What better inspiration for your new daughter's name than the greatest female characters ever created? These heroines from British and Irish authors' novels, plays, and poetry have beautiful names to match their memorable personalities. Browse our favourites from iconic works of literature, treasured children's tales, and contemporary masterpieces, and take a look at more baby names inspired by classic books [1] to help you decide on your little one's literary name.
- Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
- Arrietty (The Borrowers by Mary Norton)
- Arwen (Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien)
- Aurora (Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
- Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare)
- Becky (Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery)
- Bridget (Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding)
- Catherine (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)
- Connie (Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence)
- Cordelia (King Lear by William Shakespeare)
- Desdemona (Othello by William Shakespeare)
- Elinor (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)
- Eliza (Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw)
- Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
- Emma (Emma by Jane Austen)
- Éowyn (Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien)
- Estella (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
- Ginny (Harry Potter [2] series by J.K. Rowling)
- Helen (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë)
- Hermione (Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling)
- Jane (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)
- Jean (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark)
- Juliet (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)
- Lily (To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf)
- Lucy (A Room with a View by E.M. Forster)
- Lyra (His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman)
- Marianne (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)
- Mary (Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers)
- Matilda (Matilda by Roald Dahl)
- Moll (Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe)
- Ophelia (Hamlet by William Shakespeare)
- Portia (The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)
- Rosalind (As You Like It by William Shakespeare)
- Sophie (The BFG by Roald Dahl)
- Susan (The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis)
- Tess (Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy)
- Viola (Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare)
- Wendy (Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie)