Years and years ago, which does not at all feel that long but turns out it was s e v e n years ago, I did a post focusing on a family who had brought their love of literature to the naming of their children, with absolutely fantastic results. The mom, Meghan, emailed me recently to give a family update! And she gave me permission to share it with all of you! They’ve since had two more babies and added two pets to their household, all with names right out of books — check these out:

Children (the names of the first three are explained more fully in that previous post)

Flannery Ellen (Flannery O’Connor)

Harper Edel (To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee)

Willa Margaret (Willa Cather)

Lucy Maude (Anne of Green Gables author LM Montgomery)

Wendell Thomas (poet and novelist Wendell Berry)

Pets

Wilder (dog, inspired by Little House on the Prairie)

Pip (cat, from Dickens’ Great Expectations)

Amazing, right?! And for extra fun, they’re expecting another baby!! Meghan writes,

“[B]aby #6 is on the way! … We’ll see where we land for the next baby! I’m fighting for Rumer for a girl, Flannery votes for Jane or Beatrix and my husband is STILL trying to make JD happen.”

Rumer nods to Rumer Godden; I assume Jane is for Jane Austen and/or Jane Eyre and Beatrix for Beatrix Potter; and Meghan said this about JD in the previous post:

“J.D.- One of my husband’s favorite books is the Catcher in the Rye, so he was really trying to talk me into Jerome David, but I just can’t get on board with initials … or Jerome for that matter.“

These were my thoughts from back then, which I still quite like (some of which were inspired by this post on Catholic literary names and others by the Baby Name Wizard):

• I personally think Gilbert is a slam dunk for them — I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think “Gilbert Blythe” upon hearing the name, so to me it fits in perfectly with the obviously literary first names their girls have, and that tie-in with G.K. Chesterton is so great!
• Caspian (b) for C.S. Lewis, loooove!
• Brede (for In This House of Brede, which wasn’t on Meghan’s list but I like Brede! Reminds me of Bridey from Brideshead Revisited, and it’s said like the Irish name Bríd)
• Ransom (from C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy) — extra bonus is that Ransom is in my book of Marian names for her title Our Lady of Ransom!
• Darcy (Mr. Darcy! But I like it better for a girl)
• Scarlett (she’s got that Irish thing going on too!)
• Jules (Jules Verne)
• Barrett (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
• Bennet (the Bennet sisters)
• Tennyson (such a cool name!)
• Gulliver (I always thought Gulliver and Tennyson would make a cool pair of brothers)

Also, over the last few days I kept thinking about initials JD and while for Meghan’s husband, JD needs to be for Jerome David because that was Salinger’s given name, I wondered if he might be open to JD initials being the nod to Salinger and using a different combo than Jerome David? Maybe Meghan would be okay with that too? Especially if they didn’t use JD as the call name? I had some fun coming up with J and D options for boys:

• Jules as mentioned above (Jules Verne, who “lived and died a Catholic” per New Advent)
• Johnston (Zorro creator Johnston McCulley; this article calls Zorro the “original Catholic superhero”!)
• Jacob (Jacob Marley in “A Christmas Carol”)
• Dante or Dantès (for Inferno author Dante, or The Count of Monte Cristo‘s Edmond Dantès)
• D’Artagnan (one of the Three Musketeers)
• Dashwood (the Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility)
• David (could be for Dickens’ David Copperfield ; also, David is in my book of Marian names)
• Don (Don Quixote, whose titular character is argued to be “inseparable from the teachings of Catholic orthodoxy.” I know in this case “Don” is a title rather than a name, but it can still work)
• Drew (Nancy Drew)

I also wondered if Meghan’s husband would be open to considering JD for a girl? Like Jane Dante?

Anyway! Meghan and I would both love to hear any ideas you all might have for her little one on the way! Let’s hear them!

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For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!