Happy Tuesday! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week we’re talking about fictional character names that you would like to name a child, pet, or car.
We like to name our family members after authors. One of our cats is named for Isabel Allende – when we’re mad at her it turns into Isabella, a la Queen Isabella of Castile. Our daughter is named after one of my favorite authors. It is a short, four-letter name that we always thought was easy to spell and pronounce. Little did I realize how many variations could be made of her supposedly simple name!
If we ever had any more children (we won’t), here are ten names that will be equally hard for future generations of teachers to work out during the first week of school. I find them all beautiful and unique! One name on the list is actually from a book I haven’t read yet, but I have heard about it so much, and I love the name, so onto the list it goes!
Kerewin
From The Bone People by Keri Hulme (1984 Booker Prize winner).
Olamina
From Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. Technically, this is the main character’s last name, but I think it sounds beautiful as a first name!
Celaena
From the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I haven’t read the series, but I love the name. Sounds a bit like Selena, which reminds me of Zelena, which is another name I happen to like.
Kell
From A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I always love one-syllable guy names.
Laila
From A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Katniss
From The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I have thought often about naming a cat Katniss, and if it wasn’t so popular I would attach it to a child, too!
Zeb
From The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood.
Lisbeth
From The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
Serafina
From Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty. I adore this name.
Fraser
From the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I wouldn’t name a child or pet Jamie or Claire, but I love the clan name Fraser.
I also have a few runners-up that almost made the Top Ten: Hermione from Harry Potter; Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Olanna from Half of A Yellow Sun, and Alina from Shadow and Bone.
4thhouseontheleft 
I think my favorite from your list would be Laila – it’s a very beautiful name! ❤ 🙂
Here are the names I chose:
https://mreadsbooks.wordpress.com/2016/10/18/ttt-6-characters-id-name-a-child-after/
I do love that name! There are actually a lot of names that I love that are either from the Arabic or Farsi languages. I like the Arabic spelling, Layla, just a bit more than Laila. But they are both pretty!
Agreed! I just tried to figure out which spelling I like better, but so far I’ve been unable to make a decision 😀
I almost put Serafina on my list. I love the sound of it. Great list!
I just read it last week, and we took a day trip to Asheville on Saturday, so it was fresh in my mind! Thanks for stopping by!
I will add Jorg to this list – this is a character from a fantasy series by Mark Lawrence – I spent the entire series reading this name exactly as it is spelt when in actual fact I think the ‘J’ has a ‘G’ sound – so more like George!
Lynn D:
I always find it interesting at my book club, when a monthly selection has unusual character names, to hear how other people pronounce them!
This is such a creative twist on the topic! There are so many different ways to pronounce all of these names.
Some great names on your list!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/18/top-ten-tuesday-79/
I’ve not read them, but I also like Celaena as a name. It’s definitely unique, which I always think is a plus for a novel. Serafina’s pretty and of course, Katniss made my list also. Thanks so much for visiting Finding Wonderland. 🙂
Celaena…. So pretty! Also liked Olanna. Picking out favorite names is so fun! I do it all the time – which is troubling since I have no children or pets to name…