Jessamine Whitlock (1938 - 1948; the depressed years; before Alice)
"For the first century of my life, I lived in a world of bloodthirsty vengeance. Hate was my constant companion. It eased some when I left Maria, but I still had to feel the horror and fear of my prey."
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Hear me out. What if Esme's name was actually something like Esmeralda (or something of the similar fashion) and Carlisle was a name he picked after so long rather than that being his actual name? I also don't see how they can get away with constantly using their "own" names and "Cullen" every time they move. (Please put this as anonymous).
It’s certainly possible they’ve changed names over time! Given what we know from canon and the guide, though, it doesn’t seem like SM intends that they have. There are a few characters, like Chelsea, where it is mentioned that she specifically changes her name to match new eras (she was originally Charmion) and we know Alice’s name was originally Mary Alice, but with everyone else the implication is that their name is their name, otherwise SM would have mentioned the name change in the guide.
(Although with the Volturi we’ve got the problem of her saying they are ancient Greek and Marcus and Caius having AGRESSIVELY ROMAN names so, did they change them when they settled in Italy?)
Carlisle seems to have always gone by Carlisle Cullen--Aro knows him as ‘Carlisle,’ all his friends in BD call him ‘Carlisle,’ and Edward, Esme and Rosalie knew him in their human lives as Dr. Cullen. Which . . . yeah they’re gonna have to change up their names. I think this is another thing that SM didn’t really think through. I think they’ve swapped around surnames sometimes (if Edward is pretending to be Esme’s brother then he wouldn’t have the same last name as Carlisle, for example). Perhaps they have changed their names occasionally, but then we get into the statistical weirdness that they use other names but Bella just so happens to meet them one of the times they’re using their ‘real’ names (or close to it for Jasper who isn’t really a Hale).
Esmeralda is a pretty name but would have been about just as weird for an Ohio farmgirl in 1895 as ‘Esme’ is? I’d have to do some research to confirm it. And if SM wanted to give them unusual names that’s fine, but she said she picked popular names from the era and that’s just objectively false in at least Esme and Carlisle’s cases.
The weird thing is I LOVE the Cullen names, even if they don’t make a lot of sense. ‘Esme’ is perfect for her, if kinda weird for her time period and geographic location. ‘Carlisle’ makes about zero sense but it suits him so well that I can’t imagine him being named anything else; it’s not historically accurate but it feels right. Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett . . . all those work for me, although ‘Emmett’ never felt old-fashioned to me the way the others did.
(And this is why ‘Renesmee’ rankles me so much because she did SUCH A GOOD JOB with ALL THE OTHER NAMES that this one sticks out like a sore thumb. It would fit in with a Harry Potter or Hunger Games world but it just doesn’t fit with the Cullen Names Aesthetic at all.)
But for some reason I hate almost all the Life & Death versions of the names, ha! I like ‘Jessamine.’ ‘Earnest’ makes sense but I find it an unappealing name aesthetically. ‘Archie’ is not bad, but does it stand for ‘Archibald’ because that’s dreadful. ‘Carine’ has a lot of the same problems as ‘Carlisle’ but somehow doesn’t even ‘feel’ right. ‘Edythe’ should have probably just been ‘Edith’ if she wanted to mirror Edward having a bland old man name. ‘Beaufort’ is atrocious but it’s supposed to be; it makes way more sense Beau hates being called ‘Beaufort’ than Bella hates being called the innocuous and not-weird ‘Isabella.’ ‘Eleanor’ is okay but I feel like Emma or Emmaline or something would feel more Emmett-y. Not a fan of ‘Royal.’
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twilight saga aesthetics [1/3 alternate universes]: sapphic cullens
“who are they?”
“that’s edythe and eleanor cullen, and rosalie and jessamine hale. the one who left was alice cullen; they all live together with dr. cullen and her wife.”
“they are very... nice-looking.”
“yes! they’re all together, though. eleanor and rosalie, jessamine and alice. and they all live together—with their two foster moms. edythe’s the gorgeous one, but she doesn’t date. apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for her.”
i bit my lip to hide my smile. then i glanced at edythe again. her face was turned away, almost hidden by her long hair, but I thought her cheek appeared lifted, as if she were smiling, too.
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