Literary Names: Fitzgerald names beyond the great Gatsby
The spirit of Francis Scott Fitzgerald is alive and well. In the baby name world, Gatsby is one of the new attention-grabbing names on the block. In the world of entertainment, there is the theater piece Gatz, and now there’s eager anticipation for the latest version of The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Lurmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Isla Fisher,which is scheduled to open at the end of the year. A propitious time, then, to look at the author’s approach to literary names.
Fitzgerald’s novels and stories are populated with people with ordinary names like Nick and Dick, with typical Jazz Age period choices such as Bernice and Rosalind and Marjorie for girls, Chester and Percy for men, and a number of sophisticated Princetonesque surnames. He played with name changes reflecting shifting identities as well—Jay Gatsby having been born James Gatz.
Fitzgerald also made some interesting and highly unusual choices—some of which were ahead of their time—and here are the most provocative examples, from the novels and the endless series of short stories he churned out to survive :
Girls
Amanthus—from the story Dice, Brass Knuckles and Guitar
Ardiota —_from _The Offside Pirate
Arlie—The Last of the Belles
Axia—This Side of Paradise
Birdy—Love of the Last Tycoon
Cecilia –This Side of Paradise– Fitzgerald liked this name so much he used it three times—but with two different spellings—in Love of the Last Tycoon and the short story Coward, the character’s name was the less common version Cecelia (actually the spelling of Pam and Jim’s baby on The Office).
Ede—_The Baby Party —_This is the toddler daughter of an Edith, making it hard to know if this was her full name or a nickname of her mother’s.
Ermine (aka Minnie), in several Basil and Josephine stories
Glenola—Trouble
Hepezia—Pain and the Scientist
Hildegarde —The Curious Case of Benjamin Button– Fitzgerald chose a Germanic name for the wife of reverse-aging Benjamin—curious as her last name, Moncrief, is anything but. Hildegarde is scarcely heard today—when even short form Hilda is a rarity.
Honoria—Babylon Revisited (Honoria was the name of the daughter of Fitzgerald’s great friends, Gerald and Sara Murphy.)
Jannekin—Family in the Wind
Jemina—Jemina
Jobina—The Perfect Life
Jonquil—The Sensible Thing
Jordan—The Great Gatsby—Jordan was unheard of as a girl’s name when the book appeared in 1925; in fact, it didn’t reach the Top 1000 list until 1978.
Kismine –The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
Marice —First Blood
Mercia—The Rubber Check
Musidora—The Dance
Nicole –Tender in the Night— Though it sounds far from unusual now, it certainly was in 1934 when the book was published—Nicole didn’t enter the US Top 1000 until eight years later.
Sigourney –The Great Gatsby –the inspiration for Susan Weaver’s name change
Tudy—Image in the Heart
Vienna– The Bowl
Yanci—The Popular Girl
Boys
Amory –This Side of Paradise
Bomar—The Honor of the Goon
Book—The Woman from Twenty-One
Bradogue –The Love of the Last Tycoon
Breck—Diamond Dick and the First Law of Women
Brick—the Basil and Josephine stories
Brunswick—Mightier Than the Sword
Burne—This Side of Paradise
Carpenter—That Kind of Party
Carty—The Popular Girl
Caxton—The Intimate Strangers
Chauncey—The Adjuster
Crenshaw—The Fiend
Draycott—Bernice Bobs Her Hair
Hamilton—The Bridal Party
Horace —Head and Shoulders
Jebby –The Bridal Party
Knowleton—Myra Meets the Family
Lincoln —Babylon Revisited
Llewellyn—The Adjuster
Madison—_Dice, Brass Knuckles and Guitar—_when it was unheard of for girls
Mayall—The Captured Shadow
Merlin—He Thinks He’s Wonderful
Monroe— The Love of the Last Tycoon
Oates—The Honor of the Goon
Roscoe –The Curious Case of Benjamin Button—Benjamin and Hildegarde‘s son
Rudolph—Absolution—_The character _of Rudolph Miller is considered to be a precursor of Jay Gatsby
San Juan—Presumption
Satterly—Inside the House
Tanaduke—This Side of Paradise
Thayer—This Side of Paradise
Tudor—The Beautiful and the Damned
Waldron—The Smilers
Wessel—Tarquin of Cheepside (we’ll take Tarquin over Wessel)
Wister–Six of One…
Frances Scott Key Fitzgerald himself was, of course, named for the composer of The Star Spangled Banner, who was a distant cousin of his; Scott was also the surname of his deceased older sister. The name Zelda has long been associated with Fitzgerald’s colorful wife. Their only child, Frances Scott Fitzgerald, was always known as Scottie.
And if you want to be reminded why The Great Gatsby is so great, just read this.
Any interesting discoveries here?