150 Classic Literary Baby Names

Searching for a baby name can be an overwhelming process, especially when you want it to be timeless, meaningful, and steeped in history.

Bookworms and lovers of names know that the most beautiful names often have an elegant literary origin. Some of the most romantic names are hidden within the pages of classic literature—filled with history, character, and symbolism.

Name trends have always been influenced by famous books and poetry. From Shakespeare to Jane Austen to modern classics, literary names have always seemed intelligent, strong, classic, and elegant.

Do you love powerful heroines, swoon-worthy love stories, ethereal dreamers, poetic rebels, loyal sidekicks, dashing heroes, or classic names with a unique twist? The names of beloved authors and their characters have always offered style, grace, and timelessness for baby names.

We have collected 150 classic literary baby names from the past few centuries to help you find the perfect name for your newborn.

The names are broken into three categories: girls’ names, boys’ names, and unisex literary names for easy browsing.

Literary Baby Names for Girls

Literary classics for girls include names from novels, plays, and poems. Some of these names have been popular for centuries, associated with heroines, muses, and independent female characters.

• Alice – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Emma – Emma by Jane Austen

• Jane – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

• Elizabeth – Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Catherine – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

• Charlotte – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White and author Charlotte Brontë

• Lucy – The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

• Clara – The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann

• Daisy – Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Scarlett – Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

• Juliet – Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

• Hermione – Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

• Beatrice – Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare

• Cordelia – King Lear by Shakespeare

• Viola – Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

• Ophelia – Hamlet by Shakespeare

• Eleanor – Eleanor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

• Margaret – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Josephine (Jo) – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Beth – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Amy – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Harriet – Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

• Matilda – Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Anne – Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

• Diana – Anne Shirley’s best friend in Anne of Green Gables

• Marilla – Marilla Cuthbert, Anne’s guardian in Anne of Green Gables

• Sylvia – Sylvia Plath, poet and author

• Virginia – Virginia Woolf, author

• Agnes – David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

• Estella – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

• Claudia – The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin and Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

• Lydia – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Georgiana – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Rosalind – As You Like It by Shakespeare

• Portia – The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare

• Nora – A Doll’s House by Ibsen

• Hester – The Scarlet Letter

• Pearl – The Scarlet Letter

• Isabel – Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

• Helen – Jane Eyre and The Iliad

• Sophia – Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

• Clarissa – Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

• Rebecca – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

• Ivy – Many Victorian poems

• Fanny – Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

• Harper – Harper Lee, author

• Louisa – Louisa May Alcott, author

• Emily – Emily Brontë or Emily Dickinson, authors

• Sylvie – The Sylvie and Bruno stories by Lewis Carroll

• Esme – Esmé, for whom the character Holden Caulfield longs in J.D. Salinger’s short story For Esmé—with Love and Squalor

Related: 200 Meaningful Baby Names Ideas

Literary Baby Names for Boys

Classic novels and plays are full of masculine, bold, heroic, and romantic baby names for boys that have stood the test of time.

• Oliver – Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

• George – George Orwell, author

• William – William Shakespeare, author

• Henry – Henry James and Henry David Thoreau, authors

• Atticus – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Holden – The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

• Jay – Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Nick – Nick Carraway, narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Huckleberry (Huck) – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• Tom – Tom Sawyer and Tom Jones

• Finn – Huckleberry Finn

• Darcy – Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Bingley – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Heathcliff – Wuthering Heights

• Edgar – King Lear by Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe

• Victor – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• Charles – Charles Dickens, author

• Jack – Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Jack and Jill nursery rhyme

• Arthur – King Arthur legends

• Lancelot – Arthurian legend

• Percival – Arthurian legend

• Tristan – Tristan and Isolde

• Romeo – Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

• Hamlet – Hamlet

• Horatio – Hamlet

• Sebastian – Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

• Orlando – Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

• Christopher – Christopher Marlowe, author

• Milton – John Milton, poet

• Byron – Lord Byron, poet

• Dante – The Divine Comedy

• Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey

• Theodore (Theo) – Little Women and Theodore Roosevelt

• Laurence (Laurie) – Little Women

• Frederick – The Sound of Music and Charles Dickens

• Samuel – Samuel Beckett, playwright

• Tennyson – Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet

• Oscar – Oscar Wilde, playwright

• Leo – Leo Tolstoy, author

• Fyodor – Dostoevsky

• Anton – Anton Chekhov, playwright

• Ralph – Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and essayist

• Walt – Walt Whitman, poet

• Ezra – Ezra Pound, poet

• Truman – Truman Capote, author

• Jasper – Twilight and many classic English novels

• Philip – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

• Eugene – Eugene Onegin

• Silas – Silas Marner by Charles Dickens

• Augustus – The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Related: 100 Popular Indian Celebrity Baby Names and Their Meanings

Unisex Literary Baby Names

These are timeless, androgynous names for either boys or girls, with connections to classic literature.

• Rowan – Nature-inspired names found in Celtic poetry

• Avery – Popular in many modern novels and poems

• Eliot – Inspired by the authors T.S. Eliot and George Eliot

• Morgan – Morgan le Fay in Arthurian legends

• Quinn – Classic Irish literature

• Sage – Poetic names often found in poems about nature

• Harper – Works for both genders, after Harper Lee

• Ellis – From the poet Ellis Peters

• Adair – A name that appears in Scottish ballads

• Jordan – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Riley – Irish songs and literature

• Spencer – The poet Edmund Spenser

• Blake – After the poet William Blake

• Emerson – After Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Whitman – After Walt Whitman

• Dorian – The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

• Arden – Arden is a place name in As You Like It (Forest of Arden)

• Poe – Edgar Allan Poe, author and poet

• Salinger – J.D. Salinger, author

• Marlowe – Christopher Marlowe, author

• Kit – Short for Christopher. Also a Marlowe name.

• Leslie – Appears in Bridge to Terabithia

• Francis – Francis Bacon, philosopher and Francis Scott Fitzgerald, author

• Jules – Jules Verne, author

• Noel – Noel Coward, author and playwright

• Sidney – Sir Philip Sidney, poet

• Valentine – Valentine is a character in Twelfth Night

• Justice – Virtue names that often appear in literature

• True – Symbolic and poetic

• Gray – The Picture of Dorian Gray

• River – Popular in modern poetry and novels

• Story – A word name with literary inspiration

• Fable – Another story-inspired word name for your child

• Eden – Paradise Lost by John Milton

• Haven – Appears in poetry and modern novels

• Winter – Romantic and literary

• Summer – Found in Shakespeare’s sonnets

• Autumn – Poetic and nature-based

• Sky – A recurring literary image

• Phoenix – Mythical bird often seen in poetry

• Lyric – Songlike and creative

• Archer – Inspired by Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence

• Ash – Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot

• Sloan – Found in modern novels

• Reed – From poetry and music

• Brooks – After poet Gwendolyn Brooks

• Page – Literary word name with a literary theme

• Bell – After the author Bell Hooks

• Rumi – From the poet Rumi

• Shaw – After George Bernard Shaw

Related: 50 Cute Foreign Baby Boy Names and Their Meanings

Choosing the Best Literary Name

Choosing a literary baby name is not just about borrowing from the past—it’s a nod to some of history’s most powerful, creative, and inspiring people and characters.

When you name your child after a beloved character or author, you are giving them a story, character, and personality with which they can grow up.

Some parents choose a unique, even bold literary name for their baby (like Heathcliff or Ophelia). Others prefer old-fashioned classics (Jane, William, or Elizabeth). Or you may lean toward a more androgynous literary name like Emerson, Rowan, or Blake.

Whatever your tastes, the world of literature is filled with classic, elegant, strong, and lasting names to inspire you and your little one.

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