Top Ten Tuesday – What’s In a Name?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature from The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is character names you love/ or unusual character names. Given the choice, I have to go with unusual character names! They are much more fun to discuss.

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1. Primrose Everdeen, Finnick Odair, Beetee, and everyone ever in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins – I bow down to your character naming skills, Suzanne Collins!

Jeffrey Wright as Beetee, Catching Fire, Lionsgate
Jeffrey Wright as Beetee, Catching Fire, Lionsgate

2. Deuce, Fade, and Stalker in The Razorland trilogy by Ann Aguirre  – I do like unusual character names, but these were a little distracting

3. Renesmee in Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer – Perhaps one of the most controversial names/characters in YA ever?

Renesmee Mackenzie Foy
Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee in Breaking Dawn, Summit Entertainment

4. Cath, Wren, Simon Snow, Levi, etc. in Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – And bonus points to the author for her own wonderfully unique name! So interesting to have twins named Cath (er) and Wren to split the name Catherine.

5. Anthem Fleet in The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney – I haven’t read this one yet, but seeing the name in the synopsis stuck with me. And the book is described as The Dark Knight meets Cinder. I’m so curious about this book.

6. Augustus and Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I wonder how many baby Gus and Hazel Grace’s there are out there. Love these old fashioned names.

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort The Fault in Our Stars
Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort on the set of The Fault in Our Stars. Photo credit: John Green’s facebook

7. Roux in Also Known As by Robin Benway Such a great name that is so well suited to this wealthy, larger than life BFF character.

8. Tris and Four in The Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth – I think these names are cool and fit the characters perfectly, but I basically have Allegiant fever and had to give the pair a shout-out.

Divergent movie Shailene Woodley and Theo James ferris wheel
Shailene Woodley Theo James as Tris and Four in Divergent, Summit Entertainment

9. Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. MaasI read the author came up with Celaena (Sell-lay-nah) as a twist on Celaeno from The Last Unicorn.

10. All the Roald Dahl charactersVeruca Salt, Felicity Fox, Matilda Wormwood…such whimsical names!

veruca salt willy wonka
Julie Dawn Cole as Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

What names stand out to you? Do you like unusual character names or do you find them distracting?

 

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26 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – What’s In a Name?

  1. fishgirl182 says:

    You’re right – Roald Dahl has fantastic names. And I hate it when names are distracting. That’s the perfect word for it. Great picks, Lucy. Haha – Allegiant Fever. 🙂

  2. ChrissiReads says:

    I love Roald Dahl names. They’re so inventive. I also love the name Tris. 🙂

  3. I love all the names in Fangirl too!! I’m reading it right now. I love how their mom was too lazy to think of names so she just separated Catherine. Who could come up with stuff like that?? Hazel Grace made my list this week too! Love the old fashioned sound of it!! And while I don’t like a majority of the names in Hunger Games, Primrose I think is kinda pretty 🙂

    My TTT

  4. shewolfreads says:

    I’ve always loved the name Veruca Salt!

  5. I hate Renesmee’s name. I don’t think that I will let that go. I love the name Wren though. It’s so pretty.

    Aly @ My Heart Hearts BooksMy TTT

  6. I was never a fan of Throne of Glass names, so awkward in a way. I adore the books so much, but the names, nope. :X
    And Renesmee or w/e is stupid to me, sorry. :X
    Good list!

    My TTT

  7. bookgoonie says:

    I had Tris, Hazel & Augustus, and Calaena & Chaol were all on my long list. 😉 there is quite a bit in a name

  8. BermudaOnion says:

    I like them as long as I can figure out how to pronounce them. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Deep South and they are all about unusual names there.

  9. Sunny says:

    Agreed on The Hunger Games series names! Except Glimmer because I hate that name. Also, yay on mentioning Fangirl because I thought of it and then completely forgot when I made my list! Great list 🙂

  10. Andi ABCs says:

    Great list. I love Tris and Four.

    My TTT List

  11. Tammy Sparks says:

    Great list! Especially Renesmee! I remember reading the book and the explanation for the name and thinking “what a stupid name!” I still don’t like it, even though in its own right it is pretty.

  12. emziixgx says:

    Primrose almost made my list this week but I changed it for Matilda . Great list

  13. valerylr says:

    I like Primrose 🙂 And Tris and Four as well.
    Renesmee… gosh, it did cause controversy her name haha. I’m not sure if I like it or not, but it is unusual.

    Thanks for stopping by at my blog. Great list 🙂

  14. Oh Ronald Dahl! He just had the best imagination with names 🙂

  15. Brittany says:

    Love that you turned it into more of a discussion!
    I was actually totally turned off by half of the names in The Hunger Games… But I actually grew to like quite a few! They were original and let’s be honest. I LOVE Primrose. And Katniss too.
    Deuce???? Yeah. I just read Enclave and totally could not get on board with that at all haha.
    I forgot all about Renesme! How could I!? Still hate it and so cheesy.

  16. I have Allegiant fever too!!! Eeek so excited.

  17. kamifurr says:

    Deuce made my list! I love all the names from that series. Good list!

  18. bebeboss666 says:

    Those are awesome, I totally love the picture that go next to the names 😉
    Great picks!

    My Top Ten Post!

  19. I love the name Roux from AKA, and I agree, Suzanne Collins and Roald Dahl come up with some pretty strange, yet awesome, character names! 🙂

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

  20. Yes- Veruka Salt is genius- great list!!

  21. Annie says:

    I’m a big fan of all of these apart from Renesmee – I’m fine with her character and her role, it’s just that NAME! I’m weird, I know. 🙂 Also ‘Augustus’ and ‘Hazel’ from In The Fault With Our Stars – Will and Holly would have been much more believable, lol. Anyway, cool, cool list – love the shout out to Roald Dahl and V Roth!

  22. Andy Estrada says:

    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!

    Our List
    Andy @ Owl Always Be Reading

  23. Aw, I love that you mentioned Roald Dahl! And ugh, Renesmee–the awfulness of that will never, ever be burned out of my memory, hah. I actually do like the Razorland names, though, and some of THG’s, too. 🙂 Tris is also pretty cool–and since I haven’t read Fangirl yet, I had no idea Cath and Wren were twins who split a name! That’s awesome.

    Wendy @ The Midnight Garden

  24. Totally overlooked the Roald Dahl names on my list. What was I thinking?

  25. Quinn says:

    I think Primrose is such a pretty name. I love almost any name with “rose” in it. I’m not a total fan of the name Augustus. I do like Hazel Grace though.

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