This past week I’ve had to spend a lot of time on the couch laying pretty still- which for me means one thing, primarily:

I crank through a lot of books! Last week I got through Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins, and then moved onto Mockingjay (the third and final in the series) as well as The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.

While Mockingjay (as well as the other books in the series) are set in a sort of futuristic, dystopian world, The Red Tent fictionalizes one of the oldest families of biblical times- Jacob and his brood of sons (and one daughter). Both of these novels contain a lot of characters, and I was struck, reading them both simultaneously, by the very different names of characters in each, and what it means about the time the characters live in. Here’s a sampling:

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The Hunger Games trilogy: I noticed that a lot of these characters have names that are either descriptive, earthy, and natural (from the districts),  or have a Roman vibe (the characters in power from the Capitol)

• Katniss Everdeen
• Gale Hawthorne
• Peeta Mellark
• Haymitch
• Cinna
• Prim (Primrose)
• Finnick Odair
• Rue
• Cato
• Brutus
• Chaff
• Seeder
• Glimmer
• Marvel
• Gloss
• Cashmere
• Clove
• Thresh
• Foxface
• Beetee
• Wiress
• Mags
• Claudius Templesmith
• Coriolanus Snow
• Seneca
• Greasy Sae
• Effie Trinket
• Hazelle
• Fulvia
• Castor
• Pollux
• Octavia
• Caesar Flickerman
• Plutarch Heavensbee
• Johanna Mason
• Romulus
• Madge
• Flavius
• Venia

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The Red Tent: While some of these names are quite common in many cultures today, others are less common (in western culture, anyway, which is all I’m really aware of as far as popularity of names goes)

• Dinah
• Rachel
• Leah
• Jacob
• Laban
• Ruti
• Bilhah
• Zilpah
• Reuben
• Judah
• Simon
• Levi
• Adah
• Inna
• Gad
• Asher
• Naphtali
• Zebulun
• Joseph
• Esau
• Issachar
• Dan
• Oholibama
• Libbe
• Eliphaz
• Basemath
• Tabea

Are you interested in how people are named? Do you know what your name means? Do you know of characters in books or movies that share your name?