Names Created by Authors
- Orville
Origin:
FrenchMeaning:
"gold town"Description:
Only if you're an aviation buff or seriously addicted to popcorn.
- Feyre
Origin:
Literature, EnglishMeaning:
"fair, beautiful"Description:
Created by Sarah J. Maas for the heroine of her Court of Thorns and Roses series of YA novels. The name was based on the Old English word for "fair" or "beautiful" and has an ethereal charm.
- Astrophel
Origin:
Literary nameMeaning:
"star lover"Description:
Invented by 16th-century English poet Sir Philip Sidney for the hero of his sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella, this name is derived from the Greek elements aster "star" and philos "lover". Sidney’s heroine, and Astrophel’s love-interest, is Stella — whose name means "star".
- Dulcinea
Origin:
SpanishMeaning:
"sweetness"Description:
Miguel de Cervantes invented this elaborate-sounding name -- which roughly translates as "sweetness" -- for the beautiful maiden Don Quixote is obsessed with in his great novel. Even in the fictional world of the book, though, Dulcinea is not the woman's real name; Aldonza is. And because she never appears in person in the text, it's unclear whether she is as beautiful and saintly as the protagonist believes her to be. Probably not, given Don Quixote's track record.
- Nim
Origin:
Modern invented nameDescription:
Australian writer Wendy Orr put this name on the map with her hit Nim's Island" series of children's books, about a smart young girl who lives on an island in the South Pacific. Abigail Breslin played Nim in a 2008 film adaptation of the book.
- Bartleby
Origin:
English surname, probably related to BartholomewMeaning:
"son of the furrow"Description:
Bartleby (that's his last name) the Scrivener is a famous Herman Melville character whose surprisingly powerful refrain was, "I would prefer not to." Or, in the immortal words of any two-year-old: No.
- Moby
Origin:
Literary and nickname nameDescription:
Moby, the nickname of musician Richard Melville Hall, was thanks to his ancestor Herman Melville, creator of the infamous whale. You can imagine calling a child Moby as a cute nickname in honor of a grandfatherly Richard or Dick, but the ghost of a Dick would always follow the name around. In Melville's classic book, Moby was an invented word whose meaning has never been firmly established, though the best scholarship calls it a fictional place name that, in the custom of whaling ships of the time, helped identify the whale called Dick.
- Tirian
Origin:
Variation of Tirion or Tyrian, Welsh, Latin, LiteratureMeaning:
"kind, gentle, happy; of Tyre; royal purple"Description:
Used by C.S Lewis in his Narnia novels, Tirian is a variation of the Welsh mythology name, Tirion, or the Latin name, Tyrian. From soft-but-strong Tirion, it means "kind, gentle", while from Tyrian it means "from Tyre", a place name meaning "rock". It is also associated with the natural reddish-purple dye, also known as royal purple.
- Ronja
Origin:
Swedish literary nameDescription:
Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren invented the name Ronja for her book Ronja, the Robber's Daughter. She was inspired by the lake Juronjaure, located in Norrbotten, Sweden.
- Perdita
Origin:
LatinMeaning:
"lost"Description:
A Shakespearean invention for an abandoned baby in The Winter's Tale, Perdita's sense of loss has always been off-putting to parents. But her image was somewhat resuscitated by its association with the appealing canine character in Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmations.
- Briana
Origin:
Feminine variation of BrianMeaning:
"strong, virtuous, honorable"Description:
Spelled this way, Briana was coined by Edmund Spenser for his great literary work, The Faerie Queene, which gives the now-overexposed name a far classier pedigree than it's usually credited with.
- Chaol
Origin:
Popular culture, literary invention, "narrow; chaos"Meaning:
"narrow; chaos"Description:
Several names that are used in the popular book series Throne of Glass have been gaining attention in recent years, including Celaena and Aelin, and though Chaol has yet to join them, it may be one to watch out for. Possibly influenced by the Irish Caol meaning "narrow, slender", author Sarah. J. Maas has also noted the word "chaos" (the character's original name) as a source of inspiration. As such, the name is said like chaos, but with an L at the end, or like the word kale.
- Ronia
Origin:
HebrewMeaning:
"God's joyful song"Description:
Hebrew name related to Ronit and Roni, also used in different cultures as Ronya, Ronja, and Roniya. Virtually unknown in the English-speaking world though certainly an easily-translatable choice.
- Vivien
Origin:
LatinMeaning:
"life"Description:
Vivien (Scarlett O'Hara) Leigh was born Vivian. Some sources give Vivien as a relative of the Irish goddess name Bebinn and a literary name invented by Tennyson. Others say it's related to the Latin-based Viviana, meaning life. This spelling of the name is as legitimate as many others.
- Medora
Origin:
GreekMeaning:
"mother's gift"Description:
Medora is a Greek name much less common here than, say, Melanie or Melissa. It has some literary references, including as the beautiful and passionate heroine of Lord Byron's poem The Corsair, and in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, there is a character named Marchioness Melora Manson.
- Wylan
Origin:
Literary nameDescription:
The name of a main character in Leigh Bardugo's successful Six of Crows novels, Wylan fits right in with on-trend names like Wayland, Waylon and Ryland.
- Aelita
Origin:
LiteratureMeaning:
"starlight seen for the last time"Description:
A whimsical choice from the 1923 sci-fi novel Aelita by Aleksey Tolstoy, the name belongs to a Martian princess who lives on Mars in an advanced yet divided society. In the book (and its subsequent film), her name is said to mean "starlight seen for the last time".
- Morticia
Origin:
Fictional invented nameMeaning:
"mortician"Description:
Charles Addams invented the name Morticia for the mother in his cartoon series "The Addams Family." The name comes from the word mortician—very appropriate for this macabre mom.
- Mowgli
Origin:
Literary nameDescription:
The name of the young hero of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, who was raised by wolves (really) and becomes a genius hunter and trapper, was chosen as a middle name for their son Bronx (really, again) by rockers Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz. Kipling invented the name, whose first syllable rhymes with cow.
- Godot
Origin:
Invented nameDescription:
Samuel Beckett, inspired by the French surname Godeau, created the name Godot for his play, Waiting for Godot.Americans tend to pronounce Godot with the emphasis on the second syllable, but Beckett has said this is incorrect. The correct pronunciation is GOD-oh, with the first syllable stressed.
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