And now for something completely different.

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

Dame Ngaio Marsh, born in 1899 in New Zealand, wrote many detective stories — most set in the 1930s through to the 1940s.

I've become fascinated by some of her naming choices for characters, especially the women.

Some of the female characters' names that have caught my eye:

Valmai
Carlisle
Troy (Agatha Troy, to be fair, but always called Troy)
Idris
Grizel


The name "Ngaio", incidentally, is Maori and is pronounced N-EYE-oh.


I think Valmai is my favorite, and to be honest I prefer all of them (yes, including Ngaio itself) to all of the trendy Baylee/Jaylee/Kaylin/Keelin/Rylee names. Okay... with the exception of Grizel. Not even I can stomach Grizel.


Any thoughts?

Comments

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

I am actually with you on liking names like that to Baylee/Jaylee/Kaylin/Keelin/Rylee and Jayden/Kayden/Brayden/Hayden but I must ask if they are real names? I am big on the 'real name' thing.

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

Yup! Apparently Valmai has been used (mostly in Australia) since the 1920s, Grizel is a Scottish variant of Griselda, Idris is Welsh... etc.

Ngaio has lots of suggested meanings, from "reflections on the water" (a theme she frequently uses in her books, as a sort of personal pun, I guess) to a kind of tree or simple Maori for "clever".

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

oh wow then I am sold and for the record I love Ngaio and I would actually not guess too far from N-EYE-oh for the pronounciation

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

yes, I know a couple of now middle-aged women called Valmai - here in Australia it would probably come across as frowsy, but in a different country it could be fresh, and I quite like it.

I would go for Grizelle - I prefer the simpler spelling myself, but kids would latch onto 'grizzle' and tease mercilessly.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I don't like any of them. For one, I see Carlisle and Idris as boy names, just not very attractive ones, and Agatha Troy, Valmai and Grizel are pretty ugly, in my opinion.

[penguiny7.livejournal.com]

Interesting... an earlier example of a boy's name on a girl, even though it was just in a story. Idris was my great-great grandfather's name.

[monkey-fruit.livejournal.com]

I don't like any of them. Carlisle and Idris are boys' names, to me.
I do, however, like the way Ngaio sounds.

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

Carlisle is kind of cute...then again, I love Scotland.

Grizel...that's almost identical to the Dutch word for 'creep'! (it's 'griezel' ;))

[jexia]

Ngaio has a little guttural catch after the "N". Hard to explain!

Hubby is sadly against all the Maori names I like:

Aroha (AH-row-ha) (love)
Awhina (ah-FEE-na) (hug)
Moana (mow-AH-na) (ocean)


I also love Kaipara (KY-pa-ra) for a boy-- it's a harbour where my favourite place in the world is. We got married there.