Female names that end in vowels

[bluejester12]

Is it just me, or do a lot of female fantasy names end in vowels? At least traditionally?

Leia (Star Wars)
Valeria (Conan)
Uhura (Star Trek)
Elora and Bavmorda (Willow)

How about less famous works? Has anyone else thought about this?

[CindyBidar]

A quick count of this list (http://www.behindthename.com/top/100us2003.html) shows 65 out of 100 girl names end in a vowel or vowel sound, so maybe it's not just in SF/F? Boy names, by the way, ended in a vowel only eleven times out of 100. :huh

[macalicious731]

From what I can tell, it's the "norm" that the female names end in vowels from the male version. Brendan = Brenda, Chris = Christa, Christina, etc..

Of course, not everything works this way but if you go through a name dictionary you'll usually find underneath a male name (female: ___) that most commonly ends in a vowel.

[veingloree]

A lot of old culture (from who we inherit names) had a convention for how female names end and many of them use a vowel. For example the roman ia (fem) and ius (male).

[Kempo Kid]

My given name ends in a vowel.

[Writing Again]

I notice all of the female names cited end in the vowel "a". In all the Latin, Romance, languages the Feminine form is "a" the masculine "o".

In Spanish Margarito is a fine masculine name. Most English speakers confuse it with Margarita, a completely different name to the Latin ear.

[Nyki27]

I've heard this somewhere described as the Burroughs Universal Constant (referring to Edgar Rice Burroughs, not William) that wherever you go in the universe, female names end in an -a.

It's actually a very localised phenomenon. In the Indo-Aryan languages, for instance, it's usually male names that end in -a - Krishna, Brahma, Arjuna etc., though female ones sometimes do. Even in Latin, there were quite a few male names ending in -a, such as Agrippa, Nerva, Agricola etc.

Some languages are going to distinguish masculine & feminine words & names, in a variety of ways, others aren't. Some languages use prefixes or suffixes to indicate noun-category. Others don't include any recognisable grammatic structure in the word.

Keeping it European can have the advantage of making the reader feel safely on familiar ground, but it can also make it boring, if it's overdone. Personally, I like to experiment.

[alinasandor]

This is probably because in the romance languages a feminine word is marked by an 'a' at the end. My name, Alina, for instance, is Spanish in origin.

[dpaterso]

Whenever I've tried to introduce a fantasy female character name that doesn't end in a vowel, readers have objected vociferously (I love that word; I so seldom have the opportunity to use it in conversation) and demanded I stop confusing them. Analyze by all means, but going up against tradition and expectation always ends in tears.

Burroughs Constant Disproved: Diane the Beautiful, "At The Earth's Core" and his other Pellucidar novels. Hooja the Sly One was a guy. Gotta be careful of those personal dating ads when you're in subterranean worlds.

Order a Margarito in a Spanish bar and they'll bring you a mustached guitar player.

-Derek
-----------------------My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)

[Nyki27]

Interesting, I haven't had a problem with different types of names. I think if you get it fixed quickly in the reader's mind who a character is, they'll accept it. And it also helps if they can see the linguistic logic to the names.

I'm sure there's lots of exceptions to the Burroughs Universal Constant. I'm not sure who coined the "law", but it's basically a joke that makes a point.

[Flawed Creation]

the a- ending for female names was a common latin thing, which has passed into other languages. i belive that it is fairly common in greek, at least the feminine declension seem to have more as than os.

however, it's dependent on culture. fantasy has often been heavily influenced by latin. a number of popular works have used latin as the language of magic, including our friend HP, and such classics as Dr. Faustus

in SF, there is often an uwarranted assumption that space will be mainly european.

interestingly, Japanese feminine names tend to end in -ko.

[Nyki27]

In both Greek and Latin, the 1st Declension, which is mainly but not exclusively feminine, has its root as -a, though in many Greek words, it mutated into -e (that's why, for example, you can say either Athene or Athena). In both languages, though, there were plenty of feminine nouns (and female names) that were formed differently. But the -a is the one that seemed to catch on, in it became very common in both Italian and Spanish.

[Cussedness]

The -e is usually equally with the -a in Greek. Circe, Aphrodite, Melpomene. It fact the -e predominates and is the older form.

I agree with the idea that you should go with what feels right for you as a character name and, so long as you make it very clear in the beginning, don't worry about the reader figuring it out. Names heighten the perception of culture. :hat

[KLH]

Japanese names are supposed to mean something, and the addition of -ko simply indicates 'female'. So a boy's name could be Tomo, which means clever, and the girl's version would be Tomoko. But it's also possible to add -maru to a noun, such as Tomomaru or Tetsumaru, which designates the name as masculine. And it's just as possible that a girl would be named Tomo. Like Chinese names, it's the equivalent of naming your kid Lucky (Xing) or Peony (Botan) - and both those names are considered gender-neutral, by the way.

Most Japanese names will end in a vowel because of the phonetic system - to / mo / ko and to / mo / ma / ru; the vowel is inherent in the sound of the kanji or kana.

When using non-Angloeuro names, I find that readers quickly associate 'Tetsu' or 'Tomo' as male or female depending on what I tell them, because it's new. It takes a bit longer for them to associate, say, 'Sam' as a woman's name, but that's because of predisposition.

[Writing Again]

That is interesting, KLH.

[Thekherham]

I've noticed that a lot of females in my stories... novels... whichever have vowel endings.

[Pthom]

No one has female characters with names like Ingrid, Cheryl, Beryl, Sharon, Allison, Caitlin, Ann, Shawn, Iris, Janis, Maris, Margaret, or Liz?:\

[KLH]

Sure do: Alex, Meg, Spark, Ellen, Susan, Kit. And guy's names: Tetsu, Kowari, Li, Rafe, Sasha. But once I read the topic, it was all I could do to stop staring at Celia, Tama, and Jackie, and get back to writing. ;)

[Writing Again]

Have over a half dozen women in my novel. None of whose names ends in "a."

[Cussedness]

same here.

[maestrowork]

But we are talking about fantasy here... ;) Maybe the conventions are different than mainstream/other genres?

Let's see... my female names are Kate, Grace, Lian, Agnes, Helen, Lillian, Ang, Emily.... none of them ends with a vowel. My guys' names are Greg, Howard, Victor, Chow, Paul, Martin, David, Kai, Aziz, Yao... two of them end with vowels...

[KLH]

Technically, Kate and Grace end in vowels - unless you mean in terms of a vowel sound? As in Celia - seel-ee-ah - versus Grace - grayss - ?

[maestrowork]

Right. I mean the sounds, not the letters.

[TravellerRose]

The names of Roman women were feminised forms of male names - there were no `female' names as such. So the daughter of Julius would be Julia - that is now the convention of ending girl's names in A started. But it certainly isn't the norm over the planet, as other posters have pointed out.
The names of your characters should grow out of their own culture and language. Tolkien didn't end his female characters with a vowel. Eowyn, for example, came from the same linguistic source as Eomer - the Rohan word for horse - Eo.
Names are one of the hardest parts, for me - I try to match them to my character's age (if she was born in the 50s she's unlikely to be called something like Tyffani), culture and most important, since people do not choose their own birth names, what the parents were thinking.

[Nyki27]

Emily ends in a vowel too, since y can be a vowel or consonant. It was actually originally a vowel, invented by the Emperor Claudius to represent the Greek u, which was a totally different sound from the Roman one.

In my current novel, the main female character is called Anniol, and there are other females called Parrin, Rivil, Zillith and Kal (properly Owe-Kal). Also Eltava & Jafi, but there are male characters called Akdoia, Chenda & Zarai. It just depends what culture they come from (there's a lot of them represented)

[WVWriterGirl]

Out of the three main female characters I have, two have names that do not end in vowels (one ends in "k", the other in "n"). The other, I must say, does in in an -a. It wasn't something I consciously did -- they just kinda fell in that way. Someone above said they had someone who read their work despise their names that ended in non-vowels. I've not had that experience; as a matter of fact, I was told "don't you DARE change her name!"

WV

[alphabeter]

There was an article on cnn.com that I am trying to find so this post may be edited later.

It talked about the way people are perceived based on where the "hardness" in their name rolled off the tongue. A male with a hard syllable up front was considered more masculine than a male whose name had a back-end hardness. I remember specifically a comparison between Bill (hard) Hemmer and Anderson (soft) Cooper. In contrast, the farther back in her name a female had a hard syllable--if at all, the gentler she was considered. I seem to remember Paula Zahn and Heidi Collins in that list, but there were more female names--with vowel enders too.

[EelKat]

this thread got me thinking about names.... I think most every name I've ever used for my female characters ends in a vowel... I never noticed this before!

Felicia
Pippi
Ninantaka
Lila
Mariea
Mara



Crystal doesn't though... I actual have one that doesn't end in a vowel!


uhm... what about Wendy? Does that count as ending in a vowel or not???

[Viral]

It is rather common for a vowel sound to be "feminine" where a consonant or hard sound is more "masculine."

Interestingly, some characters from my stories...

Yami - Male (Fem. Name)
Injenn - Female (Male name)
Seyu - Male (Fem. Name)
Roku - Male (Fem. Name)
Jete - Female (Fem. Name)
Inaris - Male (Male Name)
Noir - Female (Male Name)
Sjae - Male (Female Name, pronounced say-jay)

Interesting..

[yappo]

How many of you are native English speakers?

That was a rhetorical question, but, I believe, a valid one. From our respective native language comes our conception of sounds and their connotations. Assuming that the vast majority of people here grew up with English, and that the minority who didn't, statistically, grew up with other Germanic or Latin languages, our perception is skewed.

Still, we're probably writing in English. Even if the culture we represent in writing (assuming fantasy) speaks a language that is in no way related to English we still represent it with English. Thus we create a stream of sounds which need to flow naturally to the reader, and too outlandish sounds will most likely impact the reading experience in a negative way.

My opinions only, and, apart from the assumptions of our respective backgrounds, in no way backed by studied facts.

Sten

[small axe]

Zorg if the monster is male. Zorgatina if the monster is female. :)

I'd have to agree with the Romance language masculine "o" feminine "a" and the femme = vowel, masculine = hard consonant tendency, myself.

That said, I tend to give my femme characters men's names, because it's just so darn "cute"

[Paichka]

Hmm. This is a really interesting thread, thanks for resurrecting it.

My female characters have old Anglo-Saxon names, or names patterned off Medieval European names --

Merowence (psuedo-English)
Gwennyd (Welsh? I think)
Denw (Welsh)
Sanciare (medieval Spanish-ish)
Tabitha (English)
Magalyn (threw some syllables together)
Alays (medieval French)

Then I have more typical names:

Ilyana
Jacqueline

I think it does depend on your native language, what sounds normal to your ear as far as names go. :)

[ChaosTitan]

Very interesting thread. Let's see, my female main characters thus far: Olivia, Jessica, Teresa, Dahlia, Renee, Evangeline, Quitrina, A.J. (Alice Jean), Rebekah.

Fascinating. :)

[slcboston]

Assuming that the vast majority of people here grew up with English, and that the minority who didn't, statistically, grew up with other Germanic or Latin languages, our perception is skewed.

I think you're on to a larger point here. As I remember from Russian, most female names follow this same trend, despite the completely different alphabet. But in its roots, it share some of the same trends as the European/English languages we're familiar with, and thus we get the vowels at the end of female names, probably as a result of Latin or Greek or some such ancestral language.

And other cultures with different traditions don't have this. I was listening to PRI or NPR the other day, and a woman was talking about various languages, including most of the Native American ones. In those languages, it's the verbs, not the nouns, that are often the primary focus. Which is why, incidentally, you get those Native American names like "Dances with Wolves" or "Stands with a Fist."

Linguistically, I don't know if there's a difference among the pronunciation of genders in those languages, though I don't think so.

Similarly, I think the same holds true for Chinese, though in my time spent there I was horrible with names, so my observations might be off.

I think this would be something to think about if you were attempting to set your fantasy (or even more realistic) novel in some culture that doesn't share similar linguistic origins. Maybe the Martians end their masculine names with vowels, for example. :)

[slcboston]

uhm... what about Wendy? Does that count as ending in a vowel or not???

Yes, because of the sound it makes. (My four year old has these magnetic letters - the vowels are all yellow. As is one of the two "y"s for just this reason. "Y" at the beginning of "yes" is a consonant, for example.

[EelKat]

Yes, because of the sound it makes. (My four year old has these magnetic letters - the vowels are all yellow. As is one of the two "y"s for just this reason. "Y" at the beginning of "yes" is a consonant, for example.

the Y somtimes being a vowel always confused me, and I was never sure how to tell if it was a vowel or not, maybe I just needed some magnetic letters ... thanks!

[mscelina]

hmmm....my female MC's names are Tamsen, Quintal, and Ananke respectively. I find it interesting, however, that my name ends in an 'a'.

The 'a' ending is strongly indicative of a Latin or Romance language root. "Pulchra puella' was the first phrase I learned in latin (pretty girl). Also, Roman nomenclature established the Julius/Julia Antonius/Antonia male/female versions of the family name. Thus Julia was Julius' sister, et al.

[Pthom]

In my WIP, there are some 58 named characters (half a dozen main ones, the rest are supporting, or mere walk-ons, yet they all have names). Of the 28 males, only four have given names ending in a vowel. Of the 30 females, eleven have given names ending in consonants. All the names are made up--I think it unlikely more than a dozen of them are names of real people.

In another story of mine, three main characters are female, two have names that end in consonants.

In yet another, 13 characters, names picked at random from the telephone directory, one male's name ends in a vowel, one female's name ends in a consonant. (This novel is not SF or F.)

And in one still being developed, of 28 males, 8 names end with vowels; of 14 females, only two names end in consonants. These names were picked "out of head" but without any strong attempt to make any up. What's interesting in this group is that most of the "odd" names (ie: males with vowels, females with consonants) sound foreign (non western)-- and that is precisely the description of the characters.

[mscelina]

hmmm...that is interesting.

I have a weakness for taking names from things that many people don't read for fun (Plato comes to mind almost immediately) so I have a lot of names like Phoclydies or Glaucon, or I'll take a foreign word for the definition and change the spelling just enough to make a name out of it. Of all my characters (novels not short stories) only one is named after a person. I just like the name Tamsen--i met one girl with the name and thought it was so cool that I stole it. Shamelessly.

[JoNightshade]

I just catalogued my female names and realized I have an unconscious obsession with the "ie" ending:

Ellie
Gracie
Georgie
Mary
Jen(ny)

A couple of exceptions:

Jana
Greta
Lenore
Pam(ela)

[Sassee]

A lot of the more common female names end in a vowel. Though I've noticed in the last ten years or so more boy's names are being borrowed for girls...

Let's see if I can remember all my girls' names:


Kate
Sid(ney)
(A)lana
Ashlee
Heather
Melissa
Tracey
Dee
Allison
Kelly
Mikaela
Nissa
Penny (Parthenope)

Those are the ones from my two completed stories, including walk-ons. The list gets much longer if I account for unfinished blurbs and challenge topic pieces.

[yappo]

Hmm, I COULD join in and list the female names I use ;)

Vivian
Christina
Chaijrild
Neijan
Lianin
Mairild
Nakora
Gring

Does that make me strange? :D

Sten

[Dreamer3702]

Some girls names I've used:

Eddean
Zody
Tania
Alisha
Enkalya
Mauricia
Lolo
Attoline
Mira
Serena
Haley
Opal
Astrid
Eliza
Inadani

[Saanen]

I've noticed that an -ee sounding ending sounds more childish than an -ah ending. Contrast, for instance, Tammy with Tamara, Laurie with Laura, Debbie with Deborah, Nikkie with Nicola, etc. The -ee ending is generally used for diminutives for both sexes (Davie, Tommy, Billy, Danny, etc.). Just a thought.

My current MC is named Rose. Of course, her name is a plot point so that doesn't really count. I have a supporting character I wanted to come across as very feminine, so I named her Amalia, but I really loathe that name and expect I'll change it (again--she was named Ozella originally but it sounded too much like Rose).

[Sage]

Girls:

Tia
Mictecacihuatl (Micki)
Dee
Penny
Faith
Kristie
Gwen, Han, Kane, Ellen, Nan, Payne, Erin (these all end with an N sound on purpose)
Euterpe
Michiko
Echo
Wispa

So other than the N's, only one of my girls is actually called by a name that ends in consonants.

I have more vowel-ending guy names. For example, Pana, Yama, Tuoni, Varuna, Trenti, Keisuke.

[EelKat]

well, after going though my older stuff and my more recent stuff, I've come to realize that 3 of every 4 female names I've used end in "a"; the ones that don't end in "a", end in "i", "ie", or "y".

[DonnaDuck]

Just off the top of my head, I only have 1 female in my fantasy WIP, Sabina and the other male or androgenous characters all end in consonants, unless you cound the Previes, Previ for singular, short for Previous and another name of Ancient (simply because I thought 'Ancient' was way overdone and wanted something different, hence the Previous/Previ/Previes name). I don't want names like Karen or similar "normal" names in my fantasy piece so I just end up playing Boggle with the alphabet in my head and start shoving letters together until I get names like Mian, Jeviar, the Bendin and so on and so forth. Although I do have an excellent names website that lists names from something like 75 different countries. When I get home I'll have to post it here.

I've used Detta, short for Benedetta in another piece, Layla for my Coney Island WIP. Yeah, I'm steeped in the Latin female names. My brain automatically associates an 'a' with feminine although 'e' and 'i' could be equally as lady-like.

[lpetrich]

Here's a glaring example from Star Trek, as described in Cultural Inconsistencies (http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/culture1.htm):
Especially female first names ending on "-a" are enormously popular among aliens, like Alcia, Tressa (Drayan), Alixia, Talaxia (Talaxian), Anya, Salia (alassomorphs), Ariana (Tarellian), Deanna, Kestra (Betazoid), Danara (Vidiian), Deela (Scalosian), Gia (Barkonian), Ilia (Deltan), Irina (Delta Quadrant race), Kamala (Kriosian), Kara (Eymorg), Karya (Vori), Lenara (Trill), Martia (chameloid), Melora (Elaysian), Natira (Fabrini), Nimira (Mari), Nona (Tyree's planet), Odona (Gideon). And these are only very few random examples. Actually, the vast majority of alien female names ends on "-a", which is a totally incredible oddity.

[Keyan]

I've heard this somewhere described as the Burroughs Universal Constant (referring to Edgar Rice Burroughs, not William) that wherever you go in the universe, female names end in an -a.

It's actually a very localised phenomenon. In the Indo-Aryan languages, for instance, it's usually male names that end in -a - Krishna, Brahma, Arjuna etc., though female ones sometimes do.

In Sanskrit, the masculine names (and most consonant-ending nouns, I think) ended with a short 'a' - really a schwa. And the feminine names ended with a long a (like 'ah') or "i". So the male name would be Janaka, and his daughter would be Jaanaki. Krishna is male; the feminine version would be Krishnaa, which, confusingly, is usually spelled Krishna in English. Dharma is a male name in Sanskrit.

But in a novel, it does make it easier not to lose your readers or confuse them. Even Tolkien did it, with a note saying that Frodo should really be Froda.