Top Ten Tuesday topic is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Character Names I Love or Top Ten Unusual Character Names, so I’m going to focus on the top 10 character names that I might not have been a favorite going into the story, but I came to like. This week’s list is no particular order.
1. Peeta, The Hunger Games
I’ve talked about this before… No I wouldn’t name my kid Peeta, but somehow the character was able to get me to believe that this was a completely acceptable and even a good name.
2. Catherine, Northanger Abbey
I already liked the name Catherine, but this was never my favorite spelling for the name. Well, it still isn’t, but I did come to like it more after reading Northanger Abbey.
3. Elizabeth, Pride and Prejudice
OK, the movie more so than the book but still, the movie wouldn’t exist without the book, and Elizabeth is the same person in both. Elizabeth is a strong yet feminine and classic name, and it was given to a character who fits the same bill.
4. Ryan, What’s Left of Me
Who am I kidding, I’ve loved the name Ryan for a long time. But liking the character Ryan in What’s Left of Me sort of revived it for me.
5. Elliot (for a girl), For Darkness Shows the Stars
Sometimes, taking a guy name and using it for a girl works. This is one of those times. Elliot was the perfect name for this character and I think it could work for some other girls too. Now Maxwell on the other hand, maybe not so much… looking at you, Jessica Simpson…
6. Kai, Cinder and For Darkness Shows the Stars
TWO great guys with the same name?! How could I not grow to appreciate it?!
7 & 8. Chloe and Cameron, Left Behind
When I read this book way back (like sixth grade I think?), I loved the characters Chloe and Cameron (AKA Buck, a name I also grew to love at the time) and I found myself really liking their names as well. As time has passed, I still like them both, though the nickname Buck doesn’t have quite the same appeal anymore. (Side note to explain picture: Cassi Thomson is playing Chloe Steele in Nic Cage’s reboot of Left Behind (after Ashley Tisdale dropped out), and Chad Michael Murray will be playing Cameron “Buck” Williams. I really hope the movie turns out OK…)
9. Gibson, Double Minds
This is from a book about a girl who is getting into the music business, and she and her brothers are all named after guitars, one of them being Gibson. Maybe it’s the fact that I live in the Nashville area, drive by Gibson headquarters almost daily, and love the look of their hollow-body guitars, but I like the name Gibson for a guy. So much so, in fact, I’m using it as a character name for my NaNoWriMo story!
10. Scout, To Kill A Mockingbird
I don’t know if this hit me quite the same way in high school as it does (even though I haven’t read the book in over ten years), but it’s such an interesting and fun name for a girl.
What character names from books do you love? Since I had so much fun with this list, next week I’ll do a Top 10 list dedicated to my favorite TV show character names!
Ode to Jo & Katniss 
I came to like Peeta as well! Especially if someone names a kid that and he’s British 😉 Great list!
British Peeta! That would be great!
How did I forget Peeta and Kai this week? I completely agree with you about Peeta’s name- when I first read THG I wasn’t too keen on it but once I finished Mockingjay I thought it suited him perfectly.
It definitely suited him well.
I really like ‘Ryan’ 🙂
Me too! Such a simple but nice name!
I like Elliot for the girl in For Darkness Shows the Stars. For that girl, in that world, in that story…it was perfect and I love her surname North.
I completely agree!
Peeta, lol! Nooo, I just can’t do it. I think of pita every time (especially since he’s a baker). I do adore the name Scout, though….. Especially for a girl!
The pita thing honestly never bothered me! Maybe if it was real life and I wasn’t looking at how it was spelled, but for some reason I thought it worked in the books.
When I first read To Kill a Mockingbird, I remember loving how they had a girl named Scout! I also really like Kai and Elizabeth! 🙂
Alice @ Alice in Readerland
Scout is just a fun name!
This week was hard for all of us over at the blog, so many amazing names to choose from! Looks like you had no trouble at all. 😉 Great picks!
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Andy @ Owl Always Be Reading
Names are something I think about a lot so I loved compiling this list!
Peeta and Scout both grew on me too. Like you, I wouldn’t call my kid those names, but they are good names.
They work well with the characters!
My brother and sister-in-law were seriously considering naming their daughter Jean Louise so they could call her Scout 🙂 Love it!
Funny! I had honestly forgotten her actual name.
Such great names! I’m not sure if I agree with you about Peeta — I’m Team Gale through and through 😉 — but for the rest, I absolutely love. Ryan’s one of my favorite guy names as well, but only because a lot of the Ryans I read about in books seem to be REALLY swoon-worthy. The same goes for the name Alex. I think I like Alex more. I’ve also always liked the name Elizabeth, even though people complain that it’s old-fashioned. Hey, you can come with some pretty sweet nicknames for a kid named Elizabeth, you know?! Ellie, Liz, Beth, El, Zab (weird, but cool sounding, you have to admit ;D), Liza, and a couple more.
I wanted to include Scout in my TTT, but then I thought I’d be the only one who’d like the name! Glad to see that I’m not. Scout is a really cool name for a girl. So cool that I might even name my daughter that one day. 🙂
I think it’s pretty cool too! I’d probably pick something more traditional for my own child, but it’s a fantastic character name for sure!
Team Gale = booooo. 😉
Peeta grew on me too..lol woo Team Peeta! I was happy at the end of that series 🙂
I gave my own daughter the middle name Elizabeth, I just loved it and thought it was classy..lol Plus went well with her first name, Kailyn.. yes, no “t” in there 🙂 If I have another daughter her middle name will be Jane, also from P&P 🙂
I also like “boy” names for girls..lol So Elliot for a girl is super cute.
I think Elizabeth and Jane are both great middle names! And I think Kailyn is a cute first name, too!
Thanks..lol We argue forever over girl names, luckily we are having a boy this time and we are old school for his name 😛
I think my husband and I are going to have an easier time agreeing to girl names than boy names, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes! Sounds like it’s a good thing you’re having a boy this time!
For sure..lol