Ten Favorite Books with Character Names In the Titles

February 1, 2022 Top Ten Tuesday 20

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The meme was originally the brainchild of The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Books with Names/Character Names In the Titles.

When I started brainstorming for this post, I came up with an entire, two-column page of book titles—and that was after I decided to list only one book per series and ruled out titles where the name wasn’t really a character (like A Letter of Mary or The Gabriel Hounds, neither of which refers to a character in the book.) It was really hard to narrow that long list down to my top ten. In the end, I chose nine books or series that I love and reread over and over. In place of the tenth book, I’m going to give you an “honorable mention” list of the books that barely missed the first cut.

My Top Nine (alphabetically by title)

Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery (and sequels)

Aunt Dimity’s Death, by Nancy Atherton (and sequels, particularly Aunt Dimity and the Duke)

Beauty, by Robin McKinley

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling (and sequels)

Henrietta Who?, by Catherine Aird

Linnets and Valerians, by Elizabeth Goudge (Both are surnames of families in the book)

Romancing Mister Bridgerton, by Julia Quinn

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman (and sequels)

Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne

Honorable Mention – children’s and YA

  • Charlotte’s Web (E. B. White)
  • Cinder (and sequels; Marissa Mayer)
  • Five Little Peppers (and sequels; Margaret Sydney)
  • Heidi (Johanna Spyri)
  • Howl’s Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones)
  • Jo’s Boys (Louisa May Alcott)
  • Mary Poppins (and sequels; P. L. Travers)
  • Peter Rabbit (and many other books; Beatrix Potter)
  • Pollyanna (Eleanor H. Porter)
  • Rose in Bloom (Louisa May Alcott)
  • Sandry’s Book, Tris’s Book, Daja’s Book, and Briar’s Book (the Circle of Magic series; Tamora Pierce)
  • Seraphina (Rachel Hartman)
  • The Sherwood Ring (Elizabeth Marie Pope)
  • The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin)

Honorable Mention – Adult

  • Camber of Culdi (and a number of other Deryni books; Katherine Kurtz)
  • Daddy Long-Legs (Jean Webster; an important character is known only as “Daddy Long-Legs until his identity is revealed at the end)
  • Devil’s Bride (Stephanie Laurens; the hero’s nickname is Devil)
  • The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)
  • Le Morte d’Arthur and other versions of King Arthur (Thomas Mallory; John Steinbeck; and various other authors)
  • The Murder of Mary Russell (Laurie R. King)
  • The Rowan (Anne McCaffrey; also Damia)
  • Uhura’s Song (Janet Kagan)

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20 Responses to “Ten Favorite Books with Character Names In the Titles”

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I’m just rubbish at keeping it down to a top ten list, so the honorable mentions give me a chance to include other books that I love.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Winnie the Pooh and I go waaaay back. I own my mother’s early-1940s copy of The House at Pooh Corner, and later bought vintage copies of Winnie the Pooh and Now We Are Six to match.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I almost didn’t include it, because I’m really unhappy with Rowling at present. But I still have a deep fondness for the books.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It’s such a lovely book, isn’t it? Rose Daughter is more complex and nuanced, but not as endearing, and the ending still bothers me a little.

  8. Katherine

    We have some in common! I didn’t use Anne but I did use another Montgomery book and I used a Mrs. Pollifax book too. I was so surprised to see just how easy it was to find such great books with character names in them!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I went through my Goodreads shelf of “books read” for ideas, and there were so many! Anne is my favorite LMM heroine, but I love Jane and Valancy too (not that Valancy’s name is in the title of her book, but she’s a favorite.) For some reason, I wasn’t able to get into Emily of New Moon when I was young, but I’m thinking I should try that trilogy again.

  9. Mia @ Genre Books and Me

    I can see you had fun with this week’s prompt by all your titles! I had difficulty recalling a lot of mine and on each person’s blog I see titles I did read but forgot about. I did read Romancing Mister Bridgerton and didn’t list it. That was a good one. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
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