Talk:Anne Shirley/@comment-2001:56A:F6E2:C500:21A1:702B:2637:2928-20190710215856/@comment-3493059-20190710234744

Well, all of Anne and Gilbert's kids (other than Joy) are named after people. Walter is Walter Cuthbert - after Anne's father and Matthew and Marilla. Jem is James Matthew - after Captain Jim and Anne's own Matthew Cuthbert from the first book. Nan is an old-fashioned nickname for Anne, just like Jem is a perfectly reasonable nickname for James. Who says Anne was the sole namer of her children? I like to think Gilbert named one twin Anne and Anne named the other Diana after her best friend. Not to mention that Diana Wright's daughter is already named Anne Cordelia (Diana was still quite young when Anne Cordelia was born). I think when Anne was younger she had to use her imagination to make her own friends with fancy names, but when she got older she appreciated the wonderful people around her more and more, because she didn't have them growing up. She probably felt her predeliction for fancy names when she was younger was a little childish.