A
charactonym is the term for the naming of fictional characters to suggest distinctive traits they possess even before you get to be acquainted with them. If you can remember characters – from books or films or even songs — do leave their name here, along with a line about the character, and how
name and the character’s quality connect. Here’s 10 names we dug up to give you a push to add more in this #Names-Have-Qualities list:
1. Robin Hood
AgenciesRobin Hood, the English folk hero-outlaw, first found mentioned in William Langland’s Middle English poem Piers Plowman (c. 1370) ‘stole from the rich and gave to the poor.’ His name refers to his ‘
hod’ or hood, which protected his identity while
robbing, the same way a ‘hoodie’ today is perceived in many precincts with criminal behaviour.
2. Cuthbert Calculus
AgenciesCuthbert Calculus (original French name Tryphon Tournesol), ‘Calculus’ suggesting
mathematical complexity and
other-worldliness, describing Hergé’s ‘mad’ scientist’s absent-mindedness, first encountered in the 1943 Tintin adventure, Red Rakham’s Treasure
3. Dracula
AgenciesDracula, in Romanian, ‘dracul’ means the
devil, derived from the Latin ‘draco’ meaning
dragon. Dracula meaning the ‘son of dracul’. Bram Stoker used this name in his 1897 novel to conjure up a devilish beast-like entity based on Vlad Tepes, the 15
th century ruler of Wallachia (in today’s Romania) who was a member of the Christian order of the dragon against the invading Turks.
4. Professor Hijibijbij
AgenciesProfessor Hijibijbij, the Bengali word ‘hijibiji’ meaning
scribbles or
undecipherable scrawls, the character in the same-named 1979 story by Satyajit Ray about a ‘mad’ plastic surgeon whose name is given in the story (from a mutant-hybrid character in a poem by Sukumar Ray, Satyajit’s father) to suggest his sinister experiments to create hybrid creatures
‘scribbled’ from various animal parts.
5. Cacofonix
AgenciesCacofonix, (original French Asurancetourix) among many of Goscinny and Uderzo’s characters with names that instantly portray their chief quality, the
cacophonous bard first encountered in Asterix the Gaul (1959) is the most obvious. Others like the chief Vitalstatistix’s wife Impedimenta (‘impediment’ to all her husband’s actions), the druid Getafix (with his ‘drugs-making’ talent), the village eldest Geriatrix (wizened geriatric, that he is) are also obviously named.
6. Malvolio
AgenciesMalvolio, meaning ‘
ill will’ in Italian, the pompous, authoritarian and
malevolent character in William Shakespeare’s c. 1602 play Twelfth Night.
7. Bahadur
AgenciesBahadur, meaning ‘
brave’ in Hindi (and other Indian non-English languages), this comic book hero who first appeared in 1976 took on dacoits at a time when the Chambal Valley in the borderlands of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh was terrorised by these bandits.
8. Voldemort
AgenciesVoldemort, from the French ‘voler de mort’ (
flying from death), the
vengeful avatar of the more well-established figure of the scythe-wielding
Death, is the main antagonist in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels (1997-2007).
9. Goopy Gayne
AgenciesGoopy Gayne, the name suggesting ‘gaan’,
song in Bengali, a character from Upendrakishore Raychowdhury’s 1903 children’s story Goopy Gayne, Bagha Byne, who
sings terribly. He was depicted in Upendrakishore’s grandson Satyajit Ray’s films, Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne (1969) and Hirok Rajar Deshe (1980)
10. Holly Golightly
AgenciesHolly Golightly, Holiday Golightly, her full name perfectly describing who she is and how she lives:
lightly, as if life was one big
holiday, main character of Truman Capote’s 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, made into the 1961 film by Blake Edwards with Audrey Hepburn bringing the simple country girl turned New York society girl to life.
We leave you with a visual clue of another character whose name says everything about him. You know him?
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