American Names

Writers’ Names in Usage

Elizabeth

My 100th post…wow!  Can you believe it?  Thank you all for reading and enjoying my site over the past few months.  Let’s hope for many more. 🙂

Now on to the post.  I was looking through the SSA 2015 data earlier today and noticed the name Cervantes, which was the surname of Don Quixote‘s author.  So then I wondered how popular other authors’ names were. 

Here are some writers’ names that were used as baby names in the U.S. last year! 

First Names:

  • Agatha (Christie) – 85 girls.  Poirot.
  • Alexandre (Dumas) – 111 boys.  The Count of Monte Cristo.
  • Bram (Stoker) – 48 boys.  Dracula.
  • Chinua (Achebe) – 5 boys.  Things Fall Apart.
  • Horatio (Alger) – 9 boys.  Famous for his “rags-to-riches” stories.”
  • Joanne (K. Rowling) – 95 girls. Harry Potter.
  • Khaled (Hosseini) – 99 boys.  The Kite Runner.
  • Toni (Morrison) – 177 girls.  Beloved.
  • Zelda (Fitzgerald) – #646.  Save Me the Waltz.
  • Zora (Neale Hurston) – 136 girls.  Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Middle Names:

  • Conan (Doyle, Arthur) – 58 boys. Sherlock Holmes.
  • Harper (Lee, Nelle) – Harper is currently the #10 girls’ name in the U.S., and ranks #722 for boys.  To Kill a Mockingbird. 
  • Reuel (Tolkien, John Ronald) – 8 boys. Lord of the Rings.
  • Zane (Grey, Pearl) – #232.  Zane Grey wrote westerns.  And yes, his name was Pearl!    

Last Names:

  • Austen (Jane) – 61 girls and 119 boys.  Pride and Prejudice.
  • Brontë (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) – 7 girls.  Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, respectively.  Bronte is also the name of an Ancient Greek thunder deity.  
  • Cervantes (Saavedra, Miguel de) – 6 boys.  Don Quixote.
  • Cooper (Fenimore, James) – #77.  Last of the Mohicans. 
  • Fitzgerald (F. Scott) – 73 boys.  The Great Gatsby.
  • Haddon (Mark) – 39 boys.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
  • Hawthorne (Nathaniel) – 25 boys.  The Scarlet Letter.
  • Hemingway (Ernest) – 5 boys.  The Old Man and the Sea.
  • Huxley (Aldous) – #960.  Brave New World.
  • Kipling (Rudyard) – 5 boys.  The Jungle Books.
  • Lewis (C. S.) – #569.  Chronicles of Narnia.
  • Milton (John) – 152 boys.  Paradise Lost.
  • Poe (Edgar Allan) – 9 boys.  Murder in the Rue Morgue.
  • Salinger (J.D.) – 5 boys.  The Catcher in the Rye.
  • Shelley (Mary) – 13 girls.  Frankenstein.
  • Wilde (Oscar) – 7 boys.  The Picture of Dorian Gray.

What do you think?  Are there any other writers’ names you’d add to this list? 

 

Published by Elizabeth

2 thoughts on “Writers’ Names in Usage”

  1. Tamora Pierce used to be my favorite fantasy author when I was younger as well as Meredith Ann Pierce (no relation); Cecilia Dart-Thornton; Patrick Dennis (whose real name was Edward Everett Tanner III); Cornelia Funke; Frank Herbert; Clive Barker; & Neil Gaiman; and Nathaniel Hawthorne- I’ve always thought the name Hawthorne would make an excellent first name.

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  2. I just came across a British screenplay writer and playwright by the name Timberlake Wertenbaker and as far as I can tell it’s her given name- and yes, the author is a woman. When I first read the name I just assumed it was a man because Timberlake seems so masculine to me- or maybe because the only Timberlake I’ve ever come across is Justin Timberlake. Either way I think it’s a really cool, unusual and interesting name and I would like to know how she received her name.

    Anyway, I just thought I’d share it 🙂

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