Literary Names (Authors)

Dark horse Irish surname.

Poetic and easier to pronounce (it's keets) than Yeats (which is yates). This one of many poets' names to consider, such as Auden, Eliot, Frost, Byron, Lorca, Marlowe, Blake, Emerson and Tennyson, which was used by Russell Crowe.

Selby, a rarely heard British surname, feels sleeker and more distinctive than Shelby. Todd Selby, known primarily by his last name, is a hip photographer of interiors.

Made famous by F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Fitzgerald Kennedy; still works best as a middle name.

While Austin is a popular boys' name, this spelling, honoring novelist Jane, nudges the name toward gender-neutral, chosen last year for 67 baby boys and 57 girls.

Wharton is a rather stiff banker name that becomes creative as a middle name choice for lovers of the novels of writer Edith.

Fervent fans of The Catcher in the Rye might want to consider this as a literary tribute. More mainstream alternative: Holden.

No matter how much you love the novels of Papa H., don't saddle your son with this unwieldy appellation.