My favourite girl names, aka characters I’d name my daughters after

Last week’s Top Ten Tuesday bookish meme was a freebie, meaning you could blog about whatever took your fancy, so long as it was in a list of up to ten. My fellow Aussie Owned coblogger, Emily Mead, went with “YA Characters I’d Name My Children After”, which I thought was such a cool idea that I’d run with it as a post. Only I’ve only done the five girls for now; I’ll have a bit more of a think about the boy names. (There are some I love but their sources aren’t books.)

My taste usually runs to “unusual but traditional”, and some of these aren’t traditional, so I don’t know if I’d actually go with them or not. But I’d give it some serious consideration, if I ever had five daughters.

Arwen. This is a tricky one, because although I love the poetry of Arwen’s name, part of me thinks naming a daughter after the most beautiful half-elf in The Lord of the Rings might be a “no pressure” kind of situation! (As an aside — and this may be controversial — but the movie version of Arwen is a much better role model than the one in the book, who mostly just stays home and lets her man do all the work. Tolkien wasn’t good at writing women.)

Aviendha. This is a name from The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. The character is a fierce warrior and learns to be a magic-using shaman type called a “wise one”. I imagine that she could be played by Karen Gillan, who was Amy Pond in Doctor Who. And what a gorgeous name! (Note: I also love the name Amelia/Amy, but since I got that from Doctor Who rather than a book, I won’t include it here. Oh, and I love Clara, also from Doctor Who.)

Gabriella, or Gaby. Gaby is the main character in Paula Weston’s The Rephaim series. And it’s such a beautiful name! Although I’d probably go with “Gabrielle” rather than adding that extra syllable on the end, just for ease of pronunciation!

Rhiannon. This name first came to my attention in Kate Forsyth’s series Rhiannon’s Ride. In fact, for a while Isla’s name in my trilogy was Rhiannon, but I changed it due to some personal stuff that happened at the time I was drafting what is now Isla’s Inheritance. Also, Rhiannon doesn’t start with i and alliteration is bloody beautiful. 😉

Isla. Ok, I’m being cheeky including this, AND I can’t actually use it now because I have written about her, but I really love the name Isla. I think it’s often true that writers give their characters names they would’ve given their children. (Apparently that’s where Stephanie Meyer got Isabella from.) I could be less shameless and say I got the name from Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins, but I haven’t even read it!

Honourable mention

Bella. I used to love the names Bella and Isabelle (and also Isabeau from The Witches of Eileanan by Kate Forsyth), but although Bella Swan is a gorgeous name — Meyer gets props for that — she’s not my favourite character around, so I’m not sure I could use this now.

What book character names do you love? 🙂