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HelpRe: Myrrh (as a name)
in reply to a message by Feorsteorra
It's the kind of name I would have used when I was fourteen, in one of my many unfinished stories. I probably would have used it in a fantasy setting. Nowadays, if I picked up a novel in the bookshop and seen "Myrrh" as a character name in the blurb, I'd put it straight back down. Sorry.
However, in Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata (pro tip: don't read it), there's a female character named Myrrhine. I think that's such a pretty name, it's just a shame about its most well known usage.
Ottilie
http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/116467
However, in Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata (pro tip: don't read it), there's a female character named Myrrhine. I think that's such a pretty name, it's just a shame about its most well known usage.
http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/116467
This message was edited 7/3/2015, 4:52 AM
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Myrrhine! Of course! I knew at the back of my mind there was a Myrrh- name I couldn't recall. To be honest, seeing Myrrhine (nn Myrrh) in a blurb would only make me want to pick up the book - it shows that the author has some familiarity with ancient literature. Fantasy novels get away with all sorts of names anyway. (I mean, using the ultra-modern names Catelyn and Jaime in medieval-esque fantasy? They simply don't sit well with me.)
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I'd be much more open to a Myrrhine in a fantasy novel, but it would depend on what kind of fantasy it was. If it was set in a world anchored to our own, such as Harry Potter where I think names like Hermione and Sirius work very well, then that'd be fine, but I'd be completely unimpressed if I saw a fantasy world entirely independent of our own using a name like Myrrhine, or Jaime or Jade or whatever. But I don't read much fantasy anyway.
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Just for the record, the extremely popular and successful 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series of novels (and the HBO adaptation) are in fact a fantasy world entirely independent of our own, and one of the main characters is named Jaime. (Another is named Catelyn.) I don't see how either name doesn't fit the setting, though, and I don't see why something as simple as Jade wouldn't fit either. (Assuming jade exists as a substance and a word in that world as well, why couldn't people decide it would make a good name and just start using it?) What sort of names do you think would actually fit in a fantasy world entirely independent of our own?
This message was edited 7/3/2015, 11:42 AM
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