Background

In 2008, the fourth and final novel in the The Twilight Saga series of paranormal romance novels, Breaking Dawn, introduced Renesmee Carlie Cullen, the half-human, half-vampire daughter of the series' two romantic leads, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. After Bella and Edward marry, Renesmee is conceived during the couple's honeymoon. Discovering that she is miraculously pregnant with a half-vampire child, Bella decides to name the baby "Renesmee" if a girl, after her two grandmothers Renée Dwyer and Esme Cullen.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Usage

While use of the name has sometimes proven controversial, it is in regular use in English-speaking countries.^[3] While the name has never ranked among the "Top 1,000" baby names used for newborn girls in the United States, the name has seen steady usage for American girls since 2009, the year it was first given to five or more girls born that year. There were 165 newborn American girls given the name in 2022. Other spellings of the name in regular use in the United States include Renesmae, Renesme, Renezmae, Renesmay, Renezmay, and Ranezmae.^[4] It tripled in use in the United Kingdom between 2011, the year five newborn girls in England and Wales were given the name, and 2013, when 18 newborn girls there were given the name.^[5] The name continued to increase in usage and ranked among the top 1,000 names given to newborn girls in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2020.^[6] It has also been in occasional use for newborn girls in Canada since at least 2013.^[7] Increased usage of the name in 2013 coincided with the 2012 release of the film Breaking Dawn – Part 2.^[8]

Meyer's reaction

In 2012, Stephenie Meyer stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "I am someone who strongly believes in reality, and that you don’t monkey around with people’s names. Whether they become a stripper or a lawyer has a large part to do with the name you give them. I would never name a real child Renesmee. But in fantasy, you can name your characters anything you want. I couldn’t have named [Bella and Edward’s] child Lindsay. I couldn’t have named her anything that already exists – it would have felt wrong. I had to pick a name that I felt was completely and totally unique, which opens you up to heckling. Which I’ve taken. I take all my heckling, and I totally get it!" When the interviewer pointed out that "someone is probably naming their real-life child 'Renesmee' even as we speak", Meyer said, "Well, that really disturbs me."^[9]

Meyer later explained on her website, "Well, I couldn't call her Jennifer or Ashley. What do you name the most unique baby in the world? I looked through a lot of baby name websites. Eventually I realized that there was no human name that was going to work for me, so I surrendered to necessity and made up my own. I don't approve of such shenanigans in real life, I don't even believe in getting creative with spellings for real kids! But this was fantasy, and no human name fit, so I did the best I could. I named Renesmee so long ago—Fall 2003—that the name now sounds really natural to me. It wasn't until people started mentioning it that I remembered, 'Oh, yeah, it is a weird name, isn't it?'"^[10]