Still wondering...

[entitled]

How much do you think popular fiction has changed people's naming habits throughout history? There is a correlation between fictional characters' names being made up and those names starting to appear as children's names a year or two later, but how much does that actually happen?

 

[minsue]

I think it probably happens a lot more often with movies than it does with books, sadly.

 

[zeb1094]

I know my next kid will be named 'Rock' even if it's a girl.

 

[entitled]

I think it probably happens a lot more often with movies than it does with books, sadly.

Now it does, yes, but what about before movies?

 

[3113]

As a lover of "names," I would say that books have had influence, but, on a large scale, only with "best sellers" (unless you want to count the Bible, in which case, we have to say that A BOOK has had a major influence on names. But I assume you're talking popular literature, not religion?). Let's remember, first, that prior to the early 19th century there was not, in Western civilization, that much of a readership--or that many books published. Most folk were illiterate, and books were expensive.

In the 19th century was the first time a growing middle class created a real reading class AND when book prices started to come down enough (and people had money enough) for books to be wildly read. Hence creating best sellers and popular authors, like Dickens, arguably the first superstar author.

Now given all that, we also get into chicken-and-egg territory. Do authors give characters common popular names, and so are just reflecting a naming trend, or do they create a naming trend?

Certainly, people do name kids after names they saw and liked in a book, or after their favorite character. Sigorney Weaver's name comes from a name in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby--a name her mom liked, but which does not belong to any of the major characters. And I once knew a laid-back surfer guy named Aslan. He was quite mellow about that name.

On the whole, however, naming trends happen and books rarely have an influence on them. Names do go through phases, with years where old-fashioned names like "Hannah" are popular, and years when more modern names are popular, like "Tiffany." When this happens, there is rarely a root cause (though there might be one: song, book, movie, popular t.v. show, comics....). The naming trend of the 60's (naming kids "Rainbow" and "Peace") didn't happen because of a book, just because that was the zeighist of the time, to go for nature oriented, "hippy" names.

So, finally getting to the question: I'd say that books have more of an influence on individuals when it comes to names and naming--a mom or dad's favorite book or character--than on naming trends in general.

 

[oggbashan]

In the UK, the names of Royal children were significant influences. 'Charles' and 'Anne' date some people. Before that, the names Elizabeth, Margaret and even earlier Alexandra was popular.

One of my wife's relations was named after FRENCH generals in WWI. I had a friend called Albert (after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort) and Winston (from Churchill).

Kylie, from Kylie Minogue, has been a choice for many years since her first appearance in an Australian soap shown here. Names from 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours' WERE seen as exotic. Now they are everywhere.

Names from, or popularised by books:

Alice (Lewis Carroll)
Allegra (Byron's daughter)
Amy (Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth)
Ayesha (Rider Haggard)
Ernest (Oscar Wilde)
Heidi (Johanna Spyri)
Kim (Rudyard Kipling)
Lancelot (Morte D'Arthur)
Lara (Pasternak Dr Zhivago)
Malvina (Poet James MacPherson 1736-96)
Myra (Fulke Greville)
Nancy, Ruth, Susan (but not TITTY) (Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons)
Rowena (Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe)
Zuleika (Max Beerbohm)

Og

 

[TheEarl]

I'm astonished no-one's mentioned 'Wendy', a name which JM Barrie actually completely made up for Peter Pan.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

I've a book in my library that is nothing but names taken from literature. It was intended as a baby name book, but I use it for reference and to name the occasional character.

I wonder how many of the names in Shakespeare's plays were "made up"?

 

[TheEarl]

I've a book in my library that is nothing but names taken from literature. It was intended as a baby name book, but I use it for reference and to name the occasional character.

I wonder how many of the names in Shakespeare's plays were "made up"?

I know the name Perdita was invented by Shakespeare for 'A Winter's Tale'

The Earl

 

[CharleyH]

How much do you think popular fiction has changed people's naming habits throughout history? There is a correlation between fictional characters' names being made up and those names starting to appear as children's names a year or two later, but how much does that actually happen?

Not much, but soap operas do

 

[3113]

I wonder how many of the names in Shakespeare's plays were "made up"?

Well, but are those names that were made up by Shakespeare--or were popularized by him by being in his plays. For example, Juliet certainly existed prior to Shakespeare, but his play certainly popularized the name. On the other hand, I doubt there were many--if any!--Mirandas or Ariels before Shakespeare wrote the Tempest.

 

[Guest]

How much do you think popular fiction has changed people's naming habits throughout history? There is a correlation between fictional characters' names being made up and those names starting to appear as children's names a year or two later, but how much does that actually happen?

All my kids got traditional Anglo-Gaelic names.

My mom named me after a ballerina in a painting, my brother for the land he should have been born to defend, and my sister from an ancient novel entitled "To HAve and To Hold" which was printed in 1734 and I inherit far too soon for my taste. She read it to us when we were 10, 7, and 5.