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Baby Name of the Day: Djuna

June 14, 2012 By appellationmountain 12 Comments

English: Djuna Barnes, writer Deutsch: Djuna B...

English: Djuna Barnes, writer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She’s a literary sensation invented by a creative papa.

Thanks to Tracy for suggesting Djuna as our Baby Name of the Day.

I had always assumed that Djuna had some history, some convoluted connection to a classic name, like Tiago comes from Saint Iago, ultimately James.  But it isn’t so.

Djuna Barnes was almost certainly the first Djuna ever when she was born in 1892.  June wasn’t especially popular for girls that year; neither were Una and Luna, though all three were in use.

Barnes had quite the backstory.  Born to a starving artist father, the granddaughter of a once-prominent suffragist, she overcame poverty, limited formal education, and an arranged marriage to a man twice her age, to become a prominent writer in the 1920s and 30s.  She made her mark in Greenwich Village and Paris, and is best known for her novel Nightwood.

Barnes explained that her name came from her father’s combination of nuna – her older brother’s babytalk word for the moon – and a character in a novel – Djalma.  Djalma + nuna = Djuna.  She once said “If the name means anything, it means ‘the light of the moon.'”  I think that’s a poetic stretch, but she’s really the only one who can say.

The original Djuna had a niece named in her honor.  But then Djuna debuted in the US Top 1000 at the relatively high spot of #738.  That’s nearly 200 baby girls named Djuna.  It was her only year in the Top 1000 – she’d drop off the list in 1965, and quickly returned to obscurity.  What inspired all of those parents in 1964?

Nancy points out that it wasn’t just Djuna on the rise.  Olympic legend Wilma Rudolph had a daughter named Djuanna in 1964, and Djuana rose that same year, too.  But there’s no really good reason for any of the names to catch on, suddenly, in the 1960s.

Or is there?  Djuna Barnes made her home in New York in Greenwich Village, in a little clutch of brick row houses known as Patchin Place.  She wasn’t the most famous resident – E.E. Cummings was her neighbor.  In 1963, Patchin Place was slated for demolition to make way for high rises.  Barnes spoke out against the plans, and it put her back in the spotlight.  The Patchin Place crusade was successful, and the Greenwich Village Historic District was established just a few years later.

Is it enough to add up to 198 parents settling on the name?  Maybe.  It also appears that Nightwood was re-issued in 1963, and a flurry of interviews or published letters seem to date to the same era.  The most frequently quoted letter by Barnes explaining her name doesn’t surface until 1967.  Could there have been an earlier comment, now lost, that inspired parents?

Other famous Djunas include:

  • Fictional detective Ellery Queen had a houseboy called Djuna, supposedly of Romani descent.  Perhaps inspiration came from jazz great Django Reinhardt, who was active in the same era the stories were written.
  • Anaïs Nin named a character Djuna in her 1950 novel The Four Chambered Heart.
  • Woody Allen’s 1996 flick Everyone Says I Love Youincludes a daughter named Djuna, but called DJ.
  • Myla Goldberg gave the name to the little girl who disappears in The False Friend.

Djuna feels quirky and retro, like Inez, but also literary and edgy, like Zora.  If you’re looking for an offbeat, Bohemian name, then Djuna could be just the thing.

More names you might like:

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  • Baby Name of the Day: TwilaBaby Name of the Day: Twila
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  • Baby Name of the Day: JunoBaby Name of the Day: Juno

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Comments

  1. Panya says

    July 13, 2012 at 1:22 AM

    The /Dj/ to get a hard /J/ sound is used in several other languages, so perhaps it was just an “ethnic” way of spelling Juna? A way for Juana to have a guaranteed hard /J/?

    Reply
  2. Raquel Somatra says

    June 16, 2012 at 2:13 AM

    Ohhh, I love love love Djuna. The “D” is out of place, but that is what makes it perfect.

    Reply
  3. Bryony says

    June 14, 2012 at 4:24 PM

    I hadn’t heard of Barnes before, but it sounds like quite the intriguing story. It’s the sort of name that is instantly paired with Zelda in my head.

    Reply
  4. Jan says

    June 14, 2012 at 1:44 PM

    Interesting backstory and information…how do you pronounce it? Like Da-joo-na?

    Reply
    • Julie says

      June 15, 2012 at 12:41 AM

      According to Dictionary.com it’s pronounced like JOO-nuh.
      I hoping there’s a more knowledgeable reader here, but I believe the Dj- spelling in names like Django and Djuna comes from languages which don’t have English’s hard J sound (like Dutch). When the Dutch borrow our “J” names they need to spell them like Djayden and Djenna, otherwise they are pronounced Yayden and Yenna.

      As for Djuna, I like the name, but I think I’d prefer the more streamline Juna.

      Reply
      • Dellitt says

        June 15, 2012 at 11:47 PM

        I like Juna much better than Djuna, also.

        Reply
        • liz says

          June 16, 2012 at 12:37 PM

          Yes, it’s JOO-na, even with that confusing D. I like the D in Django and Djuna.

          Reply
  5. Diana says

    June 14, 2012 at 12:35 PM

    All that, and apparently she was also reincarnated as Maggie Gyllenhaal. They could be twins!

    Reply
  6. C in DC says

    June 14, 2012 at 10:16 AM

    A colleague recently named her baby Juna, which seems smoother to me than Djuna.

    Reply
    • Dellitt says

      June 15, 2012 at 11:45 PM

      yes. I like the sound of the name, the connection to the writer, but honestly that D seems out of place.

      Reply
      • liz says

        June 16, 2012 at 12:36 PM

        I know another writer couple who named their daughter Juna.

        Reply
  7. liz says

    June 14, 2012 at 3:21 AM

    Love the name, love the writer. Her less known novel, Ryder, explains a lot about her family history. Also, she was an illustrator of some of her books as well as some of her interviews with famous sorts of the day.

    Reply

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