Gothic Baby Names from Dracula and The Raven

Start with Mina or Lucy if you want a name you can trace to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Try Lenore if it's the sound of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven you want to carry. Before you shortlist one, read the passage that gives it the association. A name list can tell you which book to open. The book can tell you whether you still want the reference.

Mina and Lucy: read the letters first

In Chapter V of Dracula, Mina Murray writes to Lucy Westenra about learning shorthand and keeping a journal. She signs the letter Mina. In Chapter VIII, Sister Agatha addresses a letter to Wilhelmina Murray. If you're borrowing from the book, you have two exact forms to try. Write down the one you would actually introduce. Stoker's use of both forms for this character tells you nothing about how another family uses Mina.

Lucy gets her own letters. In the May 24 letter in Chapter V, she tells Mina she has had three marriage proposals in one day. If that correspondence is what caught your attention, read on far enough to see what else comes with the reference. Chapter XVI takes Lucy's story to a tomb. A perfectly good reason to like Lucy is that you like the sound. If you're choosing it because of the book, make sure you're happy with the later association too.

Lenore: read the second stanza

In Poe's The Raven, the speaker tries to distract himself with books because he is grieving Lenore. By the time the bird arrives, the name is already tied to loss. Read the first two stanzas aloud and notice how Lenore rhymes with lore and evermore. That's a sound you can try in your own full-name combination. You can like the rhyme and still decide you'd rather leave the grief in the poem.

A shortlist with one name left

In this hypothetical example, two parents want a quiet reference to a book they like. They read the passages together and agree on a limit: if the scene they'd most associate with the name is one they'd rather leave out of the explanation, they won't choose it as a literary tribute.

• Mina. They both come back to the letter about the journal. They like saying Mina, and they prefer Mina on its own, so they keep the form she signs. Their note reads: "We found Mina in her letter to Lucy. We liked her plan to keep a journal, and we liked the sound of Mina June Bell."
• Lucy. They like the letters, but one of them immediately thinks of the tomb scene. Lucy comes off this literary shortlist. They can still consider it separately if they love the name on its own.
• Lenore. They like the rhyme, but even as a middle name the link they would be keeping is to a poem about loss. They set it aside.

They say Mina June Bell as an introduction, write it out, and keep it as their one option from this reading. If your own note is still just "it sounds Gothic," pick a passage and try writing a more specific sentence. You may find you've got a name to keep, or just a very good excuse to read another chapter.

For a name you found in a different story, try the fictional character name guide. If it makes your shortlist, use the full-name sound and writing check.