Modern literary invention combining Renée (reborn) and Esme (beloved), coined in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga.
Renesmae is one of the most deliberately constructed names in recent popular fiction: it was coined by author Stephenie Meyer for "Breaking Dawn" (2008), the fourth installment of the Twilight saga. In the novel, the half-human, half-vampire daughter of protagonists Bella and Edward is named Renesmee Carlie — a portmanteau of both grandmothers' names, Renée and Esme, with Carlie honoring grandfathers Carlisle and Charlie. The variant spelling Renesmae softens the name further, giving it a slightly more lyrical, Irish-inflected appearance.
M. Barrie), Vanessa (Jonathan Swift), Lolita (Nabokov), and Imogen (Shakespeare's invention, possibly). Renesmae follows this lineage — a name born in storytelling that parents adopted in earnest, drawn to its melodic syllables and its romantic origin as a vessel of family love.
In the novel, the name carries enormous emotional freight: it represents the reconciliation of two worlds and the fulfillment of a love story. As a name, Renesmae poses an interesting challenge to convention — it looks invented because it is, yet it carries real phonetic beauty and genuine emotional warmth. Parents who choose it tend to embrace its literary origin rather than obscure it, treating the Twilight connection as a feature. It belongs to a generation of names that understand fiction as a legitimate source of identity and meaning.