Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this week's Top Ten Tuesday is a rewind! Looking back over all the TTTs I've missed, I picked this one from February 2011:
Top Ten Characters (Or Literary Figures) You'd Name Your Kids After
Because who DOESN'T occasionally sit pondering what they'd call their completely hypothetical and (thankfully) non-existent children? And when you're a book fiend there are so many brilliant names to choose from! Not only that, but a beautiful edition of a namesake book would make a fantastic gift for, say, a 16th birthday. See, I THINK about these things... Some of the names could obviously be strung together into a first AND middle name, so really, the combinations are endless. I have a feeling this might be harder than I thought...
Lorna Doone - This one's been set in stone for years! My first daughter (should I ever have one) will be Lorna Rose, after Blackmore's beautiful and feisty young heroine. I fell in love with the book - and the characters - as a young teenager, and with the BBC's gorgeous adaptation as well, and that was that!Lord Byron - I LOVE the name Byron for a boy, and always had it in mind for my first son. Not only was he a passionate, witty and brooding poet who cast his shadow over large swathes of my teen years, but She Walks in Beauty remains my all-time favourite poem. Now I just need a middle name...
Edmond Dantes - Or as he is perhaps better known, The Count of Monte Cristo. I actually like both Edmond AND Dante, so either would work. The epic story of a humble man wronged and imprisoned, only to rise again as a strong, intelligent and wordly avenger, this book absolutely blew me away. Incidentally, it was also my very first review on this blog! Yes, the Count is occasionally a bit scary - and very dangerous - but at his heart he is still Edmond Dantes, the hard-working sailor deeply in love with the beautiful Mercedes... That's got to be worth naming someone after, right?
Isabella - This has become seriously clichéd in recent years thanks to the number of breeding TwiHards who couldn't come up with a less obvious tribute, but it is a beautiful name. Not only is there the vampilicious Miss Swan, but Bella was the name of the title character in one of my favourite books as a child, The Enchanted Horse by Magdalen Nabb. She was a wooden horse who came to life at night under the tender care of a little girl, and the book always made me cry. Bonus point: Bella was also my great-grandmother's name.Jolyon Forsyte - That's pronounced Joe-lee-un, by the way. Like Lorna Doone, I fell in love with the book AND adaptation of The Forsyte Saga in my early teens. There are three generations of Jolyon Forsytes across the trilogy, all of them generous and kind-hearted; like the youngest, I'd probably shorten it to Jon. The alternative, of course, would be to go for good old John - perhaps as a middle name - which immediately brings to mind steadfast John Ridd (Lorna Doone), loyal John Watson (Sherlock Holmes) AND hard-working John Thornton (North and South)...
Beth March - When I was younger I, like every other wannabe-writer book-loving kid out there, always thought of myself as a 'Jo'. But over the years I've come to appreciate quiet Beth far more than her rowdier sister. Sweet, innocent and selfless, she's the one the other girls depend on without knowing it, the one they turn to for comfort and balance and a kind word. If you wanted to name your little girl after a literary character, you couldn't choose one much lovelier! Daphne du Maurier - Daphne is a beautiful name, and I love her novels (Rebecca is one of my favourite books), so this one's a bit of a no-brainer really. Not only is du Maurier a bit of a literary legend, but Daphne is also the name of one of the characters come good in Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series, AND it was the name of my stepdad's witty and wonderful mother. I didn't know her very well but she was a sweetheart, and sharp as a thumbtack!
Harry - Include Henry in this bunch, and you've got a hat trick of characters to choose from as a namesake: the dashing Sir Henry Curtis in King Solomon's Mines, the incorrigible Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and of course, the boy wizard himself. Plus Prince Harry was always my favourite... ;)Charlie - I know I only read The Perks of Being a Wallflower recently, but I completely fell in love with Charlie. It's a lovely name, and if I had a son who was even half as sweet, thoughtful and bookish as the blossoming young wallflower he was named after, I'd be a very lucky woman!
Come on then, fess up - if you had to name a child after a literary figure, who would it be? Perhaps you already have? And if you're a TTT participant, feel free to leave the link to your Top Ten Rewind in the comments so I can come a-visiting and check it out!
