The Baby Names Authors Chose for their Own Children

Authors have to select names time and again for their characters. And a few of them are fairly improbable at it. Shakespeare helped invent the names Olivia, Miranda, and Jessica, which all are widespread at present. Charles Dickens gave his characters names that represented their personalities, from the miserly Scrooge in A Christmas Carol to the pompous Mr. Pumblechook in Great Expectations. And all of us ought to bow to Jane Austen for naming her most lovely, hottest, most excellent character after herself in Pride and Prejudice. Many children at present are named for iconic literary characters or authors. Harper, Atticus, and Scout have all change into widespread names impressed by To Kill a Mockingbird. And Matilda, Eloise, Ramona and Madeline all are definitely getting a lift from the affiliation with their spunky kids’s guide characters. Authors use names to represent many points of their characters and in doing so create many sturdy associations. But this made me curious. Since authors might be so intentional and particular with their character names, what names do they select in terms of having their personal kids?

Most authors create extra books than offspring (Tolstoy is the one exception I do know of, with 13 kids). And every guide has dozens of characters to call. So I’m assuming many writers save their favourite names for their kids. Or in some circumstances their kids share names with a few of their most iconic characters. I suppose their spouses in all probability had some say within the matter too!

This curiosity led me down a deep analysis rabbit gap. One that many in all probability discover boring, however I acquired an increasing number of fascinated by with every Wikipedia article I clicked on. Without additional babbling from me, listed here are the names over 60 authors selected for their personal kids.

Baby Names Chosen By Authors of Classic Literature

• William Shakespeare’s three kids had been named Hamnet, Judith, and Susan.
• Geoffrey Chaucer had 4 kids named Thomas, Agnes, Lewis, and Elizabeth.
• The wonderful character-namer Charles Dickens was virtually as prolific as a father as he was a fiction author. His kids had been named Charles, Mary, Kate, Walter, Francis, Alfred, Sydney, Henry, Dora, and Edward.
• Leo Tolstoy’s 13 kids had been named Sergei, Tatyana, Ilya, Lev, Maria, Peter, Nikolai, Varvara, Andrei, Michael, Alexie, Alexandra, and Ivan.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky’s kids had been named Lyubov, Alexey, Sonya, and Fyodor.
• Mark Twain named his kids Clara, Jean, Susy, and Langdon.
• Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley named their kids Percy, William, and Clara.
• Herman Melville’s kids had been named Elizabeth, Malcolm, Frances and Stanwix.
• Maya Angelou had one son named Guy.
• George Orwell gave his son the mouthful of identify Richard Horatio Blair.
• Gabriel García Márquez had two sons named Rodrigo and Gonzalo.
• Alex Haley named his kids Cynthia, William, and Lydia.
• James Joyce’s two kids had been named Giorgio and Lucia.
• Chinua Achebe’s kids had been named Nwando, Chidi Chike, Chinelo, and Ikechukwu.
• Wole Soyinka had 5 kids named Olaokun, Iyetade, Moremi, Makin, and Peyibomi.
• Salman Rushdie named his two kids Zafar and Milan.
• John Steinbeck’s sons had been named Thomas and John.
• Alice Walker had one daughter named Rebecca.
• Toni Morrison named her sons Slade and Harold.
• Francis Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald initially named their solely daughter Patricia, however famously modified her identify to Frances Scott after her father when she was nonetheless an toddler. And she was known as Scottie.
• Ernest Hemingway had three sons named Gregory, Patrick, and Jack.
• William Faulkner named his daughter Jill.

Names Mystery Writers Chose for their Children

• Arthur Conan Doyle’s brood had been named Adrian, Arthur, Mary Louise, Jean, and Denis.
• Agatha Christie named her solely daughter Rosalind.
• Daphne Du Maurier’s three kids had been named Christian Frederick, Flavia, and Tessa.
• P.D. White’s two daughters had been named Claire and Jane.
• Dashiell Hammett named his daughters Mary Jane and Josephine.
• Dorothy L. Sayers had one son, who she named John Anthony.
• James Patterson’s one youngster was named Jack.
• John Grisham named his kids Shea and Ty.
• Stephen King named his kids Joe, Naomi, and Owen.
• Gillian Flynn gave her surname to her son when she named him Flynn.

Names Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Gave Their Children

• J.R.R. Tolkien named his kids John Francis, Michael Hilary, Christopher John, and Pricilla Anne.
• Isaac Asimov had two kids named Robyn and David.
• Ursula Ok. Le Guin named her kids Elisabeth, Theo, and Caroline.
• Neil Gaiman named his kids Anthony, Holly, Maddy, and Michael.
• Diana Wynn Jones named her three sons Richard, Colin, and Michael.
• Ann Rice named her kids Christopher and Michele.
• Margaret Atwood named her daughter Eleanor.
• Nnedi Okorafor named her daughter Anyaugo.
• Jules Verne had one son named Michel.
• Frank Herbert named his three kids Brian, Bruce, and Penny.
• Philip Pullman had two sons named Thomas and James.

Baby Names Romance Novelists Chose for their Children

• Nora Roberts had two sons named Jason and Dan.
• Jude Devereaux named her son Sam Alexander.
• Julie Garwood had two sons named Bryan and Gerry Jr.
• Brenda Jackson named her two sons Gerald and Brandon.
• Kathleen Woodiwiss named her kids Sean, Heath, and Dorren.
• Rosemary Rogers named her kids Roseanne, Sharon, Michael, and Adam.
• Lisa Kleypas named her two kids Griffin and Lindsay.
• Barbara Cartland had three kids named Raine, Ian, and Glen.

Names Chosen by Children’s Authors for their Kids

• Eric Carle had two kids named Rolf and Cristen.
• Roald Dahl named his kids Olivia, Tessa, Theo, Lucy, and Ophelia.
• Madeleine L’Engle had three kids: Bion, Maria, and Josephine.
• Jacqueline Woodson named her kids Toshi Georgiana and Jackson-Leroi.
• Edith Nesbit had 5 kids named Fabian, Rosamund, Paul, John, and Iris.
• A.A. Milne famously borrowed his son’s identify Christopher Robin for the enduring character in Winnie the Pooh.
• L.M. Montgomery had three sons named Chester, Stuart, and Hugh.
• Judy Blume’s kids had been named Lawrence and Randy.
• Beverly Cleary had two kids named Malcolm James and Marianne Elizabeth.
• Christopher Paul Curtis named his 4 kids Cydney, Steven, Ebyaan Hothan, and Ayaan Leslie.
• Kwame Alexander named his daughter Samayah.

It was attention-grabbing to see so many widespread names that authors selected for their kids. Maybe a few of them saved their creativity for their fiction? Or they only determined to go along with extra mainstream choices. But whereas there are numerous Michaels and Elizabeths on the checklist, there are some distinctive names that stand out as properly. Two names that caught my eye had been Toni Morrison’s son Slade and Roald Dahl’s daughter Ophelia. Such cool names! And probably the most stunning identify to me was Melville’s son Stanwix. I’ve by no means heard that one earlier than. My curiosity on what names authors selected for their personal kids has been happy…no less than for proper now.