Movie Character Names

Writer Jerzy Kosinski put this foreign variation on the U. S. name map.

This snappy nickname may remind some of the 1985 Chevy Chase movie of the same name.

City name less mellifluous than Paris, London, or even Trenton. It was the name of the character portrayed by Leonardo di Caprio in "Gangs of New York."

Proof that villain names are just as cool as heros': Namaari was the top debut of 2021 — given to 43 baby girls the year Raya and the Last Dragon premiered. In 2022 it rose to 66 girls, and also debuted on the male chart, given to six boys.

We all know that Chaka really means disco.

Siggy is the softer side of Ziggy, a more familiar name thanks to Ziggy Marley.

Korben is a spelling that gets some attention since Bruce Willis's character name in The Fifth Element was Korben Dallas.

Khorshid, also found as Khurshid, is the Persian word for sun and is also the name of a place in Iran. The name is found mostly in Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan and can be used for both boys and girls. Khorshid, anglicized as Sun Children, was the title of an Iranian film about street children. Khorshid Khanom, or Sun Lady, was an ancient fertility and water goddess.

Wildly optimistic -- and unrealistic -- choice.

The Steen, Steena, and Stina nicknames for Christina are much more common in Scandinavia than in the English-speaking world, which prefers the Chris variations.

The Persian Golnar is likely a more wearable version of this ruby-colored fruit than this Thai name.

Name invented for the 2017 movie The Florida Project.

Though Drew Barrymore played Bjergen Kjergen in "Wayne's World," any theoretical real-life use would be for a boy.

Name of a feminist air pirate with an evil bent, Sala is also the word name for 'room' in Spanish. Salah is a common Arabic name.

She looked like a model but she was really an evil many-tentacled monster in Men in Black: your child will never forgive you if you choose this name. And neither will we.

Peppy is undeniably cute, but we bet that after a while the jokes aren't.

Kirsten Dunst played a young woman named Lidda, a synthetic name you may consider as a variation of Biblical place-name Lydda or as a short form of Phyllida.

A smoosh name used by Gregory Maguire in his book Wicked and the subsequent musical. It blends Rose with Nessa, which can be a short form of Vanessa (or other -nessa names), an anglicized variation of Irish Neasa, or a Hebrew name meaning "miracle".

The name of a Munchkin in L Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, who plays a much larder role in the spin off Wicked novels and musical. The meaning of the name is unknown, but it could come from Bock, a type of German beer, from Baroque, a grand, detailed and sublime style of art and architecture, or as a spin of the word 'bog'.