Friday, June 04, 2004

Good names for girls

Unless my brother has not been keeping me up-to-date with family news, my new-born niece still has no name.

The boy reckons that Morgan would be a good name. He's a pagan and well-read in the old English beliefs, so it didn't surprise me; to me, Morgan was the sorceress who succeeded in defeating King Arthur. Outside of the Arthuric legends, she was probably an extremely powerful woman - perhaps a demigod. For some reason, when I try to picture her I get images of Medea (also an extremely powerful sorceress of divine parentage). A good name, I think.

I also think Josephine would be a good name. It's because her brother is called Benjaman, which is also an old-fashioned, multi-syllabic name. But I didn't choose it because of any association with historic or mythic Josephines (the only one I can think of is Napoleon's lover, and she doesn't sound like a particularly strong character); maybe it's because there aren't any negative associations - with me anyway.

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