Weekly Geeks 2009.6: What's in a Name?

The Weekly Geeks assignment this week is to explore the names of some of our favorite characters and share what we've learned and if it seems to fit the character's... well... character!

After some pondering, here's a few I've come up with:

Anjuli: the heroine from The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye... one of my favorite books and a name I remember thinking was so pretty. I looked it up and it means "gift to God" in Hindi. Perfect for this character I'm thinking.

Tess: of Tess of the D'urbervilles (Thomas Hardy) fame. Looking this up, I've learned that it's a nickname for Teresa, an English name meaning "late summer." Once again, I think this fits the character quite well. Poor Tess.

Molly: from Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. This is a nickname for Mary... interesting. And Mary (English) means "wished-for child" according to this site anyway. Hmmm... don't know that this has much to do with our Molly. What do you think?

I'm having more trouble with the male character names. I keep thinking of the made up ones!

Well, how about:

Collin: from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Another English name, this one meaning "victorious people." And, once again, it's a actually a nickname for Nicolas. Is Collin victorious in his particular story? I would say, yes. Sure!

Edward: I couldn't resist! An old English name meaning "wealth protector." Interesting. It would make more sense for Twilight purposes if it meant just plain old protector. Another interesting tidbit from my research.... it says this: "This name was popular earlier in the 20th century, then fell off in usage, but has begun making a comeback in recent years." Got a kick out of that.

Gilbert: from Anne of Green Gables of course. It's an old French name meaning "bright promise." I think that fits our Gilbert perfectly!

Fun little exercise! But I think the thing I learned the most is that I have a hard time remembering character names from all the books I've read!