Niniane's Name Page

As you may have noticed, I have thousands of different names for Niniane up. Logically, this is rather difficult for my poor readers who would prefer just to have one name starting off.

Readers who know more about Niniane may wonder why I don't use the more commonly used modern Nimue, or Tennyson's Vivian, or anything other than the relatively obscure Niniane. On this page, I will attempt to explain why, giving the connotations of various Niniane names.

Niniane: This and Vivian are two of the oldest Niniane/Vivian names. However, for reasons completely unknown to me, Vivian implies an evil temptress, while Niniane a white (or comparatively so) sorceress. I have no idea why, but as I tend to think good things of my alter ego, I use Niniane.

Ninian: Without the extra "e" at the end, Ninian is a boy's name, as in St. Ninian.

Vivian: (Also Viviane, etc.) As old as Niniane, but with negative, rather than positive connotations.

Nyneve: Malory uses this name, and it's as valid as either Niniane or Vivian. It's typically somewhere between the negative Vivian and the positive Niniane.

Nimue: This was a scribal miscopying of Nyneve, for which reason I do not use it. It's hard to pronounce, too (Nim-u-e). Ugh. For all those who tell you that this is a Celtic moon goddess, I can only say that traditionally Niniane is more closely associated with the Roman moon goddess Diana.

Nym: Rarely used, this is typically only given to a modern version of Niniane who lives in the modern world. I think that it works well for that as it is spunkier and shorter than the earlier cannon versions.

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