BOY NAMES | The Art of Literary Nomenclature

Henny

August 10, 2014 § 1 Comment

ORIGIN:
Diminutive of “Henrietta” / “Henriette”, or, as a nickname for “Henry“, “Hendrik”, etc.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
For girls: Enrica, Etta, Ettie, Etty, Harriet, Harriett, Harrietta, Harriette, Hattie, Hatty, Hen, Hennie, Henny, Henriette, Henrika, Henrike, Het, Hettie, Hetty, Yetta, etc.
For boys: Amerigo, Amery, Arrigo, Emmerich, Emery, Emory, Enrico, Enrique, Enzo, Hal, Hank, Harald, Harold, Harri, Harry, Heinrich, Heinz, Hennie, Henri, Hendrik, Hendry, Henrik, Henry, Henryk, Herrold, Herry, Imre, Imrich, Imrus, Ric, Rico, Rik, Rikki, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Cousin Henny (Henrietta) Carey, a plump old lady rather inclined to hold grudges, in “Little Button-Rose”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.

Lemuel

August 7, 2014 § Leave a comment

ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “devoted to the Lord”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Lem, Lemmie, Lemmy.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Lemuel Homer, the gentlemanly scholar who escorts his wife and Misses Ethel Amory and Jane Bassett around Europe, in “Poppies and Wheat”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.

Ben

August 7, 2014 § 2 Comments

ORIGIN:
Shortened version of “Benjamin“, “Benedict”, “Reuben“, etc., diminutive of “Bernard“, etc.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Bennie, Benny, Bent, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Ben Bowen, Ruth and Sammy’s ailing grandfather in “Water Lilies” from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Ben Harris, a local who tries to stick up for Jethro against Guy Wortman’s bullying, in Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964; set during the American Civil War, 1861-1865).
– Ben (Reuben) Huckabuck, the Ridd’s wealthy, persnickety uncle in Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore (written in 1869, set in the 1670s-1680s).

WRITERS:
– Ben Jonson (1572-1637), English critic, dramatist, and poet.

Sammy

August 7, 2014 § 1 Comment

ORIGIN:
Diminutive of “Samuel”, “Samson”, or “Samantha”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Sam, Sami, Sammi, Sammie.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Sammy Bowen, Ruth Bowen’s energetic younger brother in “Water Lilies” from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Sammy (Sam) Turner, Ed Turner’s 18-year-old son, who gives Jethro a dog (to help keep him company and to protect his family), and who ends up part of Sherman’s army, in Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964; set during the American Civil War, 1861-1865).

WRITERS:
– Sammy Cahn (1913-1993), American lyricist, songwriter, and musician.

Samuel

August 7, 2014 § 7 Comments

ORIGIN:
From Hebrew, meaning “God has heard” or “name of God”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Sam, Sami, Sammie, Sammy, Semuel, Shem, Shemuel, Shmuel, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Samuel Warburton, Mrs. Warburton’s husband, a scientist and scholar, in “Pansies” from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.

WRITERS:
– Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish novelist, playwright, and poet.
– Samuel Butler (1613-1680), English poet and satirist.
– Samuel Butler (1835-1902), English writer and iconoclast.
– Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), American author and humorist who wrote under the pen name “Mark Twain”.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English critic, poet, and philosopher.
– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English moralist, writer, and lexicographer.
– Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), English diarist.

Jessie

August 6, 2014 § Leave a comment

ORIGIN:
Diminutive of “Jessica“, or an old Scottish diminutive of “Jean” / “Janet“. Possibly a variation of the masculine “Jesse”, from Hebrew, meaning “gift”.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
For girls: Janet, Jean, Jess, Jessa, Jesslin, Jessalyn, Jesse, Jessenia, Jessica, Jessika, Jessy, Teasag, Yesika, Yessica, etc.
For boys: Jess, Jesse.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Jessie Darcey, a wildly popular soprano in Chicago, whose talent and personality Thea does not care for, in The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (written in 1915 and set in the 1890s).
– Jessie Delano, who must work as a dancing school instructor to try and support herself and her invalid sister, Laura, in “An Ivy Spray and Ladies’ Slippers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Jessie Mayo, of the twisted ankle, one of the girls Doctor Tom tells the story of Sylvie to, in “The Story of Little Syl”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories by Nora Perry (1889).

Harry

August 6, 2014 § 10 Comments

ORIGIN:
Diminutive of “Harold”, “Harris”, “Henry“, “Harriet“, etc.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
For girls: Enrica, Etta, Ettie, Etty, Halle, Hallie, Harriet, Harriett, Harrietta, Harriette, Hattie, Hatty, Henrietta, Henriette, Het, Hettie, Hetty, Yetta, etc.
For boys: Amerigo, Amery, Arrigo, Emmerich, Emery, Emory, Enrico, Enrique, Enzo, Hal, Hank, Harald, Harold, Harri, Heinrich, Heinz, Hennie, Henny, Henri, Hendrik, Hendry, Henrik, Henry, Henryk, Herrold, Herry, Imre, Imrich, Imrus, Ric, Rico, Rik, Rikki, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Harry, Mr. Knightley’s butler, in Jane Austen’s Emma (1815).
– Harry, a beau of one of the other shop girls in the Chicago shoe factory where Carrie first finds employment, in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (published in 1900; set 1889-1890s).
– Harry, a boy-of-all-work at Fitzgerald and Moy’s, in Sister Carrie.
– Harry, the regular desk clerk at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, in The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (written in 1915 and set in the 1890s).
– Harry, the name of more than one of the boys Lily dates, who perhaps not-so-coincidentally often have names which rhyme with her long-absent father, in Sleeping Arrangements, by Laura Cunningham (published 1989, set in the 1950s).
– Harry Burbeck, a fellow Elk who will be performing in blackface for the lodge theatrical fundraiser, in Sister Carrie.
– Harry Camden, the consummate gentleman, who seems everything a woman could wish for, in “What Hope Bell Found in Her Stocking”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories by Nora Perry (1889).
– Harry Dashwood, John’s little boy, for whose benefit Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters are entirely overlooked and impoverished, in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (set between 1792-1797, published in 1811).
– Harry (Harriet) Dunbar, a confident, stout-hearted girl, one of the founding members of the children’s society for the prevention of cruelty to cats, in “The Kit-Kat Club”, and who refuses to be bullied by the snobs who come into the shop in “The Little Dunbars, and Their Charming Christmas Plans”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories.
– Harry Elliott, Edith’s brother, who Dolly embarrasses herself in front of, in “Dolly Varden”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories.
– Harry McGarren, one of Hurstwood’s friends, the managing editor of the Times, in Sister Carrie.
– Harry Quincel, a fellow Elk and friend of Drouet’s, who asks him to find a girl to star in the lodge’s theatrical fundraiser, in Sister Carrie.
– Harry Warren, Marion Warren’s brother in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Sir Harry Willing, an officer in His Majesty’s army who admires and courts the lovely Sibyl, in “Sibyl’s Slipper”, a story of the American Revolutionary War, from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).

WRITERS:
– Harry Bates (1900-1981), American editor and writer.
– Harry Brown (1917-1986), American novelist, poet, and screenwriter.
– Harry Harrison (1925-2012), American author.
– Harry Patterson (b. 1929), English author who also published under the pen names “Hugh Marlowe”, “Jack Higgins”, “James Graham”, and “Martin Fallon”.
– Harry Bache (B.) Smith (1860-1936), American composer, lyricist, and writer.
– Harry Whittington (1915-1989), American writer.

QUOTATIONS:
– In “Tom, Dick or Harry“, a song from the 1948 Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter, Bianca and her suitors sing of her eagerness to wed: “I’m a maid who would marry / And would take with no qualm / Any Tom, Dick or Harry, / Any Harry, Dick or Tom. / I’m a maid mad to marry / And will take double-quick / Any Tom, Dick or Harry, / Any Tom, Harry or Dick!”

Johnny

August 6, 2014 § 4 Comments

ORIGIN:
Diminutive of “John” or “Jonathan“. Obviously.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Eoin, Evan, Gianni, Giannino, Hans, Ian, Ivan, Janek, Jani, Janne, Jannick, Jean, Jens, Jo, Johannes, John, Johnnie, Jon, Jonas, Joni, Jovan, Juan, Juanito, Nino, Sean, Shane, Shawn, Jono, Vanya, Yan, Yannick, Yvon, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Johnny, a little blind boy at the Children’s Hospital who is befriended by Elizabeth Alden in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Johnny Lambert, one of the children who delight in offering hospitality to those in need on the holiday, in “The Thanksgiving Guest”, from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).
– Johnny Rosenfeld (sometimes called “Jack“), a florist’s delivery boy who lives down the alley near the Page’s house, and who works his way up to the position of chauffeur for Palmer and Christine Howe, in K. by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1914).
– Spanish Johnny (Juan Tellamantez), a talented guitar player, one of the Mexican workmen who befriend Thea in The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (written in 1915 and set in the 1890s).
– Johnny (Jonathan) Tremain, the gifted and proud teenaged hero of Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (written in 1943; set during the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, 1773-1775).

WRITERS:
– Johnny Byrne (1935-2008), English writer and script editor.
– Johnny Mercer (1909-1976), American songwriter and lyricist.

Jimmy

August 6, 2014 § 2 Comments

ORIGIN:
Like “Jim“, etc., a diminutive of “James“.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Jae, Jaime, Jamie, Jamey, Jay, Jem, Jemmy, Jim, Jimi, Jimmie, Jimsy, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Jimmy Barrows, a friend of Tom Lloyd’s, who is studying to be an artist, in “The Egg-Boy” from Nora Perry’s A Flock of Girls and Boys (1895).
– Jimmy Dolan, a little boy at the Children’s Hospital who is befriended by Elizabeth Alden in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Jimmy Grant, a little boy whose marble-playing Susy finds distracting, in “Susy’s Dragon”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories by Nora Perry (1889).
– Nickname given to Jim Lorton, the teasing, critical brother of the Lorton family, in “The Youngest Miss Lorton”, from The Youngest Miss Lorton, and Other Stories.

Nathan

August 6, 2014 § 2 Comments

ORIGIN:
Hebrew, meaning “gift”. Sometimes used as a shortened form of “Nathaniel” or even “Jonathan“.

VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Nat, Natan, Natanael, Natanaele, Natanail, Nataniel, Nate, Nathanael, Nathanahel, Nathaniel, Nath, Nathe, Natty, Nethanel, etc.

REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Nathan Baxter, the carpenter Almira Miller hopes to marry, in “May Flowers”, from A Garland for Girls, by Louisa May Alcott, 1887.
– Nathan Hale Creighton (called “Nate“; 1848-1852), one of the three young Creighton boys who died of “paralysis” the year Jethro was born, in Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (1964; set during the American Civil War, 1861-1865).

Where Am I?