Names of poets and writers

Handpicked for families who want names with roots: the beloved classics, what parents in the culture choose today, and the cool discoveries most US name sites never surface.

Alice noble, truthful; Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple

Amy beloved; Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

Anna grace, favor; Anna Akhmatova, one of Russia's greatest poets

Anton priceless, praiseworthy; Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short-story master

Arundhati name of a revered star and sage's wife in Hindu tradition, associated with steadfastness; Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things

Audre noble strength (respelling of Audrey); the spelling poet and essayist Audre Lorde chose for herself, liking the visual symmetry with 'Lorde'

Charlotte free woman, feminine of Charles; Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre

Chinua short form of Chinualumogu, 'may God fight on my behalf'; Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart

Claudia lame (from the Roman clan name Claudius); Claudia Rankine, contemporary poet known for Citizen: An American Lyric

Derek ruler of the people (form of Theodoric); Derek Walcott, Nobel laureate poet from Saint Lucia

Emily rival, eager; famously borne by both poet Emily Dickinson and novelist Emily Brontë

Federico peaceful ruler; Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet and playwright

Flannery meaning debated, often glossed 'red eyebrow' (from Ó Flannabhra); Flannery O'Connor, celebrated Southern Gothic writer

Fyodor gift of God (Russian form of Theodore); Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist and author of Crime and Punishment

Gabriela God is my strength (feminine of Gabriel); Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

Giovanni God is gracious (form of John); Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron

Hafez guardian, one who has memorized the Quran; Hafez of Shiraz, one of Persian literature's most beloved lyric poets

Harper harp player, occupational; Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of To Kill a Mockingbird

Haruki clear, sunny spring (kanji-dependent); Haruki Murakami, internationally bestselling novelist

Isabel God is my oath; Isabel Allende, bestselling Chilean-American novelist

Jhumpa a family pet-name Jhumpa Lahiri uses publicly in place of her formal name Nilanjana; Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies

Johann God is gracious (German form of John); Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, towering German poet, playwright, and novelist

Jorge farmer, earth-worker; Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer of labyrinthine short fiction

Julia youthful, downy-haired; Julia de Burgos, celebrated Puerto Rican poet

Khalil friend, companion; Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet and author of The Prophet

Langston long stone, from a place name for a tall standing stone; Langston Hughes, leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance

Leo lion; Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist and author of War and Peace

Mahmoud praised, commendable; Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet

Marina of the sea; Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet

Maxine greatest (feminine of Max); Maxine Hong Kingston, Chinese-American memoirist known for The Woman Warrior

Maya illusion (Sanskrit māyā); adopted permanently as a childhood nickname (for Marguerite) by poet and memoirist Maya Angelou

Miguel who is like God (form of Michael); Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote

Naguib noble descent, of noble origin; Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel laureate Egyptian novelist

Nikki victory of the people (short form of Nicole); Nikki Giovanni, poet of the Black Arts Movement

Nizar meaning linked to scarcity and preciousness ('small quantity'); Nizar Qabbani, celebrated Syrian poet

Ocean literal nature word; the name Ocean Vuong's mother gave him, inspired by the Pacific Ocean separating Vietnam and America

Octavia eighth (traditionally for an eighth-born child); Octavia Butler, groundbreaking science-fiction writer

Oscar possibly 'spear of the gods,' or Gaelic 'deer-friend'; Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet, and wit

Pablo small, humble (form of Paul); Pablo Neruda, Nobel laureate Chilean poet

Rainer counsel army (regin 'counsel' + heri 'army'); Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian-Bohemian poet

Rumi literally 'from Rūm' (Roman Anatolia), the epithet by which the beloved Sufi poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad is known; now also used as a modern given name in its own right

Rupi beauty; Rupi Kaur, contemporary poet known for Milk and Honey

Salman safe, secure (from salaam); Salman Rushdie, novelist known for Midnight's Children

Sandra defender of men (short form of Alexandra); Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

Seamus supplanter (Irish form of James); Seamus Heaney, Nobel laureate Irish poet

Sylvia of the forest, woods; Sylvia Plath, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

Toni priceless, praiseworthy (short form of Antonia/Anthony); adopted as a nickname by novelist and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, born Chloe Wofford

Ursula little she-bear; Ursula K. Le Guin, celebrated speculative-fiction writer

Virginia maidenly, virginal; Virginia Woolf, modernist novelist and essayist

Walt ruler of the army (short form of Walter); Walt Whitman, poet of Leaves of Grass

Wislawa famous glory; Wisława Szymborska, Nobel laureate poet

Wole short form of a longer name meaning roughly 'the brave one comes into the house'; Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate playwright

Yukio meaning kanji-dependent, commonly glossed 'snow boy' or 'man of good fortune'; Yukio Mishima, novelist and playwright

Zadie origin uncertain, possibly a modern pet form linked to Sadie/Sarah; Zadie Smith, British novelist known for White Teeth

Zora origin debated, often linked to 'dawn'; Zora Neale Hurston, novelist and folklorist of the Harlem Renaissance

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