"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:

Name In Coffin: Gertrude

Gertrude is a female name of old german origin that means "strength of a spear". Gertrude is the name of a saint, Saint Gertrude The Great, who is pictured above - she wrote a book called The Revelations of Saint Gertrude, which talked about the revelations she received from Jesus. Obviously it has some more modern bearers, actress Gertrude Lawrence and writer Gertrude Stein for example. In literature, we have Queen Gertrude from Hamlet, who was Hamlet's mother and also the queen of Denmark.

Gertrude is a name that a lot of us have on our family tree, as it was extremely common 100 years ago or so. These days, it would be an odd experience to meet a toddler carrying this name. Let's see the SSA graph:

Name In Trend: Jace

Jace is a male name of english origin that means "the lord is my salvation". It is a diminutive of Jason, but like the name Jack departed from John as it's own name, Jace is heading that way it seems. If I had to pick a name that defined trendy as of right now, Jace would be it. This name, plus all of its spelling variants, are zooming up the charts at the speed of light. It is a Teen Mom baby name, a character name from the book series The Mortal Instrument, and also the name of one the guys on Duck Dynasty (who spells his name Jase).

But enough of me telling you how trendy it is, let me prove it:

Name In Spotlight: Ophelia

 
Ophelia is a female name of greek origin that means "help". Dave Grohl, front member of the band Foo Fighters, recently bestowed this name on her daughter, and I really like it. It might seem a bit out there, but if you think about, it isn't worlds away from some of the most common names of today, such as Olivia or Sophia.

 Ophelia has a pretty nice meaning, who doesn't need some help in their lives right? But in literary terms, she has a somber past.

Name In Trend: Sawyer

Sawyer is a name of english origin that means "wood worker", therefore making it an occupational name. However, thanks to Mark Twain naming his hero Tom Sawyer in the novel "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer", it also has a literary connection that most people are aware of.

Sawyer is a name that has been embraced by parents and celebrities alike. The Early Show presenter Erica Hill used it for her son back in 2010. Even though surnames have been adopted as first names for boys since the dawn of time, it wasn't always the case with Sawyer, who is relatively new to the "scene". Let's see how this name has performed on the SSA chart:

"Witches Of East End" Names

So there is a new supernatural show airing on Lifetime called Witches Of East End. Its based on a book series of the same name, and it a good show for fans of cheesy tv fodder like Charmed.
Like any name nerd, the first thing I notice whenever I watch something new are the names each character has, and Witches Of East End certainly has a few good ones.

The main characters:

Joanna - Joanna is the mother of the two younger women of the show, and also a big sister. Personally I feel Joanna is a bit dated and not ready for a comeback, but give it a few more years and and it might be the right time. It's definitely not one of those names that I feel is gone forever, it has potential to return.

Wendy - Wendy is Joanna's spunky and funny younger sister. She has a great relationship with her nieces and is kind of the heart and glue of the show, for me at least. Wendy is a cute name, and while I feel it is a tad dated, I can also picture it on a little girl, therefore I do think its usable for those of you who want to choose this name for a daughter.

Freya - She is the emotional and romance-driven daughter of Joanna. She struggles to choose between the 2 main guys of the show, and her storyline revolves around that. Her name was appropriately given, since in norse mythology she was the goddess of love and fertility. I'm starting to hear this name more and more these days, its a popular choice in the UK, and its only a matter of time before it becomes common in the US too.

Summer Movies 2013: Interesting Character Names

Summer 2013 might be almost over, but it brought us some great flicks. As usual, I payed extra attention to the names of characters in hope of finding some interesting ones. Thankfully there were quite a few ones that caught my eye, and so I'm gonna present you the ones I thought were the most appealing and unique.


Male character names:

Harley (Iron Man 3) - A popular name for boys in the UK, but quite underused in the US, which is quite surprising for me because it's one of those names that has all the ingredients of a trendy sounding name, but isn't. I think its full potential has yet to be achieved in America, and I'd like to think it will eventually hit its stride.

Yancy (Pacific Rim) - Not one of the main characters of this movie since he dies early on, but his scenes at the start of the film were enough for me to remember his name. I don't think I've met or read about anyone with this name, although I'm not terribly surprised because I feel this one is for the brave namers only (right now). I believe this one might be quite a polarizing name if it ever pops up in a discussion, you'll either love it or hate it, a bit like Clancy.

Name In Spolight: Raleigh

So I recently watched the movie Pacific Rim, which reminded me of how much I love the name Raleigh. That movie featured some pretty cool names, for example Raleigh's brother is named Yancy, which also caught my eye, so if you enjoy action flicks mixed with a dose of unique names, check the movie out.

Raleigh is of old english origin and it has two different meanings that I found: "roe deer's meadow" and "from the red field". There is definitely a nature connection in both, so if you like nature names this one is a great choice. It can also be a place name, because it's the capital of North Carolina, and it could definitely fit in with the place name trend going on lately with names like Princeton, Camden, Brooklyn, etc.

Names of the Upcoming 2012/2013 TV Season

TV has always had a big influence in popular culture and the names people use on their kids. We can confidently state that TV was responsible for the rise of names such as Alexis and Charlie for girls, or Dylan and Bailey for boys. Because of this, I decided to check out what names are gonna be used in the upcoming new shows for the 2012-2013 season and do a ranking. I didn't use names from upcoming reality TV series, since those aren't readily available, and a lot of them feature different people each week.

I searched names from new shows on all the major channels: CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC, CW, A&E, Showtime, Disney Channel, AMC, MTV, amongst others. So what are the most common names of the upcoming TV season?


Boys

Movie "John Carter" - Floppy Name?

So the sci-fi movie "John Carter", played by actor Taylor Kitsch, was released earlier this year and was met with mixed reviews. However, what caused a lot of commotion was how it turned out to be a flop of epic proportions, causing Disney a loss of over 200 million dollars.
One of the most cited reasons as why this movie flopped was its unappealing title, "John Carter". When you do a sci-fi movie, people are looking for intriguing titles that catch your attention, and unfortunately "John Carter" just doesn't do it since it's a super common, safe, boring name. Not the kind of name you associate with aliens, mystery, adventure, space, etc. One quick look around the net and nearly every review mentions the badly named titled as one of the worst things about it.
Marketing a movie is super important to attract viewers, especially in a difficult time like nowadays, where less people are willing to pay to go the cinema. Disney failed by meeting one of the most important criteria of movie marketing: having an appealing name.
A name like John has been handed over to more than 5 million men in the US alone - Adding the last name Carter and it sounds like he's a policitian, perhaps a plumber, or an ordinary old man living next door to you. The same would apply to names along the lines of James, Robert, Richard, Daniel or Michael. It really was a huge error that could have easily been avoided.
Now not only has Disney's chairman quit his position, but "John Carter" has cemented itself (and the name) as one of the biggest movie flops of all time. I guess Shakespeare's "what's in a name?" also applies to movies.

Name In Trend: Aria

 The name Aria as a girl name is of hebrew origin and means "lioness". It can actually be a boy's name too and I have seen male Aria's around usually of middle eastern background, but in the US it has been used almost exclusively on girls. This name also contains a musical association: we call an "aria" to a solo performance by the leading character in an opera. Interesting, right?


Aria is a pretty recent name to the girl's popularity chart, having debuted in 2000. However, a name isn't "new" just because it's only been recently popular, unless it's a nouveau invention. The name has been recently adopted for a TV character in the show Pretty Little Liars, which may be why it has been zooming up the chart the past couple of years.

Let's take a look at the graph with Aria's evolution:

Names In Spotlight: Evil Girl Names

If there's one theme I prefer girl names over boy names, it's evil names. Not only in literature and mythology, but also in movies and TV series, girls just have the more interesting names. While a lot of them are pretty common names, such as Katherine [Vampire Diaries], Carrie [Carrie], Victoria [Twilight], Kali [Hinduism], Faith [Buffy The Vampire Slayer] or Regan [The Exorcist], there are some that are either really rare, or that have gone out of usage in many years.

Below are some uncommon evil names used in cinema and TV. Not necessarily evil in origin or meaning, but because they were used on evil characters.

Morticia [Addams Family]
Wednesday [Addams Family]

Everyone has seen or at least heard about "The Addams Family". They were at their most normal, an unconventional family, who reveled in anything evil or painful. Morticia, the mother, and Wednesday, the daughter, were both very elegant with a gothic appearance, and like the rest of the family had an obsession with the macabre. Morticia and Wednesday have never made the SSA ranking, and probably never will. The first one because it's a mouthful and heavily associated with the character, and the second one because days of the week as first names never caught on.

Name In Spotlight: Flynn

If there was ever a name that had an opportunity to make a big splash in the popularity charts, this would be in. The name has yet to crack the boys top1000, but after Disney using this name in their next movie, and celebrity superstars Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr naming their boy Flynn, I can see this name becoming the next big thing. Plus, it's always nice to have an alternative to the currently everywhere Finn.

TV series and their influence on names

We all know how TV and popular series/shows can influence how a name performs. However, I have to vent at TV series constantly giving girls unisex or even manly names, and boys always getting the same old boring names that have been popular since Christ was born...

Grey's Anatomy is one of the main culprits, by naming one of the most popular female characters Addison - arguably one of the reasons the name started to be associated with girls. We all know the lead female character, Meredith, has a boys name, but that has been lost to the girls a long time ago. Addison had a fighting chance, had. Other female characters are: Izzie (Isobel), Lexie, Reed (also a boys name), Callie (Calliope), Sloan (another boy name), Teddy (and another one), and of course the nazi-surgeon commonly called by her surname Bailey - surely doesn't help the boys. The males of course all have typical boy names that everyone is bored of: Derek, Richard, Alex, George, Charles, Jackson - a snoozefest.