Questions tagged [name-significance]
Questions related to the literary significance or meaning of proper names that appear in literature.
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Is there a hidden meaning in the name of Captain Foulenough?
The novel Brideshead Revisited features a secondary character, a certain Captain Foulenough. In Russian translation his last name is rendered as Буремглой, obviously referring to a Pushkin's line
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What is the significance of naming the djinni Bartimaeus?
In the Bartimaeus trilogy, the main character is the eponymous djinni Bartimaeus, a demon/spirit from "the Other Place" who is cheeky, witty, boastful, and at times surprisingly deep.
Bartimaeus, ...
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Is there any significance in King Lune's name?
The king of Archenland during the time of The Horse and His Boy, father of the Archenland princes who play a more major role in the story, is called Lune. Is there any significance to this name? ...
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Significance of the name Annabel Lee?
"Annabel Lee" is one of many pieces of writing by Edgar Allan Poe which explore the theme of a beloved woman who died young. As with other such works, most famously "The Raven", critics have ...
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Is there any significance in Shakespeare's use of the name "Laertes" (name of the father of Odysseus) in Hamlet?
Is there any significance in Shakespeare's use of "Laertes" (name of the father of Odysseus) in Hamlet?
Do we associate the name with The Odyssey more strongly than Shakespeare, to whom it was just ...
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Where is the wordplay in the names Zhao Guiweng and Gu Jiu?
In the Wikisource version (in both Chinese and English) of Lu Xun's short story "A Madman's Diary" from his collection Call to Arms, the following footnotes are made about character names:
Zhao ...
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Was the Cambridge mathematician "Andrew Martin" named after any actual mathematicians?
A central character in Matt Haig's The Humans, is a Cambridge mathematician Andrew Martin, whose speciality is prime numbers. This character is supposed to be exceedingly brilliant and to have solved ...
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Is there any connection between Paris of Troy and Paris of Verona?
I just noticed that a character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has the same name as a character in Homer's Iliad: Paris. In both stories, Paris is one of two men who wish to be with the same woman; ...
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Where does the name Childermass come from?
Returning to the tale of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, it occurred to me to wonder where Childermass (probably my favourite character) got his name from. Wikipedia informed me that "Childermass" is ...
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Is there any significance to the format of Aziz's name?
One of the main protagonists in the outer frame story of Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love is a man named Aziz Z. Zahara. This name immediately struck me because of its interesting relationship ...
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Son of Adam but not Eve? Daughter of Eve but not Adam?
Throughout The Chronicles of Narnia the humans are referred to as "Son of Adam" for a male, and "Daughter of Eve" for a female. I'm assuming that the characters in Narnia don't think that females only ...
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Why do peasants in 19th century Russian literature often have Greek names?
Why do peasant characters in 19th century Russian literature so often have Greek names? (e.g. "Agafon" and "Platon" in Anna Karenina).
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Why did Sally Beth Roe have that particular last name?
"Jane Roe" a common name for an anonymous or unknown individual (similar to "John Doe" for men) - notably, for example, in the case Roe v. Wade. That being said, why was Sally Beth Roe's last name "...
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Where did Charles Dickens come up with the name "Magwitch"?
One of the key characters in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" is a person named Abel Magwitch.
"Magwitch" doesn't appear to be an existing name, nor does it seem to be a word with a different ...
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Why does Tan-Tan name her child Tubman?
At the end of Nalo Hopkinson's novel Midnight Robber (2000), Tan-Tan, the main character, gives birth to a boy.
Her friend Melonhead asks how she will name him:
"Tubman." Tan-Tan surprised herself, ...
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What is the origin of the name "Frankenstein"?
The name "Frankenstein" is famous enough to have entered popular culture, even if people often get confused about whether it refers to the scientist or the monster. But where did Mary Shelley get this ...
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Meaning of the name JumpJim in Hari Kunzru's novel White Tears
In Hari Kunzru's novel White Tears, two young white men, Carter and Seth, create music reusing old jazz and blues songs. Carter has a lot of recordings that he created by walking through the city ...
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What's the significance of the name Loyola?
As soon as I started reading Nalo Hopkinson's short story "The Reverse Cheshire Cat" (freely available to read online), the name "Loyola" jumped out at me. Surely this must be a reference to Ignatius ...
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What is the joke in the name "Robert Jordon"?
While reading One to Count Cadence from James Crumley (first published 1969), I read this sentence:
The name on the passport was Robert Jordon; it was a joke; nobody
laughed.
Despite searching ...
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Was Stevenson's Captain Smollett named after Tobias Smollett?
The captain of the Hispaniola in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is a man named Alexander Smollett. There's also a Scottish writer named Tobias Smollett, and there's speculation that the ...
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What is the significance of the name "Kopy-Keck" in The Light Princess?
In "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald, the king consults "two very wise Chinese philosophers" about the princess's condition.1 The philosophers are named "Hum-Drum" and "Kopy-Keck." The story is ...
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Did Eric Clapton name his dog after Dr. Dolittle's Pooch?
I recall in an old interview (from the 70s), Eric Clapton said that his dog's name was “Jeep.” I have remembered this all these decades because it seemed like such an odd name to me.
But now I am ...
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Why "Moon Child"?
In The Neverending Story, the main turning point is when Bastian gives the Childlike Empress her much-needed name, saves Fantastica, and enters into the story himself.
This name is "Moon Child", or "...
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Why do the names of the first two characters introduced in "The Neverending Story" start with B and C?
I only recently started the book, so I'm hoping that I'm not missing something that's made clear in the book later, but the first character introduced in the book is named Bastian Balthazar Bux (whose ...
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Where did the names Siegfried and Tristan Farnon come from?
The British vet and writer Alfred Wight is best known for his series of semi-autobiographical stories written under the pen name James Herriot, recounting details of his experience as a country vet in ...
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Is there any significance to Blake's choice of the name Lyca?
The twinned poems "The Little Girl Lost" and "The Little Girl Found" from William Blake's Songs of Experience (available to read online) are about a little girl called Lyca who gets lost from her ...
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Proper interpretation of the names Christian and Christiana in Pilgrim's Progress
How should one view the names Christian and Christiana, the two central characters of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress: as allegorical (i.e. "followers of Christianity", Christiana being a feminine ...
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Is the name Crowley in Good Omens a reference to the famous occultist?
The main demonic character in the humouristic-apocalyptic story Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman goes by the name Anthony Crowley - a name which instantly jumped out at me because of its similarity ...
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Why is the Emperor Beyond the Sea named that?
Closely related: Why does the Emperor-Over-the-Sea play such a small role in the Chronicles of Narnia?
Why is the Emperor Beyond The Sea in The Chronicles of Narnia named that? What sea is he beyond, ...
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How does Effie Trinket's name relate to how she is portrayed throughout the series?
Merriam-Webster defines Trinket like this:
1: a small ornament (such as a jewel or ring)
2: a small article of equipment
3: a thing of little value
How does Effie Trinket's name - either ...
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Why is Josef K.'s last name never revealed?
Throughout the novel, the main character's name is given only as "Josef K." In fact, as I recall, several characters even actually refer to him as Josef K. Why isn't he given a last name? Is this ...
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Why did Yossarian sign letters with "Washington Irving"?
When he's in the hospital and is forced to censor letters, Yossarian signed his "name" as "Washington Irving." Later in the book, Major Major does the same thing on official documents. What's the ...
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Why Catch-22 if there was only one catch?
Catch-22 contains the following quote:
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the ...
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Why did Bill Watterson choose the character names he did?
Several major characters in Calvin and Hobbes are named after fictional or historical characters.
Calvin is named after theologian John Calvin
Hobbes is named after Thomas Hobbes
Miss Wormwood is ...
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What kind of name is Vardaman?
As I Lay Dying is one of my favorite Faulkner novels, but I always come back to the thought: "Who on earth names their kid Vardaman?"
Don't get me wrong, I love the name, and Vardaman is my ...
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Complicated name features in Wuthering Heights
In Wuthering Heights, Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter Catherine Linton constantly change their names and created confusion as to who is who. And you would all have read the part where Lockwood ...
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Why is Nausicaa named 'burner of ships'?
Nausicaa in the Odyssey is the princess of a race of seafarers.
She and her people are beloved of and descended from Posidon/Neptune. Nausicaa herself is directly descended from both sides as her ...
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What is the significance of the name "Strange" in Strange and Norrell?
Inspired by What is the significance of "Jonathan" in Strange and Norrell?
In the book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, "Strange" immediately strikes the reader as a rather ... well, ...
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Meaning of President "Coin" in the Hunger Games books?
My impression was that the name Coin is meaningful as opposed to arbitrary. My thoughts on the meaning so far are:
"Other side of the same coin" in that Coin represents the good guys, but ...
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Symbolism of Marx and Lenina's names in Huxley's Brave New World?
Reading Brave New World it seemed obvious to me that Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne are in some way referring to Marx and Lenin, but I couldn't figure out any clue to support this claim. Is it truly ...
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What is the significance of "Jonathan" in Strange and Norrell?
At least four major characters have the name "John" or "Jonathan", including Jonathan Strange, John Segundus, John Childermass, and John Uskglass. This is potentially confusing to a reader. In ...
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What does Narcissa Malfoy's name say about her character?
Many of the names in the Harry Potter series are chosen so as to reflect some trait of their character. For example: Sirius Black the black dog, Remus Lupin the wolf, Severus the severe teacher, Luna ...
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What is the significance of Alec Bings's name in The Phantom Tollbooth?
In The Phantom Tollbooth, basically every name has a significance/pun. For example, Dr. Dischord - his name is 'Discord' with 'chord' - implying bad sounds. Or the DYNNE, or 'din'. And Chroma, with ...
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What's the significance of the witches' name change in Sandman?
As mentioned in another question, the three witches are very significant in The Sandman. While that other question asks for their significance in general, I have a much more specific question to ask.
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What is a Pooh?
Winnie the Pooh is our favorite ball of fluff that likes to eat honey in the Hundred-Acre Wood... but where does he get his name from? Specifically, where does "Pooh" come from?
I know that Winnie ...
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What are the many names of J.E.D.D. Mason, and their meanings?
In Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning, the first book of Terra Ignota, the character of J.E.D.D. Mason has many names - "each Power here has a different name for J.E.D.D. Mason."
The series is ...
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Why did T.H. White name his hero Mr. White?
In The Elephant and the Kangaroo, T.H. White names his protagonist "Mr. White," with no first name ever given. There are several notable similarities between the author and his protagonist:
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Is there significance behind the name "Scout" from To Kill A Mockingbird?
I am asking this question in response to the response to this question, which was more broadly asking about the significance of the names in To Kill A Mockingbird. However, it was closed as too broad. ...
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Was Atticus's name meant to mean anything?
I am currently studying Latin, and somewhere I read about a man named Titus Pompons Atticus, and as a lover of literature, I do not like to assume that it is just a coincidence that Atticus Finch of ...
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Is there any evidence that Theremon 762's name was based on a theremin?
In Isaac Asimov's novel and short story (short story later expanded) Nightfall, there's a character named "Theremon 762".
The whole novel is about darkness and innate fear, and a theremin, a type ...
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