Literary Names

Names invented or popularized by a book or play. Several of the most ordinary-looking names in English use were coined by a single author and have been in circulation ever since.

Rankings for

23 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Roland Roland is a boy's name meaning famous land, and its bearer is the hero of France's national epic — a knight who dies at Roncevaux because he is too proud to blow his horn for help.
Boy Germanic 466 in 2025
Miranda Miranda was coined by Shakespeare for The Tempest around 1611, from the Latin for to be wondered at.
Girl Latin 437 in 2025
Briana Briana is a feminine of Brian, and it first appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene in 1590 — which makes it one of very few names whose earliest recorded use is a specific poem.
Girl Irish 431 in 2025
Myra Myra was invented by a poet — Fulke Greville coined it around 1580, probably by rearranging Mary, and every later meaning attached to it was supplied after the fact.
Girl English 429 in 2025
Jessica Jessica is a girl's name invented by Shakespeare for The Merchant of Venice in 1596.
Girl Hebrew 424 in 2025
Lara Lara is a girl's name of Russian origin, a short form of Larisa, and its meaning is unresolved — most often given as "citadel," after the Greek city of Larissa.
Girl Russian 409 in 2025
Louisa Louisa is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," a Latinate form of Louise.
Girl Germanic 407 in 2025
Angelica Angelica is both a name and a plant, and the plant is named for the angel — a medieval legend has one reveal it as a cure during plague, which is why it was grown in monastery gardens.
Girl Latin 398 in 2025
Ramona Ramona means protecting counsel, and a novel made it — Helen Hunt Jackson wrote Ramona in 1884 to expose the treatment of Native Californians, and readers took the romance and ignored the argument.
Girl Spanish 373 in 2025
Celia Celia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caelius, whose meaning is disputed between "heaven" and a much older Etruscan word.
Girl Latin 351 in 2025
Darcy Darcy is a name of Norman French origin meaning "from Arcy," a place in Normandy.
Unisex French 341 in 2025
Orlando Orlando is Roland with its consonants swapped — Italian moved the r, and the hero of the Song of Roland became the hero of Orlando Furioso, the same man under a rearranged name.
Boy Italian 275 in 2025
Byron Byron means at the cattle sheds — a working place name that became shorthand for romantic poetry, which is a longer journey than most names make.
Boy English 233 in 2025
Salomé Salomé is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "peace," and the woman the name is best known for is never named in the gospels.
Girl French 239 in 2025
Cedric Cedric was invented by Walter Scott in Ivanhoe in 1819, and it appears to be a misspelling — he took the Anglo-Saxon Cerdic and transposed the letters.
Boy English 209 in 2025
Clarissa Clarissa means bright, and it names one of the longest novels in English — Richardson's Clarissa runs to about a million words, which makes it longer than the whole of Proust in most editions.
Girl Latin 212 in 2025
Imogen Imogen is a girl's name that exists because of a printing error.
Girl Irish 211 in 2025
Roxanne Roxanne means dawn or bright, and it is Persian rather than Greek — Alexander married Roxana in Bactria, and she and their son were murdered after his death.
Girl Persian 170 in 2025
Wendy Wendy is usually credited to J.
Girl English 165 in 2025
Brenda Brenda is a girl's name from an Old Norse word for a sword or a torch, and it appears to have been invented for a novel — Walter Scott used it in The Pirate in 1822, and no earlier use is recorded.
Girl Norse 139 in 2025
Lucinda Lucinda was invented by Cervantes — the name appears in Don Quixote in 1605 and has no record before it, which makes it one of the few names on this site with a datable author.
Girl Spanish 116 in 2025
Tess Tess is a girl's name of Greek origin, a short form of Theresa whose meaning has never been established despite centuries of attempts.
Girl English 113 in 2025
Belinda Belinda is a literary invention with a snake in it — the Germanic element behind it is usually read as a serpent, and Pope's Rape of the Lock made the name fashionable in 1712.
Girl English 110 in 2025

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