It was first used by French composer Adolphe Adam for a character in his 1849 comic opera Le toréador.

[2] Coraline is also a name for a red, pink, or orange shade of the color coral.

Gaiman pronounced the name of the character with a long i to rhyme with the word wine.

Gaiman also liked the name's resemblance to the word coral, which he explained is "both beautiful and hard and hidden."

He also later found the name had been used for a tragic heroine in a Victorian-era song as well as for a type of material used to make corsets.