Literary Names for Girls

Sidda is a name made famous by the heroine of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood; it probably started life as a nickname.

The obscure yet not unappealing name of a legendary heroine of Rome. The ancient Clelia escaped an Etruscan invader by swimming across the Tiber River.

Aravis was the name of a female character in C.S. Lewis's A Horse and His Boy, and is also the name of a mountain range in southern France. With the rise of Ava, Avery, and indeed seemingly all names that start with A, Aravis may finally reach a wider audience.

Though many might find it too syrupy, hundreds of parents each year choose this name for their daughters to make them feel special. Precious Ramotswe is the engaging African sleuth in the popular No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

A diminutive form of the Finnish Katariina, used by Tove Jannson in her book The True Deciever.

Sounds like a variant of Heidi or Hailey, but Haidee is actually a separate name with a literary history, used in Byron's epic poem Don Juan.

Known more commonly in Medieval legend as the Lady of the Lake and recorded under numerous names, Nyneve is a key character in Arthurian legends.

This name was used by Shakespeare (who got it from Plutarch) in Antony and Cleopatra for one of the attendants of the Egyptian queen. An interesting possibility, it is heard occasionally in the UK, even less frequently in the US.

Romola is a literary name most notably used by George Eliot for her eponymous 1862 novel set in fifteenth-century Florence. It just may appeal to the parent looking for a name that embodies the ideal blend of the feminine, unusual, and strong. A current bearer is British actress Romola Garai.

Attractive name associated both with a queenly character who meets a very grisly end in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and popular teen fantasy novelist Tamora Pierce. Shakespearean puns in the name include amor for love and moor as the character was in love with a Moor, though any parent interested in the name should be aware of its tragic association.

Name of the enslaved girl in Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo sounds more like a modern invention, though it's related to another time-honored literary heroine name: Haidee from Byron's "Don Juan."

Orleanna was the young heroine of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.

Old fashioned nickname that some girls just might be able to pull off. You'd just have to be sure your little Fancy was one of them.

Faunia is more often rendered as Fauna, who was a Roman goddess of fertility, women and healing. Faunia was the downtrodden yet loving heroine of Philip Roth's Human Stain. Faunia and Fauna have more gravitas than the doe-like Fawn.

A more substantial but less-popular feminization of Tristan, the originally-male mythological name now used for girls as well as boys.

Name of the winning young heroine of Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye.

A unisex surname familiarized by male actor Dabney Coleman, but with potential to carry over to the girl's side as well. Dabney feels in line with the Irish Darcy and Darby.

Nenna is the name of the heroine of Penelope Fitzgerald's novel Offshore, but it's also sparingly used in Scandinavia as a variant of the name Nanna. Nanna is a diminutive of various names, including Anna, Johanna and Marianne, but it's also a name in its own right, possibly meaning "daring".

Might be carrying things too far -- little little girl? -- though could freshen up this favorite.

Feather, though it was used for a character in a Walter Mosley novel, seems too light and fluttery for a real-life girl.