A reader named Lauren writes:
I’m looking for a baby name inspired by literature, that begins with an L. It is by unique happenstance that both grandmothers and myself will have names that begin with an L- this is something we all want to pass on to my first born daughter, but I am displeased in my search.
I love questions like these. :)
My first thought was actually a male name — Larry, from Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge. But Larry’s full name is Lawrence, which is already related to Lauren’s name, so there’s probably no way to twist it into a usable baby girl name. (Though I guess Lorenza could work.)
Next I thought of Leora, my favorite character from Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith.
There’s also Lennie, from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It’s another male name, but it could be considered a short form of female names like Lena, Lenora or Lenore. (That last one could alternatively be inspired by Edgar Allan Poe‘s poem “The Raven”).
Other names I came up with represent characters I don’t particularly like, so I’m hesitant to “recommend” them…but I’ll mention a few anyway: Lenina from Brave New World, Lydia in Pride and Prejudice, Lily from The House of Mirth, and Lolita from…well, you know.
Finally, with a little help from Wikipedia, I found a few nice Shakespearean L-names: Lavinia from Titus Andronicus, Lucetta from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Luciana from The Comedy of Errors. (I’ve never read these particular plays, so I don’t know anything about the characters.)
What other literature-inspired L-names can you guys think of?
