Monday, June 11, 2018

Guest Blogger: Literary Baby Names



Today I am so happy to have my sister Michele as a guest blogger - I thought it would be fun for her to share the story of how she and her husband came up with their daughter's name!



Naming your new baby is one of the most important and nerve-wracking decisions of early parenthood. Strong contenders must work for a toddler and for your future lawyer/doctor/computer engineer. You may want something unique, but you don’t want family and friends to say “What were they thinking?” behind your back. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and it probably won’t surprise readers of this blog to know that ours came from literature. 

When we found out we were expecting a baby girl, we put our thinking caps on. My husband wanted something a little different, so we scoured baby name sites. We could not agree on anything!  One weekend we were watching a Harry Potter movie marathon on TV. As a joke, I suggested the name Luna to my husband, since he was always making comments about how Luna Lovegood is the character he would most like to be friends with.  

To my chagrin, he loved it.  At first, I was worried it was a little too different and that people would think it was weird.  However, when I thought about the character who inspired it, I began to fall in love. Luna Lovegood is such an amazing character in the Harry Potter books.  She is quirky and dreamy, but also brave, confident, loyal, and intelligent. These are all qualities that I hope my Luna exhibits one day.  
  
Let the Scarletts, Atticus’s and Lunas of the world unite! Do you know anyone who has drawn inspiration from literature to name their little one?

26 comments:

  1. I love Luna (the character and the name). A guy I went to college with named his kid Kipling. That was book-inspired. I know a lot of people who gave their kids “what were they thinking?” names. Sometimes names can be a little too unusual. I feel bad for some of those kids. No one will ever be able to pronounce their names.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. Yep, it's definitely a juggling act trying to pick something unique but that can also work for real life!

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  2. I named my budgie Poe after Edgar Allen Poe. He's kind of my baby so does that count too? :P

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  3. So fun! My son is named Christopher after Christopher Robin, and then his middle name is Link after the hero from the video game Zelda.

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  4. Luna is such a wonderful name choice. It's unique, but nothing too 'out there' and it just such a nice feeling attached. I'm still more than a couple years out from thinking about having kids, but already I get anxious thinking about choosing a name, haha! I'm so indecisive already and I have a feeling my boyfriend and I will not agree on a lot... but we'll see! I love the idea of picking names from literature (and even history, to an extent). I've definitely come across some names that make me wonder there origin, but to each their own. My cousin's little girl's name is Pepper, apparently from Pepper Potts from the Iron Man franchise. I'm not sure it's what I would pick, but it seems cute. Thanks for coming on as a guest blog, I love reading about how people pick out their children's names!

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    1. Thank you! I'm extremely indecisive as well, so it was difficult at first, but everything comes together. Now when I look at my Luna I can't imagine her with any other name, it just fits!

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  5. What a fun post! I absolutely love the name Luna for a girl. It's one of those great names that is so pretty and so unique yet common enough that people won't butcher the spelling or pronunciation. My husband and I didn't start picking out names until after we knew we were having a boy but I do remember we had a couple of literary names as contenders: Oliver after Oliver Twist and Jude from Jude the Obscure. We ended up going with a non-literary name in the end though and named our son Ian.

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  6. Aw, Luna is such a cute name! I have been pretty set on naming a boy Wade after I read Ready Player One :)

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  7. Aww i love this post! And Luna is such an adorable name!! <3

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  8. What a great story! I love the name Luna and love the character!!

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  9. For me, picking a name inspired by a book character would not only entail finding a name that sounds cool or pretty or unique, but also has good meaning behind it. Like, I probably wouldn't pick a villain's name for my kid! So I love that Luna Lovegood has all these amazing qualities. It makes the name so much more meaningful. It's such a big decision, and you guys did good!

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  10. It really is stressful! I am a single mom, so I was on my own with the naming, and I kept second guessing myself. As a kid, I was mad that my parents gave me such a long name. Eight letters are a lot to master when you are first learning to write, but then I gave my kid a name with 8 letters and no nickname. Failed!

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    1. LOL my Luna actually makes her name longer - she refers to herself constantly as Luna-bean, a nickname from the teachers at school!

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  11. Gosh, just naming a character is hard, I can only imagine how hard it'd be to name an actual child lol. But Luna is a wonderful name! And she's such a great character!

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  12. Awww! What a cute story! My little one is actually named Scarlett! :) So yay! Naming a child is soooooo hard isn't it!? And when the two of you have to agree on the same name... I guess you come to quickly realise how many people you both know and/or didn't like while growing up!!!!!!!!! Ha ha.

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    1. Scarlett is a beautiful name! LOL that is too true, one person loves a name and the other hates it because that kid was mean to them in school. It's rough!

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  13. Such a lovely post! I adore the name Luna - it's so pretty and whimsical and cute.

    I'm definitely going to name my kids after fictional characters :) One day!

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I'm so glad you stopped by, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Comments are always greatly appreciated!