Did you or would you name a child or a pet after a literary figure?

Oh, absolutely. We were going to name the baby I’m carrying Enoch for Enoch Root in Cryptonomicon by Stephenson but went with a diff name. Anyway, totally.

Yes, I am thinking of naming my dog – if I get her – Grommit. But definitely in any case, I just would not choose a very obscure name for a child. I did name my older son after the protagonists of two English novels I had read but I also liked the name.

Your question instantly made me think of this article.

Oh yes. Names in our future child repertoire:

Morgan Igraine
Arthur Myron
(Big fan of Arthurian legend, and Greek sculptors…)

I’m working on incorporating a Tolkien name somewhere. Maybe “Haldir” as a middle name. It has to have a normal sounding first name at least. I’m not making any child of mine a victim of Freakonomics.

If I get a horse I want to name it Pond Biscuit.

I wanted to name my daughter Jaquelin Marie, after Jackie K / O

I want a pet named Otto after a minor character in Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

I had two cats from the same litter named Faulkner and Hemingway. (not literary figures per se, but literary notables!)

A Siamese cat was named Chairman Mao.

Two dogs from the same litter were Mister Dillon and Chester.

A cat was named MacGyver.

I had a cat called Ulthar, after the H.P. Lovecraft story “The Cats of Ulthar”. When she had a litter, we called them Sarnath, Shub-niggurath, R’yleh, Kadath, and Hatheg-kla.

MacGyer is a great name for a cat!

I wanted to name a cat Mashie Niblik, which is a name for a golf club, but I loved the way it sounded.

For a child, it would depend on the name. For a pet, almost anything goes.

No, but when I get a dog I’m naming her Heylia, after a character on Weeds.

Would, could, but didn’t. Our kids named our cats. Best name was Kitten Kaboodle.

Yes, I have done both.

My son names his pets Bagherra and Nala.

I named a fish that wouldn’t die Rasputin. It was a small White Cloud fish and lived 6 years, outliving every other fish I brought in.

We had a cat named Huckleberry.

I named my cat Pippi, as in Pippi Longstocking. Not sure that counts as literature, but I’m going with it.

My grandaughters pet name is “Boo”, after the little girl on Monsters Inc. When she was younger she used to call her mom “Kittie” in response.

I wanted to name my daughter Rhiannon after Evangeline Waltons’ book “Song of Rhiannon” loosely based on the Welsh Mabinogion. But, I succumbed to pressure from my wife, her family and my family and she ended up being Brianna like every other frikkin’ girl of her age.

We named two of our cats after characters from John Wayne movies (Chance and Katy), and I once had a kitten named Pyewacket, from the ‘familiar’ in “Bell, Book and Candle”.

@augustlan My mom used to have a cat named Pyewacket!

In college I had two cats named Moxie and Pepsi after the characters from that beloved childrens book Bored of the Rings.

Does ‘Dutchess’ count as a literary figure? I have a dog named Dutchess. And can a state be a literary figure? I have a dog named Dakota. And….I think that Milo could be considered a literary figure, thanks to GailCalled, and I have a cat named Milo. Although I didn’t name him after Gail’s cat. I named him after one of my favorite jail birds.

I have Bored of the Rings! What a great parody.

“Way to a mans heart is through his stomach” said Goddam

“I was thinking the same thing” said Spam, fingering the hilt of his sword.