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The following is a list of names known to have been invented by specific people, poets, playwrights, etc.
|
Name |
When? |
By Whom and in What? |
|
Christabel |
15th century |
Medieval romances |
|
Melissa |
15th century |
Italian poets |
|
Stella |
1590 |
Sir Philip Sidney |
|
Pamela |
1590 |
Sir Philip Sidney |
|
Adriana |
1592 |
William Shakespeare, in The Comedy of Errors |
|
Jessica |
1596 |
William Shakespeare, in The Merchant of Venice |
|
Olivia |
1599 |
William Shakespeare, in Twelth Night |
|
Viola |
1599 |
William Shakespeare, in Twelth Night |
|
Brilliana |
1600 |
Sir Edward Conway, Governor of Brill, for his daughter |
|
Regan (possibly) |
1605 |
William Shakespeare in King Lear |
|
Perdita |
1610 |
William Shakespeare, in A Winter’s Tale |
|
Miranda |
1610 |
William Shakespeare, in The Tempest |
|
Zoraida (possibly) |
1610 |
Miguel Cervantes in Don Quixote |
|
Lucinda |
1610 |
Miguel Cervantes in Don Quixote |
|
Myra |
17th century |
Fulke Grenville, Lord Brooke |
|
Belinda |
1689 |
Henry Purcell and Nahum Tate in Dido and Aeneas |
|
Araminta |
1695 |
Sir John Vanbruch in The Confederacy |
|
Berinthia |
1696 |
Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift |
|
Dorinda |
1707 |
George Farquhar in The Beaux Stratagem |
|
Malvina |
18 century |
James MacPherson |
|
Vanessa |
18 century |
Jonathan Swift, as a nickname for a friend |
|
Orville |
1778 |
Fanny Burney in Evelina |
|
Haidee |
1819-1824 |
Lord Byron in Don Juan |
|
Evangeline (possibly) |
1847 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Evangeline |
|
Thelma |
1886 |
Marie Corelli in Thelma: a society novel |
|
Melba |
1887 |
Pseudonym of Nellie Melba (1861-1931), an Australian opera singer. |
|
Dorian |
1890 |
Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray |
|
Gloria |
1898 |
George Bernard Shaw in You Never Can Tell |
|
Janice |
1899 |
Paul Leicester Ford in Janice Meredith |
|
Wendy |
1904 |
James Barry in Peter Pan |