# Characters in novels with ridiculous names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2009, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088 "2009-12-13T07:44:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![President\_Johnny\_Gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@President\_Johnny\_Gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/President_Johnny_Gentle)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/81 "2011-03-14T21:18:39Z")
Jasper Fforde is terrible with these. His major series has “Thursday Next” as the recurring protagonist. Thursday’s husband is named “Landen Parke-Laine”, being a pun on the British version of Monopoly. She is stalked by “Millon de Floss” and confronts frequent antagonists “Jack Schitt” and his half-brother “Brik Schitt-Hawse”. His other books are no better. His “Shades of Grey” series features a world in which social standing is determined by what colors you can see. Character’s last names are related to the colors seeable by that character. The lowest social class are the Greys. Fforde seems to have a lot of fun with the first names of these, such as “Jane” and “Dorian”. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/82 "2011-03-15T01:21:38Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Somewhere, I can imagine **Trihs Der** either rolling up shirtsleeves to beat you bloody, or cowering in a corner, crying. > > [Note: I have had practically ZERO interaction with **Trihs Der** , and will not speak to their state of mind and/or actions. Very wise of you. **Trihs Der** is my evil twin, and very dangerous! And goateed. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/83 "2011-03-15T01:53:50Z")
Well, of course **Trihs Der** is evil. He’s goateed. Other than that, apologies for fucking up your name, and, by extension, the funniest joke ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/84 "2011-03-15T11:21:32Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > I hardly notice it now, but Hieronymous Bosch is a pretty ridiculous name for a cop (Michael Connelly’s series character). Yet it makes perfect sense, given that many people with famous lastnames give their children firstnames associated with the lastname. Jiménez is one of the most common Spanish names - the amount of males by that lastname whose firstname is Juan Ramón after one of our most famous 20th-century poets is just absurd. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/85 "2011-03-15T11:44:12Z")
> [@](#): > > I can remember the day I gave up reading Dick Tracy. “Roloc Bard? What kind of stupid name is Roloc Bard? Oh, it’s “Drab Color” backwards. Wait… what? Fuck this.” I don’t know why that pushed me over the edge, but I think it must have followed a series of inane strips. Gould did this a _LOT_ in **Dick Tracy** , and he was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. One strip had a patriotic character named, naturally, Mr. Toirtap. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/86 "2011-03-15T13:24:43Z")
OK, it’s not a novel so much as a folktale but… Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/87 "2011-03-15T13:26:02Z")
> [@davey77](#): > > Have to nominate P.G. Wodehouse And then there’s the characters in his novels 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/88 "2011-03-16T00:32:24Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > I’ve had two students called Brie. Neither of their parents seemed - how can I put this politely - like the reading type, so I doubt they were named for the book. Or the cheese, for that matter; the parents didn’t seem like the Brie-eating type either. As mentioned upthread, sometimes real people have odd names. Bree is a pretty common girl’s nickname, (for Brianna, usually) and a time honored means of coming up with an RPG character’s name is to take a real name, switch the vowel and/or add some silent letters. On fantasy, JK Rowling loves cutesy names. A few of them manage to achieve cool name level, (the clear winner being Hermione Granger) most range from odd to silly. You’re expecting me to believe a guy named Cornelius Fudge actually managed to get people to vote for him? Of course, given the number of people with prophetic names, (you named your kid Remus Lupin, and were \*\*surprised \*\*when he got turned into a werewolf?) the other guy was probably named something like Doomedbylow Voterturnout. Ed McBain’s 87th precinct had a cop named Meyer Meyer. It did not make his life easier. A side effect of pop-culture explosion is that more and more common names are taken by established characters. So writers in fringe media, like webcomics and small computer games, are forced to find odder and odder names if they want people to remember who’s who. – Wait. Did I just **defend R.A. Salvatore?** I think that means I officially took a level in Warlock . . . Crap. I don’t have the charisma to pull that off. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/89 "2011-03-16T01:16:58Z")
In Jonathan Lethem’s very weird near-future detective story _Gun, With Occasional Music_, there’s a character named (for no discernible reason) Catherine Teleprompter. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/90 "2011-03-16T05:26:04Z")
Burnfingers Begay in Alan Dean Foster’s _To The Vanishing Point_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/91 "2011-03-16T07:54:20Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Mystery Men is a super-hero comedy…if half the characters didn’t have ridiculous names, it wouldn’t be on-theme. > > (‘Serious’ real names for supervillains include Roy G Bivlo (the Rainbow Raider), Johnny Onn (the Spot), Edward Nygma (the Riddler - latter retconned to Nashton, but I refuse to accept that), Mitchell Mayo (the Condiment King)…) When the seemingly sympathetic character Oberon Sexton first showed up in the Batman comics, one blogger noted that, if he were Batman, he would punch that guy out immediately, because there’s no way someone with a name like that doesn’t turn out to be a villain. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/92 "2011-03-16T09:11:51Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > My favorite from Pratchett is “Adora Belle Dearheart”, especially since she’s a cigarette-smoking, crossbow-carrying, tough chick. Mine is Legitimate “Leggy” First. “You can’t blame a mother for being proud”. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/93 "2011-03-16T12:19:55Z")
Lemony Snicket’s characters often have names that are winking literary references. For example, there’s a couple named Jerome and Esme Squalor (Salinger fans will get the joke). One fantasy author with a tin ear for names is E. R. Eddison, whose _The Worm Ouroboros_ includes characters named “Goldry Bluszco” and “Lord Juss”—who hail from places like “Demonland,” “Witchland,” and “Pixyland.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/94 "2011-03-16T13:23:56Z")
More ridiculous names than you can shake a stick at: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/95 "2011-03-16T13:49:04Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Mitchell Mayo (the Condiment King)…) That reminds me. My nomination is General Deftinwolf Mayo from the Coheed and Cambria universe (which does have a novel about it so it technically fits the thread.) I mean, Mayo isn’t a horrible surname. But when you have Claudio Sanchez singing _very earnestly_ “I need Mayo!!!” it sounds pretty ridiculous. ETA: come to think about it, Newo Ikkin is a pretty ridiculous name, too since it’s obviously Nikki Owen backwards. But that can be explained by the source of the world which is that the world that Coheed and Cambria are singing about is a figment of a man from the “real world’s” imagination, who broke up with someone called Nikki Owen and is making up a fantasy world to deal with the breakup. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/96 "2011-03-16T14:27:45Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > True, but in the novel it’s supposed to be a pen name. And most of the other names (except Lolita’s first name) are supposed to have been changed by the doctor who edits Humbert’s posthumous manuscript. He’s protecting the privacy of the fictional characters. 😉 > > The most ridiculous character name I can think of from _Illuminatus!_ is Markoff Chaney, but I’m probably forgetting some minor characters with odder names. Hagbard Celine comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/97 "2011-03-16T15:54:20Z")
P.N. Elrod wrote two novels (and a short story) set in the D&D world of _Ravenloft_. (_I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire_, _I, Strahd II: The War with Azalin_, and “Caretaker” from _Tales of Ravenloft_.) As an established author, she started to chafe under the heavy-handed editing and hand-holding from TSR’s fiction branch, and toward the end of the second book, she slipped in some silly names as a sort of revenge. They went unnoticed by the editors and now Ravenloft officially includes characters named “Yersinia Wachter” (Yersinia pestis is the bacteria that causes the Plague) and “Tew Yssup” (look at it carefully). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/98 "2011-03-16T16:48:56Z")
> [@unwashed\_brain](#): > > Hagbard Celine comes to mind. Also Special Agent Fission Chips and Sasparilla Godzilla. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/99 "2011-03-16T16:52:28Z")
Halrloprillalar from Niven’s _Ringworld_ wins for me. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088/100 "2011-03-16T17:00:11Z")
Samwise Gamgee’s actual name was Banazir Galbasi. His dad Hamfast’s first name was actually Ranagud. Frodo and Bilbo were actually Froda and Bilba. How’s that for making up weird names and them making them weirder? Leave it to that cunning linguist, JRRT! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-in-novels-with-ridiculous-names/521088.md?page=6)