Stay in character with Charactonym

Charactonym is a name that is descriptive of the character who bears it

Roopa Banerjee

Have you observed that some characters in books, TV shows and films bear names that depict and/or describe their personalities? For instance Ebenezer Scrooge, the mean miser, in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. The name Scrooge gives readers clear indication of him being a miser even before Dickens elaborates on this character trait. This literary device where a character’s name suggests a distinctive personal trait is known as charactonym.

One of the most apt examples of this literary device is Mistress Nell Quickly, a fictional character featured in several plays by William Shakespeare. She is an innkeeper, who runs the Boar’s Head Tavern, at which Sir John Falstaff and his layabout accomplices meet. Another interesting charactonym is Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Sir Toby’s surname, Belch, indicates his love of food and drink and hearty living, as also his raucous temperament.

The word charactonym is formed by combining character with onym, derived from the Greek onuma, meaning a name or word. Thus, charactonym is the name given to a character.

Not just plays, fairy tales also abound in charactonyms. For instance, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. In contemporary literature for children, the best example is J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series where there are many charactonyms.

The character Draco Malfoy conjures up an image of a dark personality as ‘draco’ suggests dragon and the prefix ‘mal’ — evil or bad. Similarly, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are excellent examples of charactonyms. Sirius is the name of a dog constellation while Remus is one of the twin founders of Rome, said to be raised by a wolf. Lupin is very similar to the word lupine, an adjective which means of or relating to wolf. Also, the Latin name for wolf is canis lupus. Thus, the names of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin actually mean Black Dog and Wolf Wolf. Similarly, Severus Snape — the Latin word severus means strict and Snape evokes mental image of a snake.

Richard Sheridan’s famous play The Rivals features a character named Miss Malaprop who uses incorrect words in place of words with similar sound, resulting in nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterances. Another famous character is Alfred Doolittle from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. He never had a job and actually did very little. Classic use of charactonym.

A unique feature of charactonyms is that they are very specific to the language in which the story is written. Hence, they pose great challenge to translators. Not just literature, people in the real world also have names that match the work they do. Like Lance Bass who became a bass singer for the American pop band NSYNC and Usain Bolt who is a world-famous sprinter. Their examples would also qualify as atronyms, a literary form which deserves a separate story!

Exercise

Here are some charactonym origins of famous characters.

Identify the books from which these charactonyms have been taken:

1. Xenophilius Lovegood. The name Xenophilius comes from the Greek xeno meaning foreign/strange, and phil meaning love of. From this charactonym, we can deduce that Xenophilius is drawn to all manner of strange and unusual people and objects.
Mercutio. The name is derived from the adjective mercurial.
Albus Dumbledore. Albus means white in Latin, Dumbledore is the medieval English word for bumblebee. The colour white connotes wisdom and goodness, and bumblebees likeability.
Thomas Gradgrind. He subjects his students to a grinding discipline of facts which he enjoys.

Answers: