Read

Dawn Read Schafer is one of the members of the Baby-Sitters Club in Anne M. Martin's series of midgrade novels. Her middle name is likely supposed to get across how California-y (Read: hippie-ish and laid-back) her parents are, since her mother's maiden name is Porter.

Another bearer of the name is Mary Read (c. 1670/80-1721) a famous female pirate who disguised herself as a man and first fought as a British soldier and then served on board ship with another female pirate, Anne Bonny under Captain 'Calico Jack' John Rackham. Their ship was eventually captured and the male pirates hung, while the two women pled pregnancy and received a stay of execution. Mary died in prison of a fever, supposedly with the unborn child, while Anne simply disappears from the records.