Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Literary Characters I Would Name My Children After

So, we completely forgot the Top Ten Tuesday last week. We hear it takes 72 times of doing something before it becomes a habit, so long about 2013 we should be all set. Today we remembered, however, and it's a very timely topic as Miss Ami is expecting and has yet to settle on a name. Gender is unknown at the moment, making the process a little more difficult. We do hope that, as appropriate as "Freaky" might be for a turtle, she comes up with something a little kinder for a newborn baby.

Her choices, in no particular order:

1. Elizabeth, from The Paper Bag Princess. This is actually her daughter's middle name, and was a no-brainer. Who wouldn't want their daughter to grow up as competent and fun as Robert Munsch's Elizabeth, with the same healthy sense of perspective? Coupled with her first name (Sheridan), we have a name that means "Wild Gift from God." Perfect.

2. Meg, from A Wrinkle in Time. Perfect ugly duckling story - bright, caring, underappreciated young lady grows into beautiful, loving, wise mother.

3. Katniss, from The Hunger Games. Except there are probably a million little girls being named Katniss these days, so we'll let that one go. Still - great character! Do you see a trend in strong, intelligent females here?

4. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Timothy, David, Daniel...all the great "Bible names". Except, various cousins and so forth have already used those, and naming a baby "Ishtob" could be likened to naming him "Freaky".

5. Jeremy - as in Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. Great kid, great book. Miss Ami says she would love to have a son with a heart for animals (and people) who is also capable of standing up for what is right, willing to do the right thing even when it doesn't give him what he wants for himself.

6. Ella - as in Enchanted. See #s 1-3.

7. Jack - A good, solid name, with so many possible literary connections. Heck, in desperate times, we could even call him "Jack-Jack", as in the baby in The Incredibles who scares the babysitter away.

8. Stephanie, as in Plum, a la Janet Evanovich. Miss Ami used to want to be Stephanie Plum when she grew up. Now she wants to be Grandma Mazur.

That's all we've got right now. Of course, #4 would put us over 10 if you counted them all. Miss Ami and her husband do have one girl's name they've tossed around, Cheyenne, but we can't think of any literary characters to connect that with. Anyone???

****Note from Miss Ami: So, I mentioned to my husband that the most popular name from the other bloggers' lists seems to be Atticus. He immediately piped up with, "Hey, Jack Atticus!" You didn't have to read that out loud to groan, did you. Sigh. No, that is NOT a name we will be using. I did forget another great girl's name/character: Ronia, from Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. The cover art by Trina Schart Hyman (who I adored) is exactly how I pictured my youngest looking, and the attitude/ability to wrap a big old hairy man around the little finger is how I expected her to be. Well, she turned out blonde and blue-eyed somehow, but the other part? Oh, yeah!