The Sisters 8

While at the bookstore yesterday, I came across the book The Sisters 8: Annie's Adventures, the first book in a series written by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. It is about octuplet sisters solving the mystery of their missing parents. Eight sisters! Name heaven! Here they are in age order (they are each a minute apart, and notice they are in alphabetical order)...

Annie
Durinda
Georgia
Jackie
Marcia
Petal
Rebecca
Zinnia

There are nine books in the series; one for each girl and then a final book. The books' titles are great too: Annie's Adventures, Durinda's Dangers, Georgia's Greatness, Jackie's Jokes, Marcia's Madness, Petal's Problems, Rebecca's Rashness, and Zinnia's Zaniness. Each girl has her own personality that is profiled in the books and there is even a quiz on the website that girls can take to see which sister they are most like. I have not read the books, so I cannot say how good they are, but the names definitely grabbed my attention.

Most of the names are commonly heard, or at least a common word (Petal), but Durinda and Zinnia stand out to me. According to Behind the Name, Zinnia is the name of a flower, which was named after German botanist Johann Zinn. Durinda was harder to find any information on. Maybe it's a variant of Dorinda, which is a Greek name meaning "bountiful gift" and a variant of Dora.

These are not eight names I would have put together as sisters, but their variety is part of the allure. I love Annie and Georgia together, and Petal is a sweet flower name that has only been given to more than 5 babies in a year once (2010 with 8 babies). Jackie, Marcia and Rebecca are all names that are not as popular now as they once were. It all makes me wonder how these names were chosen. At least one of the eight has been explained: the Houghton Mifflin webpage discloses that Jackie was named after the author's daughter.

Which Sisters 8 name do you like best? Can you name octuplets with the same initials... A, D, G, J, M, P, R and Z?