Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information."My characters always appear with their names. Sometimes these names seem to be affected, sometimes almost ridiculous; but I am obliged to own that they are never fundamentally unsuitable."
American novelist Edith Wharton, born 150 years ago today, wrote that in 1934. Her knack for suitable character names is one reason she's ranked among the best American authors.
Wharton's first bestseller was "The House of Mirth" in 1905. Its heroine is Lily Bart.
Lily, a naive beauty, longs to marry an upper-class man. Her social standing is ruined when wealthy Bertha Dorset accuses Lily of having an affair with her husband. Bertha does this to cover up her own extramarital affairs.
Lily falls into poverty after her wealthy aunt disowns her. She finds letters proving Bertha's affair with Lawrence Selden, but burns them to protect Selden's reputation. Lily dies of a drug overdose just before Selden arrives to ask her to marry him.
Critic Elaine Showalter points out that lilies are symbols of female purity. Many earlier authors named beautiful adventurous young women Lily. Victorians also had a superstition that girls named after flowers die young, fitting Lily's tragic story.
Wharton's best-known book is "Ethan Frome." Published in 1911, it's often assigned in English classes.
New England farmer Ethan Frome, unhappily married to Zeena, falls in love with her visiting cousin Mattie. When Zeena asks Mattie to leave, Ethan and Mattie try to commit suicide. They fail, and 25 years later a crippled Ethan and paralyzed Mattie still live a bleak existence with Zeena.
In 1911, the name Ethan fit the character perfectly. Associated with rural New England because of Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen, Ethan was long out of fashion. Most living Ethans in 1911 were older than 50, like Ethan Frome.
Today, Ethan's image is very different. It has been a top 10 name for boys in the United States since 2002. In 2012, Ethan brings to mind Tom Cruise's character in "Mission Impossible" rather than Ethan Frome.
In 1921, "The Age of Innocence" won Wharton the Pulitzer Prize. In that novel, Newland Archer, engaged to pretty young May Welland, falls for her exotic divorced cousin Countess Ellen Olenska. Even after marrying May he considers leaving with Ellen, but abandons the idea when he learns May's pregnant.
Wharton, then living in Paris, perhaps chose the name Newland to emphasize how American he was, as a man of the "new world."
Ellen and May were both common in the 1870s, when the novel is set. The springlike associations of May fit the naive and youthful character. Winona Ryder won a Golden Globe for playing May in Martin Scorcese's 1993 film based on the novel.
Wharton's last bestseller was 1927's "Twilight Sleep." Here, socialite Pauline Manford has two adult children, Jim and Nona, from her first marriage to Arthur Wyant. Arthur discovers Jim's wife, Lita, in bed with Pauline's husband Dexter. Trying to shoot Dexter, he gravely wounds Nona instead.
Critics panned the book's melodrama. It's the only one of Wharton's novels, though, that influenced real baby names. Lita, rare beforehand, more than doubled in 1927 to jump into the top thousand names at 698th place. It stayed among the top thousand for a decade.
This was just the time when Rita was a top hundred name for American girls. The novel's inspiration of baby Litas shows it's not literary merit or an admirable character that influence parents to use a new name. Being a "different but not too different" alternative to an already popular name is what allowed Lita to boom.
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