Names from Children's Books

Short for Samuel or long for Sam, Sammy is a sweet midcentury nickname name that we can see coming back.

Has become a byword in English for an overly optimistic person, thanks to the eponymous children's book heroine.

Widespread choice in the Muslim world, this was the name of both the father of the Prophet Mohammed and one of his sons.

Digory is the name of a character in a romantic poem from the Middle Ages as well as from The Chronicles of Narnia, also known as The Professor. There's a Harry Potter character named Diggory.

Stella and Luna are stylish night sky name for girls, from the Latin words for star and moon.

Rough-and-tumble surname with some degree of charm.

Sixties-style short form that sounds cool again -- though the unscrupulous Pete on "Mad Men" is not a character to emulate.

It's most commonly associated with the French elephant, but Babar ironically means "tiger."

Katy, or more popularly Katie, stood fashionably on their own two feet for several years there, during the Katelyn boom. But now both Katy and Katie are fading in favor of grownup Kate or buttoned-up Katherine.

Rosmerta is a Gallo-Roman goddess of fertility, abundance, and prosperity, often depicted holding a cornucopia. In the Harry Potter books, Madame Rosmerta is the landlady of the Three Broomsticks pub in the wizarding village of Hogsmeade.

This Latin-sounding place-name, created by C. S. Lewis for his Chronicles, will undoubtedly be adopted by a few admiring parents.

Like a blend of vintage-style Edie and popular Katie, Keedie is either an invented name, a variant of the Scottish surname Keddy, or possibly a short form of Katherine.
In the case of Soprano singer Keedie Babb, her name was a creation of her father's, inspired by his love of pop star, Kiki Dee. As a variation of the Scottish surname, Keedie would ultimately derive from the Gaelic Mac Adaidh, meaning "the son of Adam" or "son of the red earth". As a diminutive of Katherine, Keedie likely draws inspiration from Kitty, Katie, Kadie, or Kiki.

Tigger is the bouncing not-a-tiger from Winnie the Pooh, a symbol of buoyancy and resilience. As Tigger says in the books, he's "the only one", and it should probably stay that way when it comes to people names, though Tigger would certainly make a cute name for a cat.

Sweet and southern-feeling, maybe thanks to Horton Foote, author of Tender Mercies and The Trip to Bountiful, not to mention the Dr. Seuss connection.

Trapped somewhere in the nether region between Haddie and Catie, with the added confusion of sounding like someone who works on a golf course. Caddie Woodlawn was a TV heroine of the Old West in the 1980s. Caddie had its moment, but we don't see it becoming one of the more popular girl names starting with C.

Sal is a cute spin on the trend of boyish nicknames for girls, rarer than Sam or Ali.

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.

Looks very much like it lost its first initial.