Name News

The unusual name Maravene popped up in the U.S. baby name data just twice, both times in the 1910s: 1918: unlisted1917: 6 baby girls named Maravene1916: unlisted1915: unlisted1914: unlisted1913: 5 …

Wie seid ihr auf den Namen gekommen? Ich kann längst nicht mehr zählen, wie oft ich das Eltern in den letzten Jahren gefragt habe. Mal beim Kennenlernen, mal

Today: three pieces about alter egos, when your name - the words by which the world knows you - is replaced by another for particular purposes. How did John Doe come to be the name for a man, alive or dead, identity unknown or concealed in a legal matter? Strap in for a whirlwind ride into some

The second “R” is for “redundant.”

A few days ago, I posted some general advice about naming fictional characters. And today I have another character-naming tip to offer, but today’s tip is specifically for name-lovers plannin…

Did you know that author Anne Rice was born “Howard Allen O’Brien”? The vampire novelist (and creator of Lestat) was born in New Orleans in 1941 to Howard and Katherine O’Br…

Sie heißen Martin, Karli, Luna, Stella … die Helden und Heldinnen der von meiner Tochter sehr geliebten Bücher von Juma Kliebenstein. Als ich mich mit der

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his July 4th column, he looks at the history of the name Nathaniel. Nathaniel is the modern form of a Hebrew name meaning "gi

Hi Swistle! I am due with my second baby in June. We don’t know the sex, but if it is a girl my husband and I both love the first name Willa. In debating middle names, we’ve somewhat se…

Want to create your own memorable character names? Here are some strategies that work... and some pitfalls to sidestep.

Kansas newspaper editor Edgar Watson “E. W.” Howe published his first novel, The Story of a Country Town, in his own newspaper, the Atchison Daily Globe, in 1883. Encyclopedia Britannic…

He's tied to giants in black history. His middle name comes from Alexandre Dumas, the black French author of "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo." 

Brickler's great aunt was Harriet Tubman

We started at Jane, passed by June, took a turn at Gemma, and then there was Djuna Barnes's wonderful book Nightwood sitting on the shelf, and I became obsessed.