‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ inspired readers to name children, pets after characters

When she was in high school, Jessica Seeliger read “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She loved main character Scout’s independent, inquisitive and adventurous spirit.

If she ever had a daughter, Seeliger decided, she’d name her Scout and hope that she possessed the same spirit as the spunky little girl in the book.

Seeliger’s hopes came true – partially.

She had the little girl, and the little girl had the free spirit. But she’s not named Scout.

“My husband was like, ‘No way, no how. I will get a bird dog and name it Scout before you name our child Scout,’” she said with a laugh.

The couple settled on a compromise and named their little girl Harper, after the book’s author, Harper Lee.

Harper Grace is now 5, and even though she’s a Scout at heart, the name suits her perfectly, her mom said – as evidenced by her reaction to seeing a television news story about the impending release of Harper Lee’s new book, “Go Set a Watchman.”

“I literally started to tear up, and I said, ‘Harper, that’s the woman who wrote the book I named you after,’” Seeliger said. “And she looked at me and said, ‘You named me after an old woman?’”

Thanks to the influence of the 1960 classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the unusual names Lee chose for her main characters – Scout, Atticus, Boo, Jem – are frequently chosen by literary types as names for children and even pets.

Harper was the 11th most popular name for baby girls born in the United States in 2014, according to data collected by the Social Security Administration. Atticus is gaining steam, too, though it charted last year at No. 370.

Many with “Mockingbird”-influenced names live and bark in Wichita.

Often, the name is chosen because the namer has an affinity for Harper Lee. Sometimes, the creature in need of a name possesses the spirit of one of the book’s characters.

Jamie Deneau named her dog Scout after noting her curious, observant nature.

Deneau, a fan of “To Kill a Mockingbird” since she was assigned to read it in high school, was with her young daughter a couple of years ago when they came upon an abandoned puppy on the side of the road.

They brought the dog home, fed her and cleaned her up with plans to turn her in at their veterinarian’s office. But plans quickly changed.

“She won our hearts,” Deneau said of the dog, a greyhound/shar pei mix. “My daughter said, ‘Look how observant she is. Look how curious she is,’ and I said, ‘We should name her Scout.’ Everyone fell in love with the name.”

And as they’ve gotten to know their pet, the family has decided that the name fits her perfectly.

“Usually I’m not that good at naming animals,” Deneau said. “But I got lucky with this one.”

Margo Tinnin said that when she named her son Atticus, she didn’t know anyone else whose baby had the name. She had decided in seventh grade, after reading “To Kill a Mockingbird,” that she’d name a son Atticus.

When she met her future husband, she told him of her plan.

“I said, ‘By the way, my first boy is going to be named Atticus,’ and he was 100 percent OK with it,’” she said. “And I said, ‘OK, so we are good to get married.’”

Her son is now 12, and he likes his name just fine. He knows the story behind it, and his mother has decided that this summer he’ll be ready to watch the movie version of the book starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

“I have found his name to be a great test of people I meet,” Tinnin said. “If they know instantly where it’s from and ask me, I know we are going to get along wonderfully.”

Marathana Prothro also has an Atticus, although hers is only 4.

When she was pregnant, she said, she and her husband, Brett, came up with a long list of names. They’d sit and stare at bookshelves, hoping to be hit with inspiration. One night, one of them suggested Atticus.

“We didn’t settle on the name until after he was born,” she said. “We waited to see what his personalty would be. He was very alert and very kind of serious. He just had this look that made us think, ‘Oh, he’s definitely an Atticus.’”

Both Marathana and Brett grew up loving the book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and both were film majors, so it didn’t hurt when they discovered that the American Film Institute had put Atticus Finch at No. 1 on its list of 50 greatest movie heroes.

News of Lee’s new book has sparked new conversations between parents and son about the origin of his name.

“When the news came out and Atticus heard it on TV, we explained to him that that’s where his name came from,” Marathana said. “He got this really sad look on his face and said, ‘But Mom, why would you kill a mockingbird?’”

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 2:11 PM with the headline "‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ inspired readers to name children, pets after characters."