The Sweetest Book-Inspired Baby Names
It’s never too early to give kids a love of reading. What better way to do it than to name your child something literary? Whether you met your partner at a book club, you took a literature class together, or you’ve always loved chatting about your latest reads, these baby names inspired by books are an adorable and romantic way to honor the influence of books in your life.
Some of these names have a beautiful vintage feel, while others are more modern. Some reference iconic children’s books, some are beloved characters from the classics, and others take their inspiration from famous authors. Whatever you choose, your love of books will shine through. After all, as Shakespeare says, “What’s in a name?... a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Boy names inspired by books
Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Atticus (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Cullen (Twilight)
Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
Dorian (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
Gulliver (Gulliver’s Travels)
Harry (Harry Potter)
Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)
Holden (Catcher in the Rye)
Huck (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
Ishmael (Moby Dick)
Max (Where the Wild Things Are)
Milo (The Phantom Tollbooth)
Oliver (Oliver Twist)
Paul (Dune)
Percy (The Lightning Thief)
Samwise (The Hobbit)
Sawyer (Tom Sawyer)
Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
Winnie (Winnie the Pooh)
Girl names inspired by books
Alice (Alice in Wonderland)
Anna or Anne (Anna Karenina, Anne of Green Gables)
Celie (The Color Purple)
Charlotte (Charlotte’s Web)
Cosette (Les Miserables)
Daisy (The Great Gatsby)
Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice)
Emma (Emma)
Jane (Jane Eyre)
Jo (Little Women)
Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
Liesel (The Book Thief)
Lucy (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Lyra (The Golden Compass)
Madeline (Madeline)
Matilda (Matilda)
Meg (A Wrinkle in Time)
Nancy (Nancy Drew)
Rebecca (Rebecca)
Scarlett (Gone With the Wind)
Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Sula (Sula)
Violet (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
Wendy (Peter Pan)
Baby names inspired by authors
Agatha (Agatha Christie)
Albert (Albert Camus)
Charles (Charles Dickens)
Edgar (Edgar Allan Poe)
Edith (Edith Wharton)
Emily (Emily Dickinson or Emily Brontë)
Ernest (Ernest Hemmingway)
Franz (Franz Kafka)
Hawthorne (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Henry (O. Henry)
Isaac (Isaac Asimov)
Isabel (Isabel Allende)
Kurt (Kurt Vonnegut)
Lewis (Lewis Carroll)
Louisa (Louisa May Alcott)
Mark (Mark Twain)
Mary (Mary Shelley)
Oscar (Oscar Wilde)
Sylvia (Sylvia Plath)
Toni (Toni Morrison)
Truman (Truman Capote)
Victor (Victor Hugo)
Virginia (Virginia Woolf)
William (William Shakespeare)
Zora (Zora Neale Hurston)
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