"The Vampire Diaries" Names

I was questioning whether I should include the names of characters that have migrated to the spinoff show The Originals, and I decided I should leave those aside. Don't fret, I should be doing a post dedicated to The Originals too, as that show has plenty of interesting names to go about. But for now, I'm gonna focus on the mother show The Vampire Diaries, which has been going on for 6 seasons now, and has given us some curious monikers over the years.

Names of the main cast:

Elena - She is the protagonist of the show, and her name is a more modern variant of the dusty Helen, however it is being plagued by useless alternative spellings such as Alaina and Alayna. Personally, I'd stick with Elena which is simple, elegant and international.

Damon - Some may be put off because it is just a letter away from "demon", but I think most people wouldn't make that connection. If you like Damien, but want something less common, this is a good option.

Katerina - This is the character's real name, however she mostly went by Katherine. While I do enjoy Katherine, I think Katerina is a wonderful alternative, and you still get the royal chic nickname Kate.

Stefan - If the name Stephen feels dated to you, then why not pick up on Stefan? I actually like it better too.

Name In Trend: Annabelle

Quite an appropriate choice for this week, don't you agree? I really had to stop myself from using a picture of that scary doll, as tempting as it was - but I wouldnt want to deter any of you from checking this post haha. Instead, you get a photo of the beautiful british actress Annabelle Wallis - you may recognize her from the tv series Pan AM, and if you don't, well she's the main actress on the movie Annabelle.

Annabelle is a name that has a few possible origins. For most parents these days, and even 100 years ago, it is probably just a combination of the names Anna and Belle. As a hebrew name, it means "favor" or "grace". However, if we dig deeper, we also find it most likely came into usage as an alternative spelling of Annabel, which in itself is a variant of Amabel. Amabel is of old french origin and it means "loveable", which I guess is quite straightforward if you think of the word "amiable". I suppose Annabel became more prevalent over Amabel because of the power of Anna, and later on Annabelle likely took over from Annabel because modern french spellings were all the rage. Personally, I find Annabelle the frilliest of the 3 variants, but its easy to see why it's so loved and preferred over the others. It also has something the other spellings don't have - it's the name of a type of wild hydrangea, making it a nature name.

Let's just see how it has performed in the SSA chart: