Literary Names: Shaw, Waugh, Wodehouse and Wilde

I remember how, when I first read the novels of Evelyn Waugh and the plays of George Bernard Shaw, a whole new universe of names opened up for me. A world of sophisticated, eccentric, kind of uppity and veddy veddy Victorian and Edwardian  British names, many of which I had never heard before, but instantly became enamored with.

The comic novels of Waugh and P.G. Wodehouse and the plays (and novel) of Oscar Wilde and Shaw are still a good place to start if you’re looking for a name with a certain elegance, gentility, swank—and sometimes a bit of quirkiness as well.

GIRLS

• Agatha – Waugh

• Amarylis – Shaw

• Ariadne – Shaw

• Augusta – Wilde

• Candida – Shaw

• Cecily – Shaw and Wilde

• Chastity – Waugh

• Clarice – Wodehouse

• Cordelia – Waugh

• Dahlia – Wodehouse

• Domenica – Waugh

• Eliza – Shaw

• Epifania – Shaw

• Evangeline – Wodehouse

• Flossie – Waugh

• Fortitude – Waugh

• Gwendolen – Wilde

• Hester – Wilde

• Hypatia  – Wodehouse

• Justice – Waugh

• Lilith – Shaw

• Mercy—  Waugh

• Orinthia – Shaw

• Perdita – Waugh

• Ursula – Waugh

BOYS

• Adolphus – Shaw

• Algernon – Wilde

• Ambrose –Wodehouse and Waugh

• Archibald – Wodehouse

• Augustine – Wodehouse

• Augustus – Waugh and Wilde

• Basil – Waugh and Wilde

• Bingo – Wodehouse

• Cecil— Shaw

• Cyril – Wodehouse

• Dorian – Wilde

• Duncan –Waugh

• Ernest – Wilde

• Eustace – Wodehouse

• Everand – Waugh

• Gervase – Waugh

• Humphrey –Waugh

• Ivor – Wodehouse and Waugh

• Jocelyn – Waugh

• Lancelot — Wodehouse

• Melchoir –Waugh

• Montague – Wodehouse

• Octavius – Shaw

• Orlando – Wodehuse

• Otto – Waugh

• Percy –Wodehouse and Waugh

• Peregrine – Waugh

• Reginald – Shaw and Wodehouse

• Rex – Waugh

• Roderick – Wodehouse

• Rodney – Wodehouse

• Rupert – Wodehouse

• Sebastian – Waugh

• Sergius — Shaw

And if that’s not enough, here are a few more of similar ilk from the plays of Noel Coward:

girls:

• Almina

• Beryl

• Bunty

• Daphne

• Elvira

• Felicity

• Isobel

• Larita

• Maudie

• Miranda

• Queenie

• Sorel

• Taris

boys:

• Cyril

• Elyot

• Nigel

• Obadiah