Meaningful Name/Literature

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Character names are by no means exempt from (more than) occasional literary allusion.

Discworld

  • The names for camels. Each camel's name is what they hear themselves called most often, e.g. "Evil Minded Son of a Bitch", "You Bastard", and "Evil Smelling Bugger".

"That's an odd name for a camel..."
"S'a good name for THIS camel!"

  • Some human characters also have names like this -- the Serial Killer villain of Night Watch is named Carcer (as in incarcerate--and as in "Carcer," the name of an ancient Roman prison) Dun (as in whodunit).
  • Death's apprentice, Mort (short for Mortimer), from the book of the same name.
  • In Thief of Time:
    • The Auditor who first assumes human shape calls herself Myria LeJean -- "myriad" and "legion", referring to the Auditors' lack of individuality. After she pulls a Heel Face Turn, Susan convinces her to adopt the name "Unity" instead.
    • Another character is named Lobsang Ludd.
  • In The Truth:
    • William de Worde, who becomes the editor of Ankh-Morpo Yrk's first newspaper. Also, his first name means "protector", so his name is "Protector of the word", which shows in his always telling the truth as much as he can. (William's surname may well have come from the printer and publisher Wynkyn de Worde, who was the first to make printed products popular in England.)
    • Otto von Chriek, the vampire iconographer, is almost certainly named after the Dutch painter Otto Marseus van Schrieck, who depicted highly realistic still lifes with insects, snakes and amphibians. Naturally, since the two creators are parallels but opposites, the iconographer is obsessed with light while the Roundworld painter tends toward heavily shadowed art (albeit with highlighted subjects).
    • Goodmountain the printer, whose name is a literal translation of the German "Gutenberg".
    • Goodmountain's colleagues Boddony, Caslong and Gowdie (named after the typefonts Bodoni, Caslon and Goudy which were in turn named after their makers).
  • Lampshaded in The Wee Free Men when Miss Tick points out that this is "a good name for a witch" because it sounds like "mystic". Less obvious is her first name, Perspicacia, which comes from "perspicacious", meaning "observant".
    • The illustrated edition reveals that when the Toad was still a lawyer he was named Mr James Natter. A double example: lawyers talk a lot, and "Natter, Jack".
  • Polly "Oliver" Perks in Monstrous Regiment.
    • And Lt Blouse, since the first impression of him is that he's rather wet and uncertain: "a big girl's blouse".
  • Reacher Gilt in Going Postal is viciously grasping (hence the Reacher) and skilled at making things look more valuable than they are (hence the Gilt). It's strongly hinted that he chose the name deliberately, because he's the sort of person who finds it funny to tell people they're being conned in a way they won't notice. Possibly also a Take That aimed at John Galt, or a reference to being a pirate.
  • Eumenides Treason, a witch who's made herself into a symbol of harsh judgment in Wintersmith, shares her first name with the Furies.
  • In The Fifth Elephant, we find that wolves in the wild don't have names so much as descriptions, which leads to some awkwardness when Gaspode introduces Carrot to a lowly omega wolf known as Arsehole: "So, in fact, it's the name of this wolf you want to know?"
  • Parodied in Lords and Ladies, where the last names of the members of the Lancre Morris Men are professions, but never their professions; Carter is a baker, Carpenter is a tailor, and so on. Except for Tinker the tinker.
  • Mr A. E. Pessimal in Thud! Someone who is pessimistic only sees the negatives of his life; the opposite of an optimist. Mr Pessimal is a government inspector; his job is to look for problems with the Watch so they can be fixed; i.e. for things that are the opposite of optimal.
    • "Pessimal" is also an allusion to algorithms, which is fitting, since A.E. is one of Lord Vetinari's clerks and can make numbers sit up and beg.
  • 71-Hour Ahmed in Jingo. He was given the name "71-Hour" because his tribe were duty bound to offer hospitality for three days, i.e. 72 hours, to anyone. He ended up having as a guest someone he knew to be a criminal who had poisoned a well, and rather than wait the full three days and give him a chance to run away, he killed him with one hour left to go. (The name is mainly meaningful in-universe, but it's possible to connect some of the dots before he tells the full story if you're good at math when the first members of the tribe Vimes encounters talk about three days of hospitality, or if you know that the same custom does exist, or at least is rumored to exist, among some real-life desert nomads.)
  • Trevor Likely in Unseen Academicals. A "likely lad" is a skilled sportsman or a known troublemaker; he's both. (The fact he's a Phrase Catcher for "You're Dave Likely's son!" adds the "lad" bit.)
  • The philosopher Ibid from Pyramids, who "[thinks he's] the biggest bloody authority on everything."
  • Inverted with the Carter family, who are introduced in Lords and Ladies. Mr. and Mrs. Carter used the common convention of naming their daughters after virtues, and the somewhat-less-common one of naming their sons after vices. As it turned out, each of them behaved in a manner exactly opposite of what their name would suggest; for example, Charity Carter was very stingy, Chastity Carter was a woman of ill repute, and Hope was a depressive, while Bestiality Carter was always kind to animals.
  • Regarding the names of the Lancre witches, PTerry had this to say: "In Margaret Murray's book The Witch Cult in Western Europe you will find a number of Magrats and Magrets, and a suggestion that they were not misspellings but an earlier form of Margaret; also in the lists of those arraigned for witchcraft are the surnames Garlick, Device and Nutter. No Oggs or Weatherwaxes, though."

Harry Potter

An exhaustive list of such examples can be found here. Some are:

  • The first name of Professor Snape, "Severus", means "strict, severe, harsh, serious" to the point of "cruel".
  • "Beauxbatons", the French wizard school, means "handsome sticks" or "staffs", which is close enough to "handsome wands".
  • "Durmstrang" smells an awful lot like "sturm und drang", a German expression meaning "storm and strife" or "storm and longing".
  • Professor Remus Lupin is a werewolf -- "Remus" being a mythical child raised by wolves (brother to Romulus, founder of Rome), and "Lupin" as described above. In addition, out of the two Roman brothers, guess which one died. He appears aware of this as he uses "Romulus" as a pseudonym for a radio broadcast. This was lampshaded by the Movies In 15 Minutes.

Snape: I want two rolls of parchment on WEREWOLVES by tomorrow, including what WEREWOLVES look like, how to detect WEREWOLVES in the faculty of a British boarding school for wizards, and the definition of the Latin word "lupus". CLASS DISMISSED!

  • Another werewolf is called Fenrir Greyback. Fenrir is a wolf in Norse Mythology who is destined to kill Odin.
  • Sirius Black could turn into a black dog (Sirius being known as the Dog Star) and gained the nickname "Padfoot" from his dog form. In Yorkshire, the black dog of ill omen is called "Padfoot."
    • Nigellus Black was Hogwarts' least popular headmaster. "Nigellus" is Latin for "black". Also, the whole Black family (except Sirius) are notoriously into Dark magic.
  • The aromatic Mundungus Fletcher's first name is an obsolete word for tobacco with an unpleasant odor.
    • It becomes more apparent when people use his nickname, "Dung."
    • He shares his surname with Norman Fletcher, the career criminal protagonist of Porridge.
  • "James" means "he supplanted", and James Potter supplants Snape's place as Lily's best friend before becoming her love interest.
  • Voldemort. His name is derived from a French term meaning "flight from death" (though in this case, the french word "Vol" is referring to the literal meaning of "flight"), signifying his goal of immortality via the Horcruxes. Voldemort could also stand for "stealing death", "vol" in french meaning either "flight" or "theft".
  • Even his real name Tom Marvolo Riddle has some significance, Marvolo connoting marvelous, and Riddle hinting at the mysterious.
    • "Tom" is significant too. It's a common name for him to get rid of when he becomes the Dark Lord. As he says, "There are a lot of Toms."
    • "Tom" is also a shortened form of "Thomas," which means "twin"; if Voldemort was aware of this, it would have made him feel even less unique.
  • Dolores Umbridge; "dolor" means "pain" or "sorrow" and "umbrage" means "resentment".
  • It's a given that any wizard character in the series will have some kind of meaningful name (unless their father was a Muggle). Another example would be Kingsley Shacklebolt, who is an adept and trustworthy wizard who often protects people from harm. And becomes Minister of Magic in the end, the closest thing the Wizarding World has to a king.
  • Xenophilius Lovegood, father of Luna and editor of The Quibbler. Xeno/philius ---> one who likes strange things.
  • "Harry" is J.K. Rowling's favorite boy name and means "power". Harry was prophecized to have "power the Dark Lord knows not".
  • Luna Lovegood has pale hair and eyes, so she resembles the moon. She is also a Cloudcuckoolander. Say, did you happen to know that "luna" is the root word for "lunatic", due to an ancient superstition about the moon causing madness? Oh, and her Patronus is a hare, an animal also associated with the moon.
  • Pomona Sprout - Pomona is the goddess of abundance and means Fruit in Latin. Sprout is, well, sprout. Teaches herbology, dealing with plants and herbs.
  • Septima Vector, the arithmancy professor: Septima means "seventh", a number name, and "vector" is a mathematical term meaning "a quantity having direction as well as magnitude". Lampshaded in the fanfic The Arithmancer when the Muggle professor who oversees Hermione's correspondence math courses bemusedly asks in a letter if "Vector" is really her teacher's name.
  • Given that Harry named his son Albus Severus, it's a good thing these names are based on word meanings, rather than history; otherwise little Albus might grow up to become a bitter gay (Not That There's Anything Wrong with That) man that picks on his would-be beau's 11-year old due to a frustrated love.
  • Professor Minerva McGonagall's name comes from the Roman goddess of wisdom, strength, and skill - which is a fitting moniker for the staunchest bastion of Hogwarts throughout all seven novels. Wise, skilled, and incredibly powerful, McGonagall is consistently shown to be a truly, unambiguously good character, and is one of the few major supporting characters Harry never doubts - and one of the few adults he truly trusts.
  • The house-elf Kreacher's name smells like Kriecher, which is German for "toady" or "bootlick." It also sounds like the English word "creature," which suggests that he is an animal or a monster...but not a person.
  • The name Albus is Latin for white, which fits considerably as white tends to translate to good.
  • Lucius is Latin for light which sort of fits considering his notorious blond hair. Also the root of Lucifer, the light bringer.
  • Even the more common names have purposeful meanings behind them. Ronald means "mighty counselor" or "mighty ruler." Weasley is our king!

The Idiot

  • Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova's first name comes from the Greek word meaning "resurrection", and her last name is related to the Russian word for "lamb". Her patronymic is related to "Philip," which means "lover of horses," and this comes into play in the novel when Nastasya and Lebedev discuss the Four Horses of the Apocalypse.
  • Rogozhin, in some ways the villain of the piece and the "devil" to the Prince's "angel", has a name that comes from the Russian word rog, which means "horn".
  • The Prince himself has a name that illustrates the complexity of his nature: Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin. Lev means "lion" and myshkin comes from the Russian word meaning "mouse." Also, "Lev Nikolaevich" is also the first name and patronymic of Doestoevsky's contemporary, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, of whose literary eminence Dostoevsky was very much aware. Furthermore (as another character points out in the story), Myshkin shares his last name with a figure from Karazim's History of the Russian State: the historical Myshkin was an architect who designed a cathedral which collapsed in 1474 before construction was finished--which echoes Prince Myshkin's status as failed archetype of Christ.
  • The last name of Antip Burdovsky, the man who tries to con the Prince out of his inheritence, comes from the Russian word meaning "pigs' slops".
  • The three Epanchin sisters have meaningful names deriving from the Greek -- Alexandra comes from the word meaning "defend" (relevant in the bond she has with her lunatic mother), Adelaida comes from the word meaning "obscure" (a fitting name for a woman who marries Prince Shch. [no full name ever mentioned]), and lastly and most revealingly, Aglaya comes from the word meaning "radiant" (and she is the darling of her family and social circle).

Other works

"He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield."

  • From the Star Wars Expanded Universe:
    • "Mara" means "bitter" in Biblical Hebrew (this could be seen as an ultimate subversion, considering how her character arc plays out). "Thrawn" is actually a Scottish word meaning a combination of obstinacy, assertiveness, and more than a hint of willful perversity. The characters are more complex than that, but it's a good start in both cases.
      • Also Mara's last name "Jade" shows her cynical or "jaded" personality. Also: the color of her own lightsaber is green/jade, which also fits her Mama Bear nature later on...
    • Iella is Italian for bad luck. Her first husband turned out to be a Manchurian Agent, so...
    • The Hand of Thrawn Duology's Big Bad Triumvirate includes a con artist who goes by "Flim".
    • In Legacy of the Force, resident Utopia Justifies the Means / Complete Monster Jacen Solo / Darth Caedus spent most of his time aboard his flagship The Anakin Solo, named after his little brother. Meaningful because Jacens turn toward darkness began when Anakin was killed. His Sith name is also notable, as it comes from the Latin verb caedo, meaning either "to kill" or "to fall".[1]
  • In Flowers for Algernon, the mentally retarded main character Charlie has parents who desperately want him to be normal. So what do they name his little sister? Norma.
  • In Steven Cole's novel Thieves Like Us, an inscrutable benefactor gets a quintet of teenage criminal masterminds to help him find, steal and sell long-lost artifacts. The benefactor's name? Nathaniel Coldhardt.
  • Marvell's poem "Definition of Love" is about the faults and difficulties the author has with love. Definio is Latin for "I Limit".
  • The initials of the duplicitous Francis Urquhart in House of Cards (British series) are no coincidence
  • Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Say no more.
  • Repeatedly, explicitly and joyfully played with by Iain M Banks in his Culture novels, in which the ultra-intelligent AI "Minds" of the Culture choose their own names when emplaced in a ship. A warship may have a name like Attitude Adjuster, Lasting Damage or Killing Time, the "slightly weird" General Contact Units rejoice in names like Only Slightly Bent and I Thought He Was With You, whereas more "normal" Culture vessels can have names from the obvious relevant (Quietly Confident, Grey Area), through the arbitrary (Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The, Yawning Angel) to the absolutely surreal(Absolutely No You-Know-What, Pure Big Mad Boat Man). All of these, apparently, are Meaningful Names, and reflect the ship's personality in some way. A complete list can be found here.
  • JM Barrie's Peter Pan:
    • Captain Hook, although that's a nickname. It is stated in the original book that he's from a respectable British family, and his true name had been "whithold to protect [their] reputation".
    • Peter Pan's own name evokes "Pan," the Greek god of the wilds.
  • Dan Brown plays with this one:
    • The Da Vinci Code gives us the English Grail expert Sir Leigh Teabing. He's pretty stereotypical for an Angle- down to a slight obsession with Earl Grey tea. In addition, first name is the last name of one of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Richard Leigh and his last name is anagram of that of the other, Michael Baigent.
    • Angels & Demons, the Dean of the College of Cardinals is Cardinal Mortati, whose surname appears to be something to do with death ? creepily appropriate, given what happens in the book.
  • In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, the title character, who has a habit of using fire spells and melting or exploding things (sometimes even without intending to), has as a surname the name of a city bombed in World War II--a bombing noted for explosions and incendiary attacks.
    • In the same series, Michael Carpenter is chosen by Heaven to wield a holy sword. Who'd have guessed?
    • Harry doesn't just have a meaningful last name -- his given names all come from stage magicians. And his mother was Margaret LeFay. Oh, and there's Nicodemus Archleone, or, as Harry puts it:

"Archleone? Seriously? As in, 'seeking whom he may devour'?[2] How much more obvious can you get?"

    • Some of these names, such as LeFay and Archleone are assumed. Harry's name is a bit of humor. Michael though, has the meaning for not only being a knight of the cross, but also in him actually being a Carpenter. Assumed names end up often being a Stealth Pun, especially if it is Nordic related because then it's a kenning.
    • Harry's name becomes a lot more meaningful when one realizes that, like the stage magicians he is named for, he's used intelligence, trickery, and quick-thinking to achieve impossible feats that brute force could never succeed at. He's not just a wizard, he's a magician too. Moreover, each magician's name says something about Harry's own skills. "Harry" for Houdini, who was best known for escaping from impossible traps that everyone expected to kill him; "Blackstone" for Harry Blackstone, Sr. and Harry Blackstone, Jr., who both not only performed but invented many tricks now used by other stage magicians and who taught others how to do magic as well; and "Copperfield" for David Copperfield, who is noted among stage magicians for his skill at combining stage magic and storytelling. Malcolm Dresden must have been something of a seer.
  • Jim Butcher's Codex Alera
    • It's always fun to see how long it takes readers to realize that "Tavi" is short for Gaius Octavian, and he is the rightful heir to the throne. Oh and it's the birth name of Emperor Augustus in our world.
    • The Canim leader Varg gives Tavi a meaningful nickname when they go to Canea, Tavar. Varg says it is close to Tavi's own name and later reveals it is also the name of a Canean predator that is known for being fierce and intelligent enough that only a fool willingly seeks to fight it.
      • Varg is also a meaningful name, it's Scandinavian for "Wolf".
    • Invidia, whose name is Latin for "Envy" and lives up to it.
    • Averted with the ironically-named Fidelias, who is not exactly as faithful as his name implies.
    • Finally, the Distant Finale of First Lord's Fury reveals the name of Tavi's son: Gaius Desiderius Tavarus. Desiderius means "the desired one" and was chosen by Tavi and Kitai so their child would never feel unwanted despite being born out of wedlock. Perhaps less significant, but no less interesting, is the fact that Gaius, in Latin, is derived from gaudere, "to rejoice."
  • Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game has Ender himself, Lampshaded at Battle School.
  • Lewis Carroll's Alice (from the quote from Through the Looking Glass at the top of the page) has a name that means "Noble." Although this may have been a coincidence, as the name was that of a girl Carroll knew in real life, it becomes appropriate in the ending of Through the Looking Glass.
  • This pops up all over the shop in works by John Connolly. Many characters are explicitly stated to have meaningful names, usually rooted in religious texts.
    • The eponymous cancer-transmitting villain of the short story "The Cancer Cowboy Rides" has no memory of his real name. After reading a textbook on cancer and its many causes, he gives himself a name that doubles as his own private joke: Buddy Carson- short for carcinogenic. He also uses the name Russ Cercan. Arranging the syllables in reverse order gives the word "cancerous".
  • Roald Dahl:
  • Practically invented by Charles Dickens. He's responsible for dozens of immortal names that sum up the characters perfectly, like Ebenezer Scrooge, Pip, Jaggers, |Steerforth, Uriah Heep, and headmaster Gradgrind. He probably pushed it too far when he named a harsh schoolteacher Mr. M'Choakumchild.
  • The Brothers Karamazov: kara- in Turkish means "black" and maz in Russian means "paint" or "smear". The eponymous brothers' father is a lecher and libertine who is openly wicked. All throughout the book, characters speak of the "Karamazovian" nature inside of the brothers despite their efforts to separate themselves from their father.
  • In Crime and Punishment: Raskolnikov alludes to the Russian word, raskol, which means "schism", and raskol'nik, which means "schismatic" or "divided," symbolic of his own schism from "ordinary" people and his own mental state. Also, the character Kapernaumov has a name that is derived from the contemporary St. Petersburg slang for a brothel.
  • In French, the first name of Edmond Dantes from Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo suggests "demon" if you squint a bit, and the last name evokes "Dante" (usually associated with his Inferno and giving the French adjective "dantesque", which applies to cosmically horrible, hell-like situations). Which makes his complete name read like something along the lines of "infernal demon" or "demon from Dante's Inferno". Hey, you don't name your kid like that if you just expect him to be a nice and cute sailor.
    • It also seems plausible that Monte Cristo, besides being the name of an island, references Jesus' Sermon on the Mount which actually repudiated the type of "eye-for-an-eye" justice which Dantes puruses in this persona.
  • Ben Elton's novel Dead Famous centres around the contestants on a reality TV show called House Arrest (an obvious parody of Big Brother). As a result, many of the characters have names which echo the real life figures they are based on: Dervla Nolan (Anna Nolan, a contestant on the first series of Big Brother), Woggle (Paul Ferguson, known as "Bubble" on the show), Geraldine Hennessy (Lorraine Heggessey, the then controller of BBC 1) and others.
  • Neil Gaiman's American Gods positively delights in this: Low Key Lyesmith, Mr. Wednesday, Mr. Nancy, Jacquel & Ibis...
    • Shadow himself, who is frequently seen to unconsciously imitate the people with whom he hangs out.
      • In the novella The Monarch of the Glen, we learn that Shadow's birth name is actually Balder Moon, after the Norse god of light.
    • Also in Neverwhere. Then, most of the names are self-chosen: Hammersmith, Door, the Marquis de Cabaras.
      • Door's name wasn't self-chosen; all of her family had names related to doors and openings. For example, her brother's name was Arch, her little sister was Ingress, and her father's name was Lord Portico.
  • Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible has as part of its backstory the sentient robot Galatea (named for the Greek myth about a female statue brought to life by the love of her creator).
  • Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time does this for most of the main characters. And most of the minor character. And most of the characters in general, which is absolutely ridiculous:
    • Rand Al'Thor is named after King Arthur, and the Norse God Thor.
    • The Andor Royal family are all named after people from the legend of King Arthur. (hint)
    • Several Heroes of the Horn are named after actual legends.
    • The Forsaken are mostly named after demons and monsters, as are the clans of their inhuman minions.
    • The one bad Aiel tribe are called the Shaido.
    • In The Gathering Storm, Tuon takes the name Fortuona upon becoming the Empress. At this point, she is married to the luckiest man in the world, Mat Cauthon.
    • Every other example you can think of will be found here. Warning: it's big.
  • Dean Koontz does this frequently.
    • Averted and lampshaded in By The Light Of The Moon. The villain, Lincoln Proctor, not only has a name that screams integrity; he looks like Santa Claus. Parish Lantern (an old term for the moon) is a late night radio talk show host who admits that it's not his original name ("Would it be anyone's?"); he chose it when just starting his career.
    • False Memory -- the psychologist, Dr. Ahriman (named for the personification of evil in Zoroastrianism). He also uses similiarly sinister aliases: Jim Shaitan ("Shaitan" being the name of the Devil in Islam), Bill Sammael ("Sammael" or "Samael" being the archangel of death in Judaism, and often being viewed as a demon as well, especially in popular culture), and Jack Apollyon (the angel of the bottomless pit, according to Christian scripture).
      • In addition, Ahriman's first name, Mark, can also mean "pay attention to" or "notice." "Mark Ahriman" is a command from the author: "mark (pay attention to) Ahriman."
    • From The Corner Of His Eye -- quite a few characters, most notably the villain, Enoch Cain (named for Cain, the first murderer in Genesis, and his son)
    • Life Expectancy -- the Tock family were given an unexplained prophetic list of important dates upon the birth of Jimmy Tock, so they are very aware of the passing of time. The maiden name of one of the older women in the family is Greenwich.
  • Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy has a character named Deth, and a historical figure named Yrth. It eventually is revealed that 1) they're the same character; 2) he's a member of the race of Earth-Masters; and 3) the trilogy is about his plans for his death.
  • In Flannery O'Connor's short "Good Country People", guess what traveling Bible salesman Manley Pointer's ulterior motive is?
  • In David Prill's Second Coming Attractions (a novel lampooning the inspirational Christian film industry), there are characters named Ricky Bible, Rance Jericho, Grant Godlee, Buck Verilee, and Paul Pedphill (!). The first two are actors' stage names; the rest, though, are apparently people's legal names. And humor this broad is the least of the novel's problems...
  • Ayn Rand often gave weak names to unsympathetic characters. The pinnacle was probably Wesley Mouch, a lobbyist in Atlas Shrugged, whose name contains hints of weasel, slouch, louse, and mooch without actually coming out and giving him any of those names. Another minor villain in the same novel is a corporate takeover artist named Hunsacker.
  • In the Neal Stephenson novel Snow Crash, the hero and protagonist of the story is named Hiroaki "Hiro" Protagonist. This is an Invoked Trope, as he actually changed his name to this.
  • Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: "Nemo" is Latin for "no one", which is likely why the character chose this name after building the Nautilus and exiling himself to the sea. This might have also been used because of a tendency in Victorian literature to reassure the reader that "this isn't real".
  • The narrator of What Was She Thinking? (filmed as Notes on a Scandal) is named Barbara Covett.
  • In House of Leaves, you have Holloway ("Hollow way") Roberts. This can also be read as "hallway". A holloway is also a sunken road or path.
    • Also, Johnny Truant from the same work.
  • Naming a colony "Roanoke" should have been a hint in The Last Colony. Lampshade Hanging ensues when, after he figures out what's happening, the main character chews himself out for having missed the reference.
  • Tad Williams's Otherland series includes a character who goes by the name of John Dread. His mother gave him the name "Johnny Wulgaru" because, according to the book, a "Wulgaru" is a type of demon in the mythology of the Australian aborigines, and she wanted him to grow up to be a monster who would take her revenge on the white man for destroying her people's way of life. Later, when the Big Bad hires him to be The Dragon, he starts to go by the alias "Johnny More Dread", because the Big Bad thinks of himself as being like King Arthur and "More Dread" sounds like Mordred. And, yes, he follows Mordred's example.
  • H.P. Lovecraft had an especially blatant case: Asenath Waite, whose name means "she belongs to her father". She has been possessed by her father's spirit, who moves from host body to host body.
    • Also "Gilman", in The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Possible inversion, in that "Gilman" is a common name around Gloucester, Massachusetts, the real-life town on which Innsmouth was partially based. Lovecraft may well have used the pun as inspiration for the entire story.
  • In Damnation Alley (the novel by Roger Zelazny, later made into a bad movie), the (* cough* ) "hero" is named Hell Tanner. In Old West slang, to "tan" something means to beat it, and Hell Tanner beats Damnation Alley by traveling through it. In effect, he "tanned" Hell. As for his first name... Hell was the last-born of fifteen children, and when the nurse asked Papa Tanner what name he wanted his son to have, Papa Tanner said "Hell!" and walked out, never to be seen again.
  • The eponymous creatures of The Legend of Rah and the Muggles are supposed to set great store by the significance of names. This mostly manifests itself in an implausible degree of nominative determism such that it's clearly so common for a pair of best friends or Sickeningly Sweethearts to have names that differ by a single letter that it never gets remarked upon.
  • Most of the Everafters (people and creatures from fairy tales) in The Sisters Grimm have obviously meaningful public names. Most of them are only enough to make it obvious who's who if you already know that Everafters exist -- such as Ms. White and Mrs. Heart -- but a few are so extreme that you'd expect them to be remarked upon even by people who have no reason to suspect their possessors are anything but ordinary people -- Charming and Canis aren't exactly common surnames, nor is Robin Goodfellow a full name you'd normally expect a schoolboy to have. Some are legitimately obscure.
  • Played with twice in Robert Zubrin's The Holy Land. The American terrorists have names (David Crockett Christianson, George Washington Jones, Mickey Mantle Ostrowski, and Thomas Jefferson Clark) unabashedly evocative of Americana, and the aliens looking for a country to punish for their vile deeds know this. The Americans point out that the terrorists all legally changed their names (to David Crockett Christianson de Peru, George Washington Jones de Peru, Mickey Mantle Ostrowski de Peru, and Thomas Jefferson Clark de Peru). Peru gets PWNED.
    • Douglas MacArthur; originally Herman Witherspoon, but he felt he deserved a "more glorious appellation" when he prepared to assert military control over about half of Kennewick, Washington. He renamed his top officers to Patton, Pershing, Lee, Stuart, and Jackson so that he would have command over more famous generals than anyone else in American history. Lee, Stuart, and Jackson turn traitor and declare their sovereignty over the southern blocks of the city.
  • In Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, a geologist is named Ann Clayborne. Her husband is called Simon (in the bible, Simon the apostle was given the new name Peter, meaning 'rock'), and her arch-rival is named Saxifrage (after a variety of flower also known as "rock-breaker".)
  • Gormenghast's Sepulch[re g]rave, Seventy-Sixth Earl of Groan. Guess what his personality is like.
    • It's rare for a character in the series not to have a meaningful name. Swelter the chef, Prunesquallor the doctor, Muzzlehatch the zookeeper, etc.
  • In Battlefield Earth, the race of evil aliens that has all but wiped out humanity are called the Psychlos. They are in fact secretly being controlled by a sinister cabal of "Catrists" through brain surgery. Guess which profession Scientologists in general and L. Ron Hubbard in particular hates with a passion?
  • John C. Wright seems to be a fan of this trope as well. Many of the characters in his novels have Meaningful Names, because one commonly chooses one's own.
  • Anyone in the Thursday Next series who isn't a Public Domain Character or just has a Punny Name has a Meaningful Name. In The Eyre Affair, Thursday is partnered with two Redshirts named Khannon and Fodder, who don't last long. They're replaced by two more named Dedman and Walken.
  • Kvothe, the main character of The Name of the Wind, says that his name means "to know." His curiosity is constantly being referenced throughout the book, usually getting him into trouble. A throwaway line of dialogue also reveals that "Kote", the pseudonym he's been going by, actually means "disaster".
  • The names of demons in C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters are generally evocative: Screwtape (thumbscrew and red tape, Lewis himself said), Wormwood (a bitter poison, and mentioned in Revelation), Slubgob, Triptweeze, and Toadpipe.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, the great philologist that he was, would come up with the name FIRST and extrapolate a character from it. "Samwise", for example, is another term for "half-wise" or simple.
    • Gimli, whose name is Nordic for "fire", obviously due to his impatient, chaotic personality.
    • Frodo is a name derived from the Old English word fród, meaning "wise by experience".
    • Tolkien was quite keen on Meaningful Names in general: virtually all his names have a meaning, be it in Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Elvish or plain English (though often enough the meaning came after the name and sometimes even changed over the years). Many of the characters' names also reflect one of the bearer's qualities; a few of the more complex characters receive quite a few names over the course of their lives.
    • Interestingly enough, as revealed in the notes and in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien", there are several other cases. For instance, in the actual language that was being spoken, the masculine ending to hobbit names was "a", not "o". So, Bilbo would have actually been named Bilba, and Bilbo comes from Bilbao, Spain (home of high-quality swords).
    • Certainly the most obvious Meaningful Name in his works is the flying, foul-smelling, smoke-belching dragon Smaug, -- that is, Smog.
      • The name Smaug is derived from the Germanic verb smugen meaning "to squeeze through a hole." A most excellent joke on the professor's part!
    • Tolkien sometimes gave names a history in-universe (or several: see for instance Elrond and Elros, for whom Tolkien wrote two conflicting stories). Sometimes the choosing of a particular name is meaningful: see for instance Túrin (always renaming himself in the hope to escape the curse laid on him) or the sons of Fëanor (they were all given names with the element -finwë (their grand father's name) by their father, but all but one chose to be called by their mother-name). And choosing a name can have consequences: it's said that it was partly because Nolofinwë chose to call himself Finwë Nolofinwë (Fingolfin) that Fëanor abandoned him.
    • Many characters have names that are just Anglo-Saxon words, often referring in a boringly literal manner to what they are. For instance, Théoden is the anglicized form of the Anglo-Saxon word "Ðéoden", which means "king". Tolkien did have some fun with other names; the word "Samwis" means either "foolish" or "half-wise", "Diegol" means "secret" (Gollum hid his murder of Déagol for years) and "Gríma" means "mask", presumably a reference to Gríma Wormtongue's double-agent role. Tolkien even got in a dig at Gríma's father Galmod, "galmod" means "licentious".
    • Hamfast "The Gaffer" Gamgee's first name means "home-bound", or by extension, "parochial".
  • Invoked regularly, primarily with the nobility, in The Farseer, because of a folk belief that if one is named after a virtue, the child will eventually grow into his or her name. Seen most clearly in the Farseer royal bloodline, which is composed most notably of King Shrewd and the princes Chivalry, Verity, and Regal. Shrewd is so sharp-witted he could cut someone. Chivalry lives up to a stiff-necked moral code to the point of political suicide, abdicating when it comes out that he sired a bastard before he even married. Verity is blunt and honest to a fault, making him a well-liked leader amongst soldiers but a poor politician. Regal is a self-important Jerkass, playing out the worst stereotypes of "nobility" and "regalness." Most who fail to live up to their names do so ironically, such as Patience, who is one of the most impatient and distractable people around, jumping from project to project so sharply she could induce whiplash.
  • In addition to a pterodon named Nimbus Cirrus, Dinotopia: The World Beneath features a character named Oriana Nascava. She's searching for the origins of her ancestors and points out that her name means "from a cave" The characters have found an underground passage to a lost city called Posidos (Atlantis).
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, Bran's name is an Irish name meaning "raven".
  • No idea if PG Wodehouse intended this or not, but all-knowing problem-solver Jeeves' first name, Reginald, means "council power" in Old German. Conversely, dim-bulb Bertie's name (also in Old German) means "bright".
  • Ciaphas Cain is the Fake Ultimate Hero, or at least seems that way. His name is taken from a High Priest in The Bible, who had this exchange with Jesus:

Caiaphas: Are you the Son of God?
Jesus: That is what you call me.

  • Silas Fennec in The Scar. A fennec is a desert fox; Silas is not just a spy, he's also a ruthless and greedy character with Smug Snake tendencies.
  • Dorothy Gale gets carried away by a tornado in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
    • The name of the wizard himself is a Meaningful Stealth Pun. He gives an Overly Long Name, the initials of which spell out O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D. He tells Dorothy and Ozma this in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz:

Wizard: In the first place, I must tell you that I was born in Omaha, and my father, who was a politician, named me Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, Diggs being the last name because he could think of no more to go before it...When I grew up, I just called myself O.Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled 'pinhead,' which was a reflection on my intelligence.

  • The second part of Asimov's Second Foundation begins with the heroine of that part, 14-year-old Arkady Darrell, writing an essay for school, and dreading having to read it because she hates the way in which pupils are obliged to say their names when doing so -- initial, then surname ("A. Darrell" in her case). The only exception being Olynthus Dam, because everyone laughed the first time he did it. A good thing, then, that his name wasn't Randu Slicker...
  • Most of Ken Kesey's characters have names like these, but a special mention goes to Sometimes A Great Notion. One of the narrating characters is born-again Christian Joe Ben "Joby" Stamper who retains a positive attitude towards God in spite of all the increasingly terrible things that befall the Stamper family.
  • Considering that The Pilgrims Progress is an allegory, it should come as no surprise that everyone has a Meaningful Name, whether it be Names to Run Away From Really Fast (Judge Hate-good, The Giant Despair) to Names to Trust Immediately (Evangelist, Help, The Interpretor).
  • Artemis Fowl is named for the Greek goddess of hunting, referring to his elaborate schemes. He references it once.
    • His Battle Butler is named "Butler", coincidentally enough. Butler's given name is Domovoi, the name of a Slavic guardian spirit. His sister is named Juliet, referring to her youthful, impulsive, and cheery nature.
      • It's stated in canon that the household position of butler was actually named after that particular family (bodyguarding for very rich people is the family business), rather than the other way around. People who couldn't hire real Butlers hired a guy to stand around in a suit and take orders so that they could pretend.
    • And his Distaff Counterpart -- a fellow genius -- is named Minerva Paradizio, Minerva being the Roman goddess of knowledge.
  • Don Quixote: Doctor Pedro Recio (could be translated as "Doctor Hard Rock"), a doctor who insists that Sancho, as a governor, must have a very strict diet. Sancho even lampshades it: "he is called Doctor Pedro Recio, and is from Tirteafuera; so you see what a name he has to make me dread dying under his hands." Tirteafuera sounds like "tirarte afuera", "throw you outside".
  • The findings of astronomer Galileo, who discovered the Earth orbitted the sun, were published in a work written as an argument between fictional scholars. The scholar who backed the church's viewpoint was called "Simplicio".
  • In The Edge, Rose is prickly and standoffish to outsiders, but to her own family she is sweet, gentle and loving.
  • In the Circle of Magic, both Rosethorn and Briar Moss are plant mages who are rude and acerbic to people but have a hidden, gentler side when it comes to plants and their close friends. In this case, though, they both chose their names, Rosethorn when she dedicated her life to the temple and Briar when he was first offered a new life.
    • Academic mages choose their names, too. So you get names like Niklaren Goldeye, who has magical sight, Yarrun Firetamer, who fights forest fires, and Quenaill Shieldsman, who specializes in protective magic.
    • Tris Chandler is from a merchant family, so her name probably comes from her family's profession (either original or current).
  • In The Inheritance Cycle, the name Galbatorix means "Big King".
  • Alex of A Clockwork Orange. A-lex: Latin for "without the law".
    • Possibly a clever double meaningful name: A-lex can be interpreted as "without law" or "without voice," both of which are true of the character in some way or another.
  • Hannibal the Cannibal from The Silence of the Lambs. Bonus points for his surname being "Lecter."; "lector", the word's homophone, means "reader," suggesting that Hannibal is a cultured man.
  • Children of the Lamp: Mr. Groanin has a tendency to complain about food, sanitation, and his job being so life-threatening; though oddly enough not about his missing arm.
  • A dogmatic fundamentalist priest named Pastor Mortmain is in Madeleine L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet. The name is translated as "dead hand" from French, and certainly fits the man's character.
  • David Linsay's classic allegorical fantasy novel A Voyage To Arcturus is rife with meaningful names; some portmanteaux of English words, others Anglicized or slightly altered versions of words from other languages, mostly Germanic. Examples: The name of the protagonist, Maskull, is a portmanteau of "mask" and "skull"; and eventually reveals himself to be simply a "mask" of the character Nightspore, whose journey through the story is an allegory of his philosophical "journey of the mind (skull)". Joiwind, "joy wind", who enables Maskull to survive in the alien atmosphere, and teaches him love. The Lusion Plain, "plain of illusion" from Hindu/Buddhist mythology. Surtur, a gnostic demiurge, and Muspel, his residence and the source of life, are derived from Surtr, lord of Muspellsheimr, the world of fire from Norse mythology.
  • In Indigo's homeland, that color represents death and mourning. In the third book, The Good Chancellor instrumental to a warlord's successes is named "Phereniq" ("bringer of victory"). And as for the warlord himself, his surname contains the word "human," which may be foreshadowing: The heroine suspects him of being a demon in mortal form throughout most of the book, but ends up being wrong.
  • In Alien Secrets, the protagonist is named Robin Goodfellow, (nicknamed Puck) and she only half-jokingly blames her name for cursing her to be very short.
  • In the young adult novel The Giver, the name Rosemary (which stands for remembrance, according to Ophelia in Hamlet) will never be used again after the death of the previous Receiver-in-Training forced the community to remember the vivid emotions they have left behind.
  • Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe combines the imperiousness of Caesar with the wolf, only in this case the wolf hunts crime. His assistant Archie Goodwin is the archetypal good guy who always wins. On the other hand, Saul Panzer's last name is sometimes assumed to be an allusion to the powerful, all-conquering Nazi German panzer divisions, but Saul was created and named before Hitler took office. (Stout was also a strident anti-Nazi and would never make that mistake, especially with a Jewish character.)
  • The eponymous protagonist of The Acts of Caine has set in motion events that would lead to the death of his wife, best friend(s), father, the suffering of everyone who's cared for him, etc. etc. If the dude had a brother he probably would have offed him too. Also like the biblical Caine, there are gods looking out for him after his punishment (gods who want to punish him tend to get owned hard).
  • The Wicked Lovely series gives every character a meaningful name:
    • Aislinn means "vision" or "dream", and she has the sight. Hence, 'vision'. Also, Keenan's dream about her.
    • Keenan means "little ancient one", a reference to him being over 900 but still being treated -- and acting -- like a teenager. It is also likely a way for his Mother to belittle him.
    • Donia means "bitter" or "dark", a reference to how she feels about her relationship with Keenan.
    • Leslie means "joy", and she largely was Niall's only source of happiness for most of Ink Exchange.
    • Irial means "obscure" or "eerie", and he was the king of the court of nightmares.
    • Rae means "wise protector", and she can enter others dreams and help them through them and has knowledge of the future.
    • Gabriel roughly equates to "man of god", and he is the dark king's right hand man, and a great fighter.
    • Sorcha means "bright", and her court opposes the dark court.
    • Niall means "champion", and is a reminder of the times he failed as one.
    • Seth means "appointed", and he is implied to be some form of The Chosen One by Sorcha, although it's unclear as to what he was chosen for.
  • Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga has a number of meaningful names:
    • Miles Vorkosigan, the hero of the series; Miles meaning "soldier". The meaning does not escape his mother, who tells him to try not to be swayed by it.
    • Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, aforementioned mother of Miles. Cordelia brings to mind the faithful daughter of King Lear, foreshadowing Cordelia's loyalty to her family. "Naismith" is an old name for a nailsmith--that is, a maker of things that help hold others together.
    • Aral Vorkosigan, named for a Russian sea. This both references the Russian heritage of Barrayar, and Aral's hidden depths.
    • Ivan Vorpatril, meaning "God is gracious". A more apt meaning is that Ivan is the Russian equivalent of "Jack", the fool hero, everyman character.
      • "Vor" means "thief" and "patril" means "father", so his last name means "stolen father" appropriately for someone whose father was killed in a long ago war.
    • Gregor Vorbarra, the Emperor of Barrayar, which is similar to Gregory, meaning "watchful, vigilant".
    • Miles's wife, Ekaterin, meaning "pure".
    • Miles's twin clone-brother Mark, meaning "warlike". Especially apt since Mark was engineered for war, and constantly fights his own multiple personalities.
    • ImpSec] security chief Simon Illyan's given name means "to be heard", though his name also comes from fellow mysterious Russian spy Ilya Kuryakin.
  • The "novel" Atlanta Nights was written by Travis Tea. Now sound that out loud.
  • In the first sequel to the book The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, one of the people who helps to fuel the fires of tension between the Ember people and the Sparks people is a troublemaking Emberite kid named... Tick Hassler.
  • In the books of Bayern, Ani meets a character named Enna, who in later books is a fire speaker -- the name "Enya" is gaelic for Little Fire or Flame, while "Ena" is Gaelic for "bright and shining".
  • In Farworld, the orphaned and unknown Markus is given the surname "Kanenas", meaning "nobody" or "no one." Most of his power, or at least what he learns in the first book, is rooted to his being "no one."
  • Twilight
    • Bella (Italian for "beautiful") Swan. Her first name could be taken as a Shout-Out to Bela Lugosi, an actor well known for his role as Count Dracula.
    • The surname "Cullen" means "descendent of Coilean/Cuileann." "Cuileann" is a nickname meaning "holly," which symbolizes good luck and whose berries represent life-giving blood.
    • "Jacob" means "supplanter" - seen as trying to push Edward out of the way and take his place. Not sure how deliberate this is, though, as Meyer named five characters after her siblings: Jacob Black, Paul Lahote, Seth Clearwater, Emily Young and Heidi.
    • Averted with the antagonist Victoria, whose name means "victory" in Latin. She ends by being anything but victorious.
  • The Jungle Book: Most of the names in the Mowgli stories are Hindi in origin. Roughly translated, "Bagheera" means "Panther", "Baloo" means "Bear", "Shere Khan" means "Lord Tiger", and Tabaqui (the jackal) means "dish-licker". However, the name "Mowgli", meaning "frog", seems to have been invented by Kipling himself. The wolves call the man-cub "frog" because of his hairlessness, but the name can also be seen as referring to Mowgli's 'amphibious' existence, i.e. as both human and animal.
  • The Redwall series is riddled with these, sometimes intentionally on the character's parts, Enfant Terrible Veil's being an obvious one.

Give him a name and leave him a while
 Veil may live to be evil and vile
Though I hope my prediction will fail
And evil so vile will not live in Veil.

  • The Republic of Haven in Honor Harrington (itself Revolutionary France... In Space!) has a Committee for Public Safety headed by... Rob S. Pierre.
  • In The Scarlet Letter, there is a passage that goes over why Pearl's name is meaningful. Justified, since she was named for those very characteristics by her mother: her mother traded everything for her one treasure, her Pearl.
  • A key part of the Skulduggery Pleasant books where a person dealing in magic must choose a name to hide their true identity. The name however, must be connected with the character's personality.
  • The Silver Kiss: Zoë is the protagonist. Her mother is dying, she runs into vampires, and her name means life. Pretty straightforward cue to look at the differences? Not quite. Another translation of Zoë is eternal life--which looks like foreshadowing of her becoming vampire...She doesn't.
  • Vivian of Blood and Chocolate is certainly lively, and it could also be taken as a subtle Lampshade Hanging on her shared characteristics with Zoë ("(eternal) life"), since both books are by the same author.
  • Stardust: The seven sons of the Lord of Stormhold are quite transparently named Primus, Secundus, Tertius and so on. Their only sister - and the firstborn child of the House--is named Una (in Spanish or Italian, "one").
  • In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, Ulysses Prospero. He is quite peeved when someone thinks it's from James Joyce's Ulysses and not Homer's Odyssey. Others may have them, but in this work, a number of the characters are those that gave the meaning to the name in the first place.
  • Dr. Georgina Orwell from the fourth book in the Series of Unfortunate Events is named for author George Orwell. Dr. Orwell hypnotizes Klaus several times throughout the course of the plot, probably as a reference to the Thought Police in Orwell's novel 1984.
  • In Octavia Butler's Wild Seed, the names of the two main characters, Doro and Anyanwu, translate respectively into their native languages as "the east" and "the sun". The characters themselves take note of this in the beginning of the book as a strange coincidence, or a sign that they were intended to meet each other.
  • Shows up in Dubliners.
  • Geoff Ryman's novel Air has lots of examples of this trope as it takes place in a fictional country whose culture features some old superstitions about the importance of the meaning behind someone's name. A gangster who made his money from drugs has a name that translates into English as "Wisdom Bronze", and he is both intelligent and materialistic. An idealistic young government worker determined to help the impoverished people of his country has a name that translates as "Genuinely Sincere". The protagonist's name translates roughly into "Have not have" which is the subtitle of the book. The first chapter of the book features some social commentary from the main character about the West's treatment of the third world and the gap between "haves and have-nots".
  • Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables was the blithe spirit of Avonlea, adding mishaps, imagination, and craziness to a tiny town on PEI. Fittingly, she goes on to marry her childhood friend, Gilbert Blythe (who was not very blithe).
    • In Anne of Ingleside, the alluring but deceitful friend of Anne's daughter Nan is named Delilah--the name of a charming Biblical liar.
  • The names of the main characters of A.S. Byatt's Possession carry multiple levels of significance. The Victorian poet Christabel La Motte and her great-great-great-great-granddaughter Maud Bailey, both of whom are deeply concerned with solitude and autonomy, are named for the motte-and-bailey, the most common type of medieval castle; further, both women's personal names come from 19th century Romantic poems. Roland Michell's name alludes both to the eponymous knight of The Song of Roland and the Robert Browning poem Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came, which points again to the "castle" meaning of Maud and Christabel's names, while his surname comes from St. Michael, the angelic warrior. Leonora Stern - from leo, "lion", with a feminine suffix - and Fergus Wolff both have names that describe their personalities.
  • From Malevil, a French post-World War III novel, The Hero and The Big Bad are both make-shift holy men with meaningful names: Emmanuel's name means "God is with us". Fulbert shares the name of an 11th century Bishop. "Saint Fulbert"' has controversial status as a saint, he was never canonized, and he lived during the turn of the first millennium, a moment feared to be the Apocalypse.
  • Solomon Kane is a deeply devout man and a determined killer who bears the names of the man most favoured by God and the first murderer.
  • In Chronicles of the Emerged World there are many of these names derived from Latin and Greek, often with Bilingual Bonus.
  • A common trope in philosophical dialogues. Virtually everyone in Plato has one.
  • Lolita is only ever called that by one person. Her legal given name means "sorrow" (she is raped on a nightly basis for two years), her surname means "a cloud or fog" (her rapist eventually admits that he "did not know a thing about my darling's mind"), and her most common nickname means "a toy in the shape of a human".
  • In Elantris, most characters names contain an Aon (rune), each of which has a specific meaning, which results in a lot of meaningful names. Sarene's name (The Aon Ene means wit or intelligence). Also brutally subverted with Iadon ("Iad" means trust or reliable and he is neither trusting or trustworthy)
  • Andre-Louis Moreau believes that the stage name given to him is the one that describes him most accurately: the sly, roguish trickster.
  • The names in Warrior Cats are always meaningful. Firestar is named for his flame-colored pelt, which is also significant when you find out he's the "fire" prophesied to save the clan. Tigerstar (formerly Tiger CLAW) has long claws and is as fierce as a tiger. Crowfeather chose the second part of his name in honor of Feathertail. Leaf POOL discovered the Moonpool. Brightheart is described in the book itself as having "a bright heart." The list could go on and on.
    • As far as non-warrior names go, there's Sol, who predicts a solar eclipse.
  • Almost everything in The Magic Thief: The Night Bridge connects The Twilight with The Sunrise, a pickpocket named Conn, etc ...
  • Footfall: named by something resembling an elephant, it's not good.
  • Icarus, a wheelcart driver in book 3 of Detectives in Togas. He dares too much during a race, and, guess what, falls.
  • In Congo, Herkimer is searching for diamonds. His name means 'fake diamond.'
    • Also "Zinj" is a homonym of "singe", the French word for monkey or ape.
  • This is used extremely often in The Dragon Hoard, giving us: King August, King Purple, Prince Fearless, Princess Goodness, the sorceress Maligna and the sorcerer Awful.
  • Sunshine turns out be be a very meaningful nickname for a young woman who has a magical affinity for The Power of the Sun as an Elemental Power.
  • Karmic Trickster Pumphutt in Krabat. (Hut = hat.)
  • In William Faulkner's stories (like "Wild Horses"), the family most responsible for criminal activity in the county is the Snopes family. One of the best known of the family is Flem (as in 'flimflam' -- or, even less appealingly, 'phlegm') who is a conman and thief.
  • John Crowley's Little, Big doesn't have a name in it that isn't meaningful. Let us start with the hero, Smoky (his real name is Evan S. Barnable). His first friend in the City is George Mouse -- a city Mouse with country cousins, including Smoky's future wife, the six-foot-tall Daily Alice Drinkwater. Her grandfather's middle name was Storm. All of the families who live near Edgewood have significant names: Flood, Lake, Wood, Noon ("Have you met my boy Sonny?"), Bird, Stone ("Clouds on their mother's side"), Bush, Meadows, and Dale and Cloud. Even the minister who marries Smoky and Daily Alice is "Doctor Word". And then there's the cousin, Ariel.
  • In Death: Eve Dallas's name is this. Eve is the name of the first woman in The Bible. Dallas is the name of the city of Texas where she was found. The first name suggests sentimentality, and the last name suggests pragmatism. Creepily enough, Max Ricker in Judgment In Death explains all this to her face.
  • Percy Jackson and The Olympians:
    • Percy's mother named him after Perseus, because he was one of the few demigods who had a happy ending.
    • Speaking of Perseus, his love interest was named Andromeda. Percy Jackson's love interest has a somewhat similar-sounding name: Annabeth, who is a daughter of Athena. So her name is her mother's with a few extra letters.
    • Clarisse - Ares, with some extra letters.
    • From the "painfully obvious" archives, we have Grover Underwood the forest-loving satyr and Rachel Elizabeth Dare the fiery redhead.
    • Happens so often among the supporting cast that one wonders if the Greek gods are choosing their mortal partners based on their surnames. Hermes (thieves and trickery) has a pair of twins named Stoll ("stole"), one of Demeter's (agriculture) children is named Gardner, and Aphrodite (beauty) has a daughter named Silenea Beauregard (French for "good looking").
    • Frank Zhang of The Son of Neptune acknowledges it. "I would like to have been claimed by Apollo, because Zhang means master of bows in Chinese."
  • In the web-novel Domina, we have Adam Andrew Anders, all three names which mean approximately "man." This foreshadows the fact that he doesn't have a power, and is immune to the toy maker.
  • In The Hunger Games, the setting is a brutal Police State named "Panem", where the residents of the Capitol are bought off with luxury and the Districts are kept in brutal subjection. The name "Panem" comes from a classical quotation. Explained and lampshaded in the third book:

"Panem et Circenses translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power."

    • Among many meaningful character names, Katniss is a plant in the genus Sagittaria ("archer") which is a close relative of the arrowhead plant. It's also edible.
  • Stationery Voyagers is littered with these. One prominent example is the angel Critiqamas, one of the only female angels in the entire show. Her name means "Critical Mass," and she's the most radioactive creature in the series, even making Liquidon look like an amateur.
  • In Celia and The Fairies, the good family is named Lovejoy, the main villainess is named Vicky Mc Clutchy, and another bad guy is named Chase Downe.
  • In Jodi Picoult's Keeping Faith, the titular Faith is a little girl who starts showing signs of being The Messiah. The book is also about her mother trying to keep Faith in a custody battle and keep faith in her everyday life. Also, since Faith is believed by some to be the Second Coming of Jesus, it's fitting that her mother is named Mariah (which comes from the name Maria, otherwise known as Mary).
  • Good Omens: knowing the authors behind it, are you honestly surprised?
    • First there's the angel Aziraphale. "Zira" in Hebrew means "brightness of morning." Aziraphale used to guard the East Gate of Eden.
    • Crowley, the demon. Crowley obviously referencing Aleister Crowley, the occult alchemist. Fun fact: his (the demon not the alchemist) original name was Crawly but he eventually decided it was just wasn't him.
    • Adam Young, the Anti-Anti-Christ. His (human) father didn't agree with the traditional Satanic names suggested and eventually just went with Adam as in the first human.
    • Anathema Device. Her mother named her Anathema because she thought it sounded nice and her family name actually comes from the founders of the Device, but still she lives up to her name by being a plot device to help avert the Apocalypse. Device is actually a Real Life West Country name, it's pronounced "DEH-viss" and is probably an alternate spelling of Davies.
    • Pepper, actually called Pippin Galadriel Moonchild but heaven help you if you call her that to her face. She fits her name with her Fiery Redhead personality.
  • Septimus Heap is a seventh son of a seventh son. "Septimus" in Latin means "the seventh"
  • Both of the main characters in Count and Countess are subject to this. Although they are based off of real people (Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory), it comes up as a plot point at least twice.
  • The name Therese Raquin has been speculated to have something to do with the saying "You reap what you sow." Thérèse meaning "to harvest" and Raquin coming from the colloquial verb raquer meaning "to pay" or "to cough up."
  • Vida Winter in The Thirteenth Tale. Both Vida and Winter point to a theme of emptiness and death.
  • Clary Fray, of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments. It's painfully obvious that her first name stems from the author's pen name. The surname "Fray" comes from an eight-issue Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic series featuring a future vampire slayer named Melaka Fray; Clare was heavily into BtVS fandom for for a while.
  • Stark's War by John Hemry briefly references the McClellan tank, a very advanced and powerful tank of the late 21st Century. It is so spiffy — and so expensive — that the high command refuses to risk it getting damaged in battle. George McClellan was an American Civil War general who did a superb job of training the Union army — but then didn't want to risk it getting torn up by the fighting.

Abraham Lincoln: "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

  • In Gene Stratton Porter's Michael O'Halloran, Mickey's name is lampshaded to ensure we know the meaning.

The big fellow called him 'Mickey'; no doubt a mother who adored him named him Michael, and thought him 'like unto God' when she did it.

  • Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden. Gee, the guy's got "arch", "bald", and "craven" in his name. He wouldn't be a weak, sickly hunchback, would he?
    • Averted with the actual meaning of the name. "Archibald" means "bold master"--yet for ten years (aside from occasional stopovers), Craven avoids his house, his servants and his son.
    • Mary Lennox's last name means "place of elms." From the very beginning, Mary is associated with a place for plants to grow.
    • Colin's first name is derived from Cailean or Coilean--Irish Gaelic nicknames meaning "whelp" or "young dog." This becomes more significant when you think of Dickon Sowerby and his influence on Mary and Colin. To quote the latter, "He's a sort of animal charmer and I am a boy animal."
  • Comrade Death features Feuerbauch, a No Celebrities Were Harmed Hitler, whose name translates to "Fire Belly". At the end of the story, poisoned and insane, he drinks a bottle of Disintegrol, a chemical which is weaponized Made of Explodium and turns anything it touches into a volatile explosive. Shortly after, his insides explode.
  • Calvin and Conrad in the book and film Ordinary People seem to have purposely been named with the Protestant theologian John and author Joseph in mind.
  • In David Eddings' Belgariad, Garion had a childhood crush on a girl named Zubrette. Soubrette is a word for an actress' role as "a coquettish maid or frivolous young woman," and it fits her character marvelously. Although the Voice in Garion's head told him that he probably would've married Zubrette if the big "Because Destiny Says So" events hadn't kicked off, so it seems she had Hidden Depths or at least would've matured.
  • In The Winds of War and War and Remembrance Victor Henry The Patriarch of the Henry family is an interesting example of this. He seldom has a command in battle and when he does he wins no great victories(in fact at Midway and Leyte he simply observes while a great victory is won around him). What he does do is engineer victory by working behind the scenes at tedious jobs which no one would ever think to make into a movie and thus he deserves every bit of what his name implies.
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  1. ↑ whence we get the words suicide/regicide/patricide etc.
  2. ↑ "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" -1 Peter 5:8 in the King James bible
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