For as long as I can remember, I have always loved reading. I was a very hyper child, hence my diagnosis of attention defect disorder with hyperactivity, but when it came to story time I could sit for hours. My mother took this opportunity to read to me often and take me on weekly trips to the library and book store. I became such a familiar face at the library all the librarians knew me by name, and would let me poke around in the newly returned bins as well as hold onto my favorites for my weekly Saturday visit. My parents often did their own thing leaving me alone and unsupervised for hours at a time; as an only child, nothing helped make those days less boring than when I could dive into a book and become a princess or a warrior or a pony wrangler out for adventure. Of all the lasting things my mother has passed down to me, my love of books is absolutely at the top of my list.

When I became pregnant with Drake, I realized how much I wanted to tie my love for books into the names I gave my children. It took us quite some time to come across the name Drake. Truthfully Mr Chocolate and I are vastly different when it comes to names; I prefer uncommon, he prefers recognizable. Coupled in with the fact that he is a teacher and former student names would often influence his feelings, we were close to six or seven months before the name Drake floated into possibility. Mr Chocolate liked it and I did too…but was it literary enough? I admit I fudged a little because of how strongly I found myself liking the name, and conceded that Drake was often an old English word for dragon; dragons belonged solely to the world of books and fantasy, and it was strong enough of a tie to fit my criteria while also giving both Mr. Chocolate and I a name we adored.

Juliet’s name, as you can imagine, has a much stronger literary tie. Say what you will about Romeo & Juliet (believe me Mr. Chocolate has told me the gamut since before we even had children to name), but you can’t tell me that when people talk about love stories, it isn’t one of the first titles that comes to mind. I am a romantic and dreamer at heart and since I was thirteen years old reading the Bard for the first time, I knew Juliet was the perfect name. Rosalie comes from another book I loved, and I fully admit I am Twilight fan who fell head over heels for that Edward Cullen. While I do have some choice words for the subsequent books and movie series, Twilight is a book captured my heart. From that series I found a lovely underused gem in Rosalie, which I knew would be perfect for my little girl.

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That leads us to where we are now, staring down a little more than 20 more weeks to name this last baby to join our cozy bookshelf. We do have a boy contender name — it was the boy name we had toyed with before finding out Juliet’s sex, and it will mostly likely be it if this last one is indeed a boy. It works in our literary scheme, similar to how Drake worked (eg I had to fudge it but it’s a name Mr Chocolate is quite fond of and has grown on me through the years). Truthfully I think it pairs quite well as a brother to Drake.

A girl name isn’t coming quite as easily as I had hoped because Drake and Juliet’s names were always our top contenders. Still I remember Mrs. Jacks asking the hive not once but twice to come to her naming aid, so now hive I am asking the same of you.

Can you find me a literary female name that will wow both Mr. Chocolate and me, and make it stand out enough that we know it is the one to complete our family?

Our guidelines are:

  • Literary tie if possible
  • No H or J names
  • Middle name will be after my father so a female version of Karl (Karlina, Karlie, Karleen…undecided for now but need something to flow into that hard K sound)
  • Prefer to be out of the Top 50 if not Top 100
  • No er ending names
  • Mr Chocolate says he has the right to veto if he had a past student with the same name

So hive what have you got for us?