View Message

I do love Les Mis names; probably because I've been a big Les Mis for awhile. I love most of them in a romanticized, name-nerdy sort of way. For that reason, I'd only consider them usable as middle names or for a pet (I really want to get a male cat and name him Gavroche). There are some that are common (Jean, of course), but only a few I'd actually use (I adore Marius).

---

Most of the female names in Les Mis have some sort of story behind them, mentioned by Victor Hugo in the book itself. Fantine was an orphan who grew up without a formal name. Everyone called her "Fantine", a spinoff of the word for "infant", because she was so angelic and sweet. Cosette, which means "little thing", is a pet name. The character's actual name in Euphrasie. Eponine (and her sister Azelma) were named for characters their mother read about in romance novels or romanticized versions of myths. I've read that Eponine is a form of Epona from Gallo-Roman religion/mythology.

---

I like it, in a similar way to the names that I love from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I think they're beautiful examples of the ways that names are created, used, and morphed in literature and I couldn't imagine those characters with different names. Naming characters is such an art.