Guinea pig characters – And the most popular name is….

I collect English-language guinea pig fiction and one element of the listing is a compilation of the names of the guinea pig(s) from the stories. 

Gertie and Molly are the most popular names at the moment. They appear each in 5 different stories, by five different writers. 

Gertie appears in - My very own guinea pig (2006), Dirty Gertie (2009), Gertie and Gus the guinea pigs (1997), Gertie: a guinea pig's tail (2009), and, Gertie saves the day (2010).

Molly appears in the books - The Jenius (2004), The Three little pigs (1997), Billie B Brown: The cutest pet ever (2012), The guinea pigs Twiggy and Molly : little runaways (2012), Super Pig 2 (2011). 

There are lots of sweet and funny names in books. Names like Josie Gigglepip, Honey Rose, Dandelion, Flash, Eduardo Julio Antonio del Monte, Sasspants, Zeus and Fluffy.

Sometimes, when translated into another language, the characters have had their names changed. 

For example,

Michael Bond's, Olga da Polga = Charlotte Parlotte (French)

Heather Eyle's, Herbert saves the day = Hubert gewinnt einen Preis (German)

Kate McMullan's, Fluffy, the snow pig = Bonhomme Caramel  (French)

Rosemary Well's, Felix gets better = Anton geht's besser (German)

Then, there is Anne Liersch's story, about a girl and a guinea pig, originally written in German, Nele & Wuschel : eine Geschichte, in English they became, Nell & Fluffy, in Slovenian, Neli & Ščetinko, in Dutch, Julia & Happy, and in Italian, Sara & Briciola. (With thanks to WorldCat.org)

My favourite guinea pig name? Maybe it's Christopher Nibbles. He's Charlotte Middleton's character from a series that began with Christopher Nibble in a tale of dandelion derring-do!, followed by Christopher's bicycle! : a tale of cycling and recycling, and, Christopher's caterpillars : a tale of minibeasts and mystery! They were published by Oxford University Press in England and by Marshall Cavendish Books in the United States. 

I'm not sure if they're still in print. Check if you can find these and other guinea pig story books at your local library, or bookstore. I often check to see what's new using websites like Amazon and if books are out of print I look for them on websites like Abebooks.

Enjoy!