Literary Names

Falmouth may be a beautiful seaside spot in Massachusetts, but as a name it's perilously close to "foul mouth." Falmouth Kearney was the name of Barack Obama's great-great grandfather.

Remarkable Pettibone was a self-important housekeeper in James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers. Such names were not uncommon in early America, with such choices as Remember and Experience showing up in the records along with Puritan virtue names such as Chastity and Patience.

Fringilla Vigo is a sorceress and villain in The Witcher series. Her name comes from a genus of singing finches.

Cheever has a nice, cheery sound, literary ties to novelist and short writer John Cheever and also, sideways, to the Edward Arlington Robinson narrative poem "Miniver Cheevy," as well as a subliminal association with the desirable word achiever: all strong pluses.

Name of pastoral Vermont town and college sounds too stiff and starchy.

A character name in the Shadow and Bone book series, invented by author Leigh Bardugo. It is intended as a Ravkan form of Malcolm, meaning "disciple of St Columba".

Samuel Johnson invented the name Rasselas for the title character of his novel, Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. Rasselas is actually the son of the prince.

To modernize and add some oomph to the dated CASEY, add an O'-and also honor the great Irish playwright Sean.

The mixed-race heroine of one of Gertrude Stein's Three Lives searches for knowledge and power.

A name created by author Tamora Pierce for a character in her Protector of the Small series, a quartet of young adult fantasy novels. In the novels, Keladry is the first girl in centuries to seek a knighthood and the novels follow her journey towards this goal.

A fanciful concoction whipped up by L. Frank Baum for a beautiful and powerful princess in one of his Oz books.

Friendly-sounding name with big "Sweeney Todd" downside.

Featherleigh Dale is the femme fatale of a certain age in American writer Elin Hilderbrand's novel The Perfect Couple, adapted as a television series by Netflix.

Also spelled Silvander, this poetic and woodsy name was used in various works of literature throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Deriving from the Roman and Biblical name Silvanus, Sylvander could also be considered a compound name, blending together Sylvester or Sylvan with Anders or Alexander.

This rare feminization of Christopher blends in the sounds of the popular Josephine and is certainly more unexpected than Christine or Christina. German artist Christophine Reinwald (sister of playwright Friedrich von Schiller) is one notable bearer, while writer Jean Rhys used the name for a character in her 1966 Jane Eyre retelling, Wide Sargasso Sea. In the Caribbean and the UK, Christophine is also the colloquial name for the chayote fruit, a type of gourd named as such in reference to Christopher Columbus.