watkins, Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas
Valerian Street, Tar Baby, Toni Morrison
Vivaldo Moore, The Amen Corner, James Baldwin
Weedon Scott, White Fang, Jack London
Wing Biddlebaum, Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
Zoyd Wheeler, Vineland, Thomas Pynchon
Which, if any, of these are usable? Please feel free to add your own favorite quirky character names in the comments.