100 things challenge - 30: Baby names, literature and movies

[birdienl]

After reading the novel Shirley by Charlotte Brontë (review coming soon) I was surprised to read that this novel made the name Shirley a female name for the first time. Before that, Shirley was a common boy's name, while today it's a very rare name for a man. This made me interested for the influence of literature and movies on trends in baby's names. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a really comprehensive article on this, so I'll leave you with just a short fact today.

Disney princess names saw big increases after the release of the animated movies: The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast made the names Ariel, Aurora and Belle popular in respectively 1989,1959 and 1991. 

The hype surrounding the Harry Potter books and the first movie coming out in 2001, made the name Harry jump from 6th to 1th place in the list of most popular British names and has remained in the top-3 until this year. 

If you know of any more baby names from classic or modern literature or movies, please let me know and add to the 'interestingness' of this post!

(Most popular baby names, female (left) and male (right) for 2012 in Britain)

Comments

[msantimacassar.livejournal.com]

How interesting! I'd love to see a study on this sort of thing...

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too! I'm sure it's already done in some form or other, I just couldn't find it!

[moonreviews]

Ken je deze site?
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/
Als je bijvoorbeeld naar mijn naam kijkt, zie je dat er recentelijk ineens een grote stijging is geweest: http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/Selene
Ik vermoed (heel sterk) dat dat komt door de "Underworld" films (die ik niet eens leuk vind, want vampieren tegen weerwolven = onzin...), waarin het hoofdpersonage dus Selene heet. Nog steeds niet superveel mensen :P Als je andere namen intypt verandert de schaal ook de hele tijd, moet je dus wel goed op letten.

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

Ja, dat is echt een leuke site! Daar kan ik uren tijd 'verspillen'. Ik was alleen meer op zoek naar een soort 'overzichtsartikel' over de invloed van literatuur en films op namen, ook vroeger (18e, 19e eeuw)

[moonreviews]

Gerrit Bloothooft heeft een vak over namen gegeven bij taalwetenschap: http://www.hum.uu.nl/medewerkers/g.bloothooft/onderwijs/Naamkunde/index.html
Er staan best wel veel links op die site, misschien staat daar wat tussen. En anders kun je 'm misschien wel mailen, hij werkte ook aan namenonderzoek bij het Meertens Instituut (kun je erbij zeggen dat ik je naar hem verwezen heb, zo nodig :P).

[amaranthine3.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting about the name "Shirley"! and I had no idea that my name is quite popular in Britain (Isabelle).
Here in my country I noticed that recently it's quite popular to either give children foreign names (particularly English ones) or change certain letters in Polish names, so that they look more foreign. Apparently years ago there was a boom for the name "Isaura" after a sopa opera which main character was named like that aired here, but I never noticed that.

[ever-maedhros.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Shakespeare made up the name "Miranda," and consequently gave us yet another girl's name to choose from, among many lovely ones. :)

I also read in a baby name book that names ending in -ley, like Shirley, were family or place names that were given mainly to boys, such as Ashley, Beverley, Kimberley, Lesley (or Leslie), Wesley, etc. Once they began to be used for girls, people stopped giving them to their boys. Looks like Leslie and Wesley are the only ones still given to boys. XD (Though I think most male Leslies are past a certain age now.)

I wonder if that great big AMELIA has anything to do with a certain Pond lady? ;)

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

Lots of authors have probably thought up names, though not all of them have ended up in the 'public domain'! For example, not many names of Tolkien have made it to 'real' people. I always thought that if I had an elegant grey coloured horse, I would give it an Elvish name!

Oh, that is interesting what you mention about names ending in -ley!

That could very well be, about Amelia!

[ever-maedhros.livejournal.com]

For example, not many names of Tolkien have made it to 'real' people.

Too bad! I'd love to give a daughter an Elvish name, or name a son after a man of Gondor. (Faramir!) But giving Elvish names to horses, as you suggested, would be a better idea. :)

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine had a bearded dragon called Bilbo. He died unfortunately, and I asked her if she would buy another, would she call it Frodo. No, she said, she thought Gandalf fitted better...

[ever-maedhros.livejournal.com]

Awwww. :)