Jane Austen and names

 I've always loved names and I love Jane Austen.  So I have wondered about the names that she uses in her novels.  

Unlike some of the 18th century novelists, her names for her women characters are very plain and ordinary.  Other novelists used fancier names like Clarissa and Pamela, but Austens heroines are simpler names like Elizabeth, Anne, Emma, Elinor, Marianne and Catherine.  Her Bennet sisters have all got plain names except for Lydia.  her name is from the bible, meaning woman of Lydia, but the other girls are Jane, Elizabeth, Mary and Catherine.  All of these are simple English names.   Jane means God is gracious, Mary means swelling, which has an indication of pregnancy, and Catherine means pure.  Elizabeth means God has sworn and was for a time the  most popular girls name in England. 

Austen's other heroines also have plain names.  Anne Elliott, Elinor Dashwood, Fanny Price, and Catherine Morland and Emma Woodhouse.  Emma means whole or entire.  Frances or Fanny means Frankish. Catherine means pure and Elinor is an old English name of long standing but obscure origin. 

Her male characters mostly have plain names as well.  Fitzwilliam Darcy is a obviously romantic and aristocratic name but there is Mr Knightley, who is plain George... which means earth.. and he is a farming squire.  Her other heroes are Edward, Edmund, Frederick and Henry.....