I’m looking for characters whose last names are somehow descriptive of the character in person. It might be alluding to the character’s profession or a significant personality trait. For example, a butcher might actually be called Butcher, or a sad girl might be called miss Blue. A good example of this is in the Seinfeld episode “the Library”, where Seinfeld has problems with a librarian called mr Bookman.
Han Solo? Luke Skywalker?
Well, there was Greg Pratt from ER. I liked him, but a lot of people didn’t.
Please read some Dickens and take copious notes of character’s names and traits. This is an open book test, but keep close watch on the time.
The main character of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash is Hiro Protagonist.
Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse 5…
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
In The Cradle Will Rock had Larry Foreman (a Union rep), Mr. Mister (the boss), Harry Druggist, (college) President Prexy, Editor Daily, Dr. Specialist, Rev. Salvation, Harry Druggist, and Prof. Trixie (a tricky guy).
Emma Peel in The Avengers was given her name because the producers wanted a character to appeal to men. Someone wrote down “M. Appeal”; someone else said it out loud and the name was born.
In the Star Trek episode All Our Yesterdays the librarian is named Mr. Atoz, the significance of which escaped me for several years, until I realized that it was “Mr. A to Z”
A mentioned here, in the novel I’m working on the protagonist is someone who learned that she can go into the afterlife (and bring people back). Her name is Caitlin Cross.
Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce from MASH*. (Pierce = surgeon)
Major Major Major Major from Catch-22.
Some of the characters in the film Hot Fuzz fit the bill. Most are classic English profession surnames, but some relate to their job as a resident or their role in the film. Nick Angel is a goody-goody cop, Tim Messenger is a reporter and the person who first tells Angel that he knows about suspicious goings-on, the Porters own the pub, Tiller runs the flower shop, Armstrong is a big tough guy.
I wouldn’t have figured we’d get past three responses before Porkins came up.
And, also from Catch-22, there’s Scheisskopf, of course.
In the myth of Perseus and Medusa, many of the names are surprisingly descriptive.
Danae (Perseus’ mother) means “woman of the Danaans” – Danaans being one of the groups of the Greeks
Diktys, the fisherman who pulled Perseus and Danae from the ocean, means “net” (In the recent movie, they changed it to “Spyros”, for no good reason)
Polydektes, the king of Seriphos, means “Many Nets”
and Perseus himself has a name that, it has been argued, means “cutter” (and he, of course, cut off Medusa’s head with his harpe sword).
Bellerophon, from a related myth, has the straightforward interpretation “killer of Belleros” – except that nobody knows about any Belleros. One argument is that it’s a distorted version of a name that means “dart thrower”, which would make sense, as he attacks the Chimaera by throwing darts at it.
There’s a few names from Firefly that aren’t exactly “descriptive” per se, so much as they seem to fit the character uncannily well in a way that’s difficult to explain.
“Mal… means bad.”
“Jayne is a girl’s name.”
“Well, Jayne ain’t a girl!”
“I’m called Book.”
When I was waiting to see a show at the Sanders theater at Harvard University, I looked over the memorial plaques lining the walls. One was for a Benjamin Franklin Pierce. I was amazed.
Richard Hooker (real name H. Richard Hornberger) apparently didn;'t attend Harvard, so the name might just be a coincidence. Or maybe he was waiting for a show at the Sanders, too, one time.