An archetypal fantasy name with a cool Cal/Kal sound and short form, Kaladin is a character in The Stormlight Archive by Utah resident Brandon Sanderson. Westerners are early adopters: of the 97 baby Kaladins born in 2023, almost half were in the Western States, including 20 in Utah.

This literary creation was used by Anne Rice in her popular book series the Vampire Chronicles. It is borne by the anti-hero and central character, Lestat de Lioncourt, an immortal vampire from the 18th century. It is theorized that the name could come from the Old French l'estat meaning "status" or "state", however, Anne Rice herself has suggested she named him after her husband Stan

This literary creation was used by Anne Rice in her popular book series the Vampire Chronicles. It is borne by the anti-hero and central character, Lestat de Lioncourt, an immortal vampire from the 18th century. It is theorized that the name could come from the Old French l'estat meaning "status" or "state", however, Anne Rice herself has suggested she named him after her husband Stan

Invented for Bellini's opera, Norma had some star quality in the silent-screen and Marilyn Monroe days, but at this point it's a graying grandma in baby name limbo.

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.

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.

Only if you're an aviation buff or seriously addicted to popcorn.

Goku is the name of the protagonist of the popular "Dragon Ball" manga series, which was turned into a live action film. The character of Goku is reportedly based on Sun Wukong, the hero of the Chinese legend Journey to the West.

Created by Gregory Maguire for his book, Wicked (and featured in the subsequent Broadway musical), Fiyero derives from the word "furious".

This lovely name from Spenser's The Faerie Queene is borne by a character who represents married love. A related unusual-yet-usable choice: Amabel.

Elphaba was invented by Gregory Maguire for the protagonist of his novel Wicked, which became the long-running Broadway play and then a movie. Elphaba is the name of the Wicked Witch of the West, unnamed in the Oz books, and is drawn from the initials of Oz creator L. Frank Baum.

Invented by author Stephenie Meyer for the Twilight series for the half-human, half-vampire daughter of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, it's an amalgamtion of the names of Bella's mother Renee and Edward's adoptive mother Esme. Much to our surprise, some people are trying this at home.

Celaena notably appears in the Throne of Glass book series by popular fantasy writer, Sarah J. Maas. It is borne by one Celaena Sardothien, also known as Aelin Galathynius, a teenaged assassin and one of the main characters.

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.

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.

Pippi may be cute but isn't very practical. In addition to being forever Pippi Longstocking, there is that variant pee-pee spelling to consider. Try Pippa instead.

While Alucard has the sound of names like Alaric, Arnoud, and Ealdwine, it is in fact literally Dracula spelled backwards. Used in various bits of media over the years, it is perhaps best associated with the character in the Japanese game franchise, Castlevania or with the manga series HELLSING by Kouta Hirano.

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.

A character name in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, featured in the GOT prequel House of the Dragon.In the series, the name is a feminine form of Baelon, the character's paternal grandfather.

The name of the King of Rohan in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, supposedly a translation of Rohirric Tûrac ("king"). Tolkien based the Rohirric language on Old English.