Significant Anagram/Literature

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Examples of Significant Anagrams in Literature include:

The Dark Tower

• The last book has a psychic vampire named Dandelo who lived at Odd Lane. He at least has the sense to add an S to the sign pointing to his house, making it spell Odd's Lane, though technically, the S and apostrophe on the sign would make it an even better anagram: Dandelo's.
• For a while before the last book or two came out there was a lot of speculation on the web regarding the way that "Finli O'Tego" (which even looks like a frickin' anagram) could be rearranged into "It of Legion" or "Legion of It".

Doctor Who Expanded Universe

• In the "Companions" novel Harry Sullivan's War, Harry takes on the name Laury L. Varnish.
• There are also several Significant Anagrams in the Missing Adventures novel Managra, starting with that one.
• And in the Past Doctor Adventures novel Business Unusual, the computer game company SeneNet is a front for the Nestene Consciousness.
• And in the New Adventures novel Original Sin, the villainous company is Interstellar Nanoatomic ITEC (ITEC being the 30th century version of Ltd. or Inc.), which is an anagram of International Electromatics, a company the Doctor's dealt with before.

Harry Potter

• Voldemort explicitly chooses his name because "I am Lord Voldemort" is an anagram of his birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. Which slightly complicated things when the books were translated into other languages.
  • In the French translation, his birth name is Tom Elvis Jedusor (="Je suis Voldemort"). Yes, his middle name is Elvis!
  • In Dutch, it's "Marten Asmodom Vilijn" as an anagram of "Mijn naam is Voldemort" or "My name is Voldemort". This causes some problems, since Tom Riddle has to have the same first name as Tom the barman.
  • The German version makes it "Tom Vorlost Riddle" "ist Lord Voldemort" - a single sentence.
  • The Norwegian version makes "Tom Dredolo Venster" into "Voldemort Den Store" - "Voldemort the Great.
  • In Sweden he is "Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder" = "Ego Sum Lord Voldemort" Yes, not only were the readers supposed to know what a Philosophers Stone was, they were expected to know Latin. To make it easier, they did add in an As You Know sentence from 'Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder'.
  • The Brazilian version had "Tom Servolo Riddle", as an anagram of "Eis Lord Voldemort" - "Here is/Behold Lord Voldemort". It sounded slightly Italian, but it's as least modified as much as possible, to not spoil the fun too much.
    • The Portuguese version left his name untranslated and used "I am Lord Voldemort" with a translator note saying it meant "Eu sou Lord Voldemort".
      • Which is perfect because despite being translated, the novel's still taking place in an English-speaking country and thus Voldemort has no logical reason to have chosen his name using a different language. Even though "Voldemort" is a Meaningful Name only in French...
  • The Finnish version uses "Tom Lomen Valedro", "Ma olen Voldemort". "Ma" being an archaic form of "I", which was presumably used to avoid having to fit the "Ä" in the more common "minä" into his name.
  • Spanish version uses "Tom Sorvolo Ryddle" as "Soy Lord Voldemort" (Well, the Y had to go somewhere). In the movie, no subtitles are given when the words "Tom Marvolo Riddle" appear onscreen.
  • The Greek version renamed Tom Marvolo Riddle to Anton Morvol Hert (Αντον Μορβολ Χερτ) to give the anagram Αρχων Βολτεμορντ (archaic for Lord Voldemort). FAIL 1: There is no "ω" in Αντον Μορβολ Χερτ. Yep, ο and ω are pronounced the same but they're not the same letter. They changed the name of a major character for an unimportant reason, and yet they failed at it! FAIL 2: From the 3rd book onwards they decided to use Voldemort's real first name (Tom, Τομ) but the kept Χερτ, for no reason at all.
  • The Estonian version used "Tom Marvolon Riddle" to form "Mina Lord Voldemort" (I Lord Voldemort). The extra n was dropped from the name in subsequent books.
  • The Polish, Chinese, and Japanese versions just kept the name the same, and use thed literal "I am Lord Voldemort" just that one time in the Chamber of Secrets. The novel takes place in Great Britain, after all. The Chinese and Japanese versions added a footnote to indicate what the English text actually meant.
  • One Russian version has an interesting take: Tom Narvolo Reddl, resulting in Lord Volan-de-Mort.
  • In another Russian version, "Tom D. Dvolloder Rebus" becomes "Lord sudeb Voldemort" ("sudeb" means "of fates"). A rebus isn't quite an anagram, but bonus points for getting the name of some form of wordplay in...
  • A bootleg translation had the final result being "I am Fodi," which does not at all match his real name.
  • The Hungarian version changed the name to "Tom Rowle Denem", and the anagram is "Nevem Voldemort", which means "My name (is) Voldemort". It only works if one can accept splitting the "w" into two "v"s.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

• In The Hostile Hospital, Klaus and Sunny discover Count Olaf hid Violet Baudelaire as a patient in the titular hospital - under an anagrammed name. Lampshaded in that there are half a dozen other names that coincidentally are almost anagrams of "Violet Baudelaire". Also, going back to The Bad Beginning, the author of the play is Al Funcoot, an anagram for Count Olaf.
• Given the series' emphasis on codes and secrecy, anagrams are frequently used throughout the series in general. A list of most of the significant anagrams used in the series can be found on the Lemony Snicket Wiki.

Other works

• Daniel Pinkwater's Slaves of Spiegel features a literal Cooking Duel between three Identical Strangers who are supposedly the best chefs in the universe. They are named Steve Nickelson, Evest Linkecsno, and Tesev Noskecnil.
• A Face Without a Heart by Rick Reed is a modern day version of The Picture of Dorian Gray; its protagonist is named Gary Adrion, which is an anagram of... Dorian Gray.
• The protagonist of There's a Boy In The Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar reads a book called My Parents Didn't Steal an Elephant by Uriah C. Lasso (an anagram of Louis Sachar).
• In Venus on the Half-Shell by Philip Jose Farmer, many names are anagrams, for example Chworktap = Patchwork, Gviirl = Virgil, Tunc = Cunt, Angavi = Vagina, Utapal = Laputa.
• The Da Vinci Code's main villain is named Sir Leigh Teabing. The pseudo-historical claims The Da Vinci Code is based on were made several years earlier in Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent (Baigent=Teabing)
• Stephen Fry's novel The Stars' Tennis Balls has a plot very similar to The Count of Monte Cristo. The principal character is Ned Maddstone (anagram of Edmond Dantes), who reinvents himself as Simon Cotter (anagram of Monte Cristo), and the figures he takes revenge on include Barson-Garland (Baron Danglars), Gordon Fendeman (Fernand Mondego) and Oliver Delft (de Villefort). (The Count's other victim, Caderousse, gets "translated" as Rufus Cade).
• There's a being called J'osui C'reln Reyr in Michael Moorcock's Elric novels. This name is an anagram of Jerry Cornelius (if you leave out the apostrophes).
• Vladimir Nabokov loved this trope.
  • There's a minor character in Lolita named Vivian Darkbloom (an anagram of Vladimir Nabokov). This is a common occurrence in Nabokov's books, with the surname changing at times to Bloodmark, Calmbrood (the c-k anglicization), and even once a "Mr Vivian Badlook".
  • Lolita also involves a section wherein Humbert chased Lolita across the country and finding that that her mysterious "abductor" continues to taunt him by using obvious pseudonyms in hotel registries, one being Ted Hunter, Cane NH. This is an anagram of Enchanted Hunter, a play that Lolita had once acted in. Her "abductor" is later revealed to be the play's author.
  • Nabokov's "Pale Fire" is written by a man named Kinbote who may or may not be insane. One theory as to his identity is that he is actually Russian professor Eugene Botkin and has invented a completely new persona.
• Edward Gorey frequently makes use of anagrams of his own name in his books, including "Ogdred Weary," "Dogear Wryde", "Regera Dowdy", "D. Awdrey-Gore", "Waredo Dyrge", and "E.G. Deadworry", the last three coming from the same story. During the later years of his life, Gorey in fact drove a white vintage car with Massachusetts license plates saying "OGDRED"; Gorey's last compilation book, Amphigorey Again, features a list of (all?) 31 of Gorey's anagrams and pseudo-anagrams under the heading "In fond collaborative memory".
• The Haruki Murakami novel Dance Dance Dance has a minor character named Hiraku Makimura, who is also an author.
• The titular female vampire of "Carmilla" is also known as Millarca and Mircalla, her original name. Apparently it's vampire tradition to alter your name every "lifetime."
• In Lloyd Alexander's Westmark series, the conman Count Las Bombas's alter egos are near-but-not-quite anagrams of Las Bombas and of each other, including "Dr Absalom" and "Mynheer Bloomsa".
• An odd metatextual example: in Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's The Death Gate Cycle, a crazy, absent-minded wizard named Zifnab appears. He is an obvious Expy of Fizban, a character Weis & Hickman created in their Dragonlance books. Since Wizards of the Coast owns Dragonlance, they were unable to use the character in their own original work. The same character, this time called "Zanfib," shows up again in Weis's Starshield novels.
• In the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, the secret society, The Order, has its members make anagrams of their names. When the three main characters try their former teacher's name, Hester Moore, they get absolutely nothing but gibberish. But when Gemma learns that Miss Moore's middle name is Asa, she makes an anagram for the name Sarah Reese-Toome, who is known to be Circe, the antagonist for the series. Naturally, this leaves Gemma in a state of Heroic BSOD for a couple chapters while she realizes how badly she has screwed up by playing into Circe's Kansas City Shuffle.
• In F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novels, the Big Bad of the series tends to hide behind anagrams for the name "Rasalom"—which is not a name you should speak aloud.
• The central idea behind Norma Schier's "Anagram Detective" stories. Each is a pastiche of a popular mystery series. The pen name of the author and the names of the main characters are anagrams of the names of the real author and the series characters. Places and supporting characters get names that are anagrams of their roles in the story. After the story all anagrams are listed.
• The Christopher Pike young adult mystery novel Last Act features a play written by the murderer solely to set up the murder; the pseudonym she uses as playwright (deliberately, as dramatic flair and a challenge) is an anagram of her name.
• Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island resolves into a number of anagram names.
• In Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, Rosemary hears about a warlock named Steven Marcato. One of her neighbors is named Roman Catevet. The plot thickens...
• The Devil May Cry novel has a green-suited, heavily bandaged mercenary carrying a Katana by the name of "Gilver" (switch the syllables around) show up to be Dante Tony's Rival.
• In Deltora Quest, while Lief and co. gathered the Seven Gems, they're also searching for the hidden heir to the throne, a descendant of Adin. They met Dain during their quest. He's not the real heir, but an Ol 3 intentionally using that name to infiltrate the Resistance.
• Harkat Mulds is an anagram of Kurda Smahlt, the person he used to be in his past life in The Saga of Darren Shan
• The Redwall series features this as a plot point in the first book, with "I am that is." being a recurring line in many of the older writings the main characters discover. ("Am that is" is an anagram of the protagonist's name, Matthias.)
• I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan has Declan Gunn as the owner of the body Lucifer is given during the novel.
• It's been pointed out that Robert Neville, protagonist of I Am Legend, anagrams to "terrible novel".
• Tales of the City has Anna Madrigal: "a man and a girl."
• Gulliver's Travels tells of a country where the "anagrammatic method" is applied to people's letters so they can be accused of spying. This country is "the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langden."
• A hilarious unintentional example: Stephenie Meyer = Preteens Eye Him
• In Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, Sam Yeager uses the alias Regeya to access The Race's computer network. After he is discovered, he switches to Maargyees.
• Captain Eden of the Star Trek: Voyager Relaunch was told by her "uncle" Jobin that she was rescued from the planet Sbonfoyjill. She eventually realized, after trying to locate it in databanks and finding nothing, that sbonfoyjill is an anagram for "Jobin's Folly".
• In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Han Solo spends some time under the fake name "Jenos Idanian". In a later book, Corran Horn assumes the identity while going undercover.
• In the Alex Rider book Snakehead, villain Winston Yu runs a Front Organization called Unwin Toys; someone later points it out as a sign of Yu's egotism.
• Dennis Nedry, the traitorous computer programmer from Jurassic Park, has a name that anagrams to "nerdy sinned."
• Spotting the Big Bad in Harry Turtledove's Videssos stories tends to be easy: although he changes his name from time to time, it's always the same six letters.
• Chaim Rosenzweig goes by the alter ego of Micah in the Left Behind book Desecration, which is really an anagram of Chaim.
• All the names given to "Black Hats" and their collaborators in Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast are anagrams of "Robert Heinlein" or "Virginia Heinlein".

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