Little Women Sets New Name Trends

Greta Gerwig’s new Little Women, the latest remake of the beloved 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott, is sure to launch a range of style trends, including a fashion for its most celebrated names.

            Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy must be one of the most famous all-girl sibsets in history. At least that’s the name nerd’s view of Little Women, which is definitely one of the less conventional lenses through which to view the movie of the 2019 holiday season.

            Alcott based the story of the four March sisters – March stands in for May, Alcott’s mother’s maiden name – on her own family of four girls. And Gerwig (who has an infant son named Harold with fellow filmmaker Noah Baumbach) clarifies the connection between Alcott’s own family and her fictional one in the film.

            The eldest fictional sister, sensible Margaret called Meg, was drawn from Alcott’s oldest sister, Anna Bronson Alcott.

            Heroine Josephine, famously called the boyish Jo, was modeled on the author herself. The first name Louisa is, like Josephine, a feminization of a traditional male name, Louis, itself enjoying new visibility thanks to Britain‘s young prince. (There’s no indication that Louisa May Alcott was ever called Lou, though I can’t help but think she was, if only by herself.)

            Gentle, sickly Beth, short for Elizabeth, was based on Alcott’s sister of the same name, called Lizzie.

            And the youngest, spoiled Amy, was a stand-in for the youngest Alcott sister Abigail May, who was first called Abby, then Abba like the mother she was named after, and finally May. May died young, leaving her infant daughter Louisa May called Lulu, who was raised by her namesake author aunt.

            The fictional Jo is named after her Aunt Jo March and has two sons, Robin “Rab” Bhaer and Theodore “Teddy” Illmker.

            The book’s Meg has twins, Margaret “Daisy” and John “Demi”, named after his father. Later she has a baby daughter Josephine, called Josy. Anna, the real-life Meg, had two boys, Frederick and John.

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