Top Ten Tuesday: Characters You Would Name Your Kids After

The "Top Ten Tuesday" meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and this week's topic is characters we'd name our kids after.

It's been a while since I've done a Top Ten Tuesday post so I'm glad to be joining in the meme again, and the topic this week is such a fun one!

1.) Alanna of Trebond (The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce) — I totally idolized Alanna when I was a kid. She's so full of energy and courage and can do anything she puts her mind to! Plus I just like the sound and spelling of the name.

2.) Elinor Dashwood (Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen) — Elinor embodies a quiet strength and perseverance that is very admirable. Also, I prefer this spelling to Eleanor.

3.) Meliara Astiar (Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith) — Meliara has plenty of faults but there is much to look up to in her character as well. She's extremely determined to do what is right (even when she doesn't know exactly what that is) and tries hard to educate herself so she can make better decisions as the novel progresses. And I really like the way her name rolls off the tongue.

4.) Taran of Caer Dallben (The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander) —I love Taran, he grows from an impetuous boy into a steady leader and we get to see this development through the series! His name isn't fancy, but it's solid and dependable, like him.

5.) Cassia (Matched by Ally Condie) — Her name just sounds really beautiful. And Cassia may start out blind to the problems in her society, but she gradually gains a greater awareness of everything that's going on around her, and I'm looking forward to seeing her character develop even further in the next books.

6.) Ophelia (Hamlet by Shakespeare) —Okay, um, I wouldn't really name my kid Ophelia because the name is way too famous and her character doesn't exactly meet a pleasant end. But I do like the way it looks and sounds.

7.) Eleda (The Truth-Teller's Tale by Sharon Shinn) — I like that her name is "Adele" backwards (Adele is her twin) and I much prefer her character to her sister. Eleda is a truth-teller, so she is honest, forthright, and she takes things seriously.

8.) Jasmyn (Jasmyn by Alex Bell) — I wasn't that thrilled with her character, actually, but I absolutely love the spelling of her name. Jasmine ordinarily is quite pretty anyway, but Jasmyn just makes it a little more exotic.

9.) Kent — there are two fictional Kents I like, actually. One is from Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, and the other is from Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn. And interestingly enough they both are honourable guys who try to do the right thing and have to deal with girls who need to learn to be a bit more aware of themselves and others.

10.) David (the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld) — I've always really liked the name David, I think it's my favorite guy name, so perhaps I was already a little biased towards his character when we first meet him in Uglies. Nevertheless, he's got some great qualities: he's competent and confident living in the wild, he's extremely loyal and trustworthy, and he never gives up.

Judging from this list it looks like if I have a daughter she'll end up with a three-syllable name ending in 'a', and if I have a son he will get a shorter and perhaps old-fashioned-sounding name, LOL.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Unfortunate Character Names

The "Top Ten Tuesday" meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and this week's topic is unfortunately named characters.

So, in no particular order...

1.) Mundungus Fletcher from Harry Potter — It's a fun name to say, but the whole second syllable of "dung" makes it a very unfortunate name to have.

2.) Gollum/Smeagol from Lord of the Rings — the poor guy has 2 names to choose from and they are both equally awful! No wonder he was so evil. Grima Wormtongue gets an honourable mention here, because really, who wants a last name like that?

3.) Mr. Kissler from Golden by Jennifer Lynn Barnes — because he's the villain, and yet his name contains the word "kiss." Also because when you say "Mr. Kissler" out loud it almost rhymes...

4.) A huge number of names from Lloyd Alexander's The Iron Ring. I love Lloyd Alexander's writing, but the names in this one? They are very strange. Hashkat, Garuda, Rajaswami, Adi-Kavi, Nahusha...I can't decide which is the most unfortunate!

5.) Multiple names from Margaret Buffie's The Watcher's Quest series: Huw (how do you even pronounce that?), Eefa, Gormala, Yegg, Badba... once again, I just can't choose.

6.) Ancilla Trent from Georgette Heyer's The Nonesuch — because it makes her sound about a hundred years old, and she isn't. Runner-up: her love interest Waldo. *shudders*

7.) Jehu from Jennifer Holm's Boston Jane series — Great character, but I never knew how to pronounce his name. Was it like "jeh - hoo" or was it kind of Spanish, like "yay - hoo"? I dunno, in my head it usually sounded like the first one until I started trying to puzzle it out again, at which point I often ended up getting "hey - you" out of it, which can't be right.

8.) Alis from Denise Jaden's Losing Faith — Because he's a guy, and he's saddled with the nickname of "Alis" for "Alistair." No matter how you spin that, it's still pretty unfortunate.

9.) Helmut from Martha Attema's When the War is Over — I'm sure it is nothing out of the ordinary to those familiar with German names, but for me, I tend to think of "helmet" when I see it.

10.) St. John from Jane Eyre — I always thought the pronunciation of it as "sin - jun" (that's how it's said in the movie versions) was pretty ridiculous, to begin with... and secondly why would anybody name their child "Saint" anything? *shakes head*