Names Categorized "literature"

Malvolio is a fictional character invented by William Shakespeare for his comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1602). The name derives from Italian mal volere, meaning "ill will" or "malevolence," which directly mirro...

Malwina is the Polish form of Malvina, a name that was invented by the 18th-century Scottish poet James Macpherson for a character in his Ossian poems. Malvina is derived from the Scottish Gaelic elements mala meaning "b...

Manfred is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, composed of the Old High German elements man 'man' and fridu 'peace', thus meaning 'man of peace'. It belongs to the common Germanic onomastic tradition of creating d...

Manijeh is a Persian female given name of uncertain etymology, possibly of ancient Parthian origin. It is best known as the name of a central character in the Persian epic, the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), composed by the...

Marfisa is a character from the Italian epic poems Orlando Innamorato (1495) by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso (1532) by Ludovico Ariosto. The name's meaning is uncertain, though it is often associated with a S...

Margaret is a classic feminine given name derived from Latin Margarita, which was from Greek μαργαρίτης (margarites) meaning "pearl". The Greek word was probably ultimately borrowed from an Indo-Iranian language, reflect...

Maria is a feminine given name used in numerous languages, including Armenian, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Corsican, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, Frisian, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Occitan...

Marianela is a Spanish feminine given name that combines elements of María and Estela.EtymologyThe name Marianela is a blend of two classic Spanish names. The first component, María, is the Spanish form of Maria, which d...

Marie-Laure is a French feminine compound given name formed by combining Marie and Laure.EtymologyThe name joins two classic names with deep roots in Christian tradition. Marie is the French form of Maria, which ultimate...

Etymology and Possible OriginsMarilla is an uncommon feminine given name that likely originated as a fanciful late-19th-century American variant of Maria or a diminutive of Mary. It may also be a shortened form of Amaryl...

Marius is a historic male given name with Roman origins, used across various European cultures and languages in the modern era. It originated as a Roman family name belonging to the gens Maria, a plebeian family of the R...

Marnie is a feminine given name of English origin, most commonly understood as a diminutive of Marina, itself derived from the Latin marinus meaning "of the sea" via the Roman family name Marinus. The name's modern popul...

Mary is a feminine given name, the English form of the Latin Maria, which itself comes from the New Testament Greek names Μαριάμ (Mariam) and Μαρία (Maria). These Greek forms are derived from the Hebrew name מִרְיָם (Mir...

Matilda is a feminine given name of Germanic origin, derived from the Old High German elements maht 'might, strength' and hilt 'battle', giving it the meaning 'strength in battle'. The name originally appeared as Mahthil...

Matt is a short form of Matthew, commonly used as a standalone given name in English-speaking countries. It originated as a nickname or diminutive, but became an independent name by the 20th century. Famous bearers inclu...

Mavis is a feminine given name taken directly from the name of the song thrush bird, also known as the mavis (from Old French mauvis, of uncertain origin). The name was first popularized in modern times by British author...

Max is a short form of names like Maximilian, Maxim, or, in English, Maxwell. It also coincides with the informal word for maximum. Virtually all forms of Max ultimately derive from the Latin cognomen Maximus, meaning “g...

Medora is a feminine given name popularized by George Gordon, Lord Byron for the heroine of his 1814 poem The Corsair. The name's etymology is obscure; Byron himself did not record what inspired it, though it may be an i...

Meghann is a variant of Megan, a Welsh feminine given name that originated as a diminutive of Margaret. The name Margaret ultimately derives from the Greek word μαργαρίτης (margarítēs), meaning 'pearl', which itself was...

Melanie is a feminine given name with roots in Greek, French, and Latin traditions. It derives from the Greek word μέλαινα (melaina), meaning "black, dark," which in Latin became Melania ('blackness'). The name was borne...

Melantha is a rare English female given name, plausibly formed from the common name element Mel (as in Melanie or Melissa) combined with the Greek-derived suffix -antha (from anthos, meaning 'flower'), yielding a sense o...

Melanthios (also Latinized as Melanthius) is a masculine given name of ancient Greek origin. It derives from the Greek elements melas (), meaning "black" or "dark", and anthos (), meaning "flower"—thus, "black flower" or...

Mélisande is a French name renowned for its association with Maurice Maeterlinck's 1893 play Pelléas et Mélisande, later adapted into Claude Debussy's 1902 opera. It is a variant of Millicent, ultimately derived from the...

Mercutio is a fictional character from William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet (first performed around 1596). He is a close friend of Romeo and a blood relative of Prince Escalus and Count Paris, making him one of...

Mercy is a feminine English given name derived from the English word mercy, ultimately from Latin merces 'wages, reward', a derivative of merx 'goods, wares'. This name was one of the virtue names adopted by the Puritans...

Micol is an Italian variant form of Michal (the Italian biblical form being Mikal). The name evokes the biblical figure Michal, daughter of Saul and wife of David, whose Hebrew name possibly means “brook” in Hebrew. In m...

Mignon is a French word meaning "cute, darling", used as a feminine given name primarily in literary contexts. The name is most famously associated with the title character of Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon (1866), which...

Milly is a feminine given name used primarily in English, Norwegian, and Swedish contexts. It functions as a diminutive of longer names such as Emilie, Mildred, and other names containing a similar 'mil-' or 'mill-' soun...

Minea is a feminine given name that originated as a literary creation by the Finnish writer Mika Waltari for a character in his historical novel The Egyptian (1945). The name remains very rare globally, primarily used in...

Minnie is a feminine given name that originated as a diminutive of several longer names, most notably Wilhelmina. It has been used in English-speaking countries since at least the 19th century. The name gained enormous p...

Mio 2 is a literary name invented by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren for her 1954 fantasy novel Mio, min Mio (English: Mio, My Mio). The book tells the story of Bo Vilhelm Olsson, a lonely foster child who is transported...

Mirdza is a Latvian feminine given name with roots in the concept of brightness and radiance. The name is derived from the Latvian verb mirdzēt, meaning "to shine" or "to glitter" — a thesaurus of several distinct inflec...

Mireille is a French given name with deep roots in the Occitan language and culture of southern France. It originated from the Occitan name Mirèio, which was first popularized by the poet Frédéric Mistral in his 1859 epi...

Moacir is a Brazilian masculine given name of Tupi-Guarani origin, derived from the Tupi word moaçy meaning "pain, regret, grief." It is strongly associated with Brazilian literature, particularly the 1865 novel Iracema...

Moema is a Brazilian female given name of Old Tupi origin. The name means "lies" in Tupí, and it was first recorded in the epic poem Caramuru (1781) by the Portuguese-born Brazilian poet Santa Rita Durão. In the poem, Mo...

Molly is a medieval diminutive of Mary, now often used independently. It developed from earlier forms such as Malle and Molle, which were common pet names for Mary in the Middle Ages. The substitution of 'r' for 'l' was...

EtymologyMordred is a name of Welsh origin, derived from the name Medraut, which itself may come from the Latin moderatus, meaning "controlled" or "moderated." Variations of the name include Medrod and Modred.Historical...

Moreen is an Irish and English feminine given name with roots in the Irish language. It is an anglicized form of Móirín, itself a diminutive of Mór 1 (meaning "great"). Moreen is also sometimes considered a variant of Ma...

Morgan 2 is a feminine given name rooted in the Arthurian Cycle, representing a modern form of the name Morgen. It was introduced by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century for the famous sorceress Morgan le Fay, a char...

Morna is a feminine name of Scottish origin, created by 18th-century poet James Macpherson for his epic poem Fingal (1761). In the poem, Morna is the mother of the hero Fingal, the Scottish counterpart of the Irish mytho...

Mowgli is a fictional character and the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) and its sequel The Second Jungle Book (1895). In the stories, Mowgli is a feral boy raised by wolves in the jungles of centr...

Muriel is a feminine given name of Goidelic origin, primarily used in English, French, Irish, and Scottish contexts. It is an Anglicized form of the Irish Muirgel and Scottish Muireall, both deriving from elements meanin...

Etymology and OriginsMyrddin is the original Welsh form of the name later Anglicized as Merlin. Its etymology traces back to the Romano-British settlement of Moridunum, derived from Celtic elements *mori meaning "sea" an...

Naja is a feminine given name of Greenlandic origin, derived from the Greenlandic word najaa meaning "his younger sister". While the name shares its spelling with the scientific genus for cobras (from Sanskrit nāga meani...

Origins and Etymology Nancy is a feminine given name primarily used in English and Spanish. It originated as a medieval English diminutive of Annis, a vernacular form of the name Agnes. The phonological shift from 'Mine...

Natasha is a Russian diminutive of Natalya, itself a Slavic form of the Latin name Natalia. The name gained widespread recognition through Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace (1865), where Natasha Rostova is a central char...

Nausicaa (also spelled Nausicaä or Nausikaa) is a Latinized form of the Greek name Ναυσικάα (Nausikaa), derived from the Greek elements ναῦς meaning "ship" and κάω meaning "to burn". The name thus means "burner of ships"...

Neil is an English, Irish, and Scottish masculine given name, ultimately derived from the Irish name Niall. The origin of Niall is debated: it may stem from the Old Celtic root nītu- meaning "fury, passion" or be related...

Nel is a Dutch and Polish feminine given name, typically used as a short form of names such as Petronella and Cornelia, which share the element -nel. The name's roots trace back to the Roman names Petronius and Cornelius...

Nélida is a literary name invented by French author Marie d'Agoult (who wrote under the pseudonym Daniel Stern) for her semi-autobiographical novel Nélida (1846). The name is widely assumed to be an anagram of d'Agoult's...

Nemo is a Latin word meaning "nobody," famously adopted as the name of Captain Nemo, the enigmatic submarine commander in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870). The name gained further popular...

Nerissa is a feminine given name created by William Shakespeare for a character in his play The Merchant of Venice (1596). The name is likely derived from the Greek word Νηρηΐς (Nereis), meaning "nymph, sea sprite," whic...

Nestan is a Georgian feminine given name, derived from the first part of the compound name Nestan-Darejan. This latter name was created by the Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli for his 12th-century epic The Knight in the Pan...

Nestan-Darejan is a Georgian feminine given name created by the 12th-century poet Shota Rustaveli for a central character in his epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin. Rustaveli coined the name from the Persian phra...

Nicol is a Medieval English and Scottish form of Nicholas. The name derives from the Greek Nikolaos, meaning "victory of the people," composed of nike ("victory") and laos ("people"). In medieval England and Scotland, Ni...

Nicolette is a French feminine given name, derived as a diminutive of Nicole. In modern French, the name is relatively rare, though it has occasional use in English-speaking countries as a more elaborate form of Nicole....

Nigel is an English masculine given name, first appearing in the Middle Ages as a Latinized form of Neil. The medieval Latin Nigellus was frequently associated with the Latin word niger meaning "black," though its true r...

Nimue is a mysterious sorceress from Arthurian legend, most famous for being the Lady of the Lake who entangles the wizard Merlin with love and traps him with magic. Her name, of uncertain etymology, has been recorded in...

Nokomis originates from the Ojibwe term nookomis meaning "my grandmother". In Anishinaabe legend, Nokomis is the grandmother of the trickster spirit Nanabozho, a central figure in traditional stories. The name gained bro...

Norma is a female first name of literary origin, most famously associated with the title character of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 opera Norma. The librettist Felice Romani created the name for the opera’s protagonist, a Gaul...