The main character of Erfworld is Parson A. Gotti.
Saul Goodman.
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
A counter-example, Arthur Conan-Doyle deliberately avoideddoing this.
“What should I call the fellow? I still possess the leaf of a notebook with various alternative names. One rebelled against the elementary art which gives some inkling of character in the name, and creates Mr. Sharps or Mr. Ferrets. First it was Sherringford Holmes then it was Sherlock Holmes”
Which reminds me of Michael York’s character’s name in Austin Powers:
Basil Exposition
The School for Scandal is the same way. Among the character names are:
[ul] Lady Sneerwell
Sir Peter and Lady Teazle
Sir Benjamin Backbite
Careless
Crabtree
Mrs Candour[/ul]
I never saw the film “Red Dragon” (or “Manhunter”, the first film version of the book), but I did read the novel in 1984 (during a WestPac), and I rather vividly recall that he was known as “Hannibal the Cannibal” among the staff of the institution to which he was confined.
False memory on my part? I’m certainly not inclined to re-read the book; that’s for sure.
From Lord of the Rings, there’s Grima Wormtongue. With a name like that, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be evil.
In the Matrix series, Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) has a name indicative of his status as a Christ figure in the pseudo-Gnosticism that forms the background of the movie’s universe. Thomas means ‘twin’ in Greek, and Thomas the apostle in Gnostic tradition was the twin of Jesus. Since Anders is derived ultimately from the Greek for a male person, ‘Anderson’ can be construed as ‘Son of Man’, a name Jesus used of himself. (Although it should be noted that in the Bible, the ‘Man’ in ‘Son of Man’ refers to mankind.)
Just about every other name in the movies has meaning as well. Even the merely descriptive name ‘The Architect’ evokes another figure in Gnosticism, the Archon.
In the Old Underdog series the evil villain was Simon Barsinister …
Not just the sinister part which is appropriate , but Barsinister.
bar′ sin′ister
n.
- a putative heraldic charge presumed to indicate illegitimate birth.
He was a real Bastard !
Raquel Welch played one of the leads in Mother, Jugs, and Speed.
Guess.
Basil Fawlty? :dubious:
Honey Ryder, Pussy Galore, Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob, Mr. Big, Solitaire, Holly Goodhead, Xenia Onatopp, and Mr. Kil.
Lucas has Luke S. befriend Solo – kind of a loner, kills greedy Greedo – and confront Darth Vader, who sounds like Dark and Death and Invader and Father.
Freud woulda hadda field day.
Another one, which is probably just *my *interpretation; The Talented Mr. Ripley. He was very much a character whom you could believe or not.
I’m going with Oddjob and Pussy Galore (pretty self-explanatory), with two runners-up: Dudley Dooright, the rather thick Canadian Mountie, evil-foiling hero; and his arch-enemy Snidely Whiplash–IMO the best villain name EVER.
In the town where I grew up, there was a doctor whose last name was Sickman, and a lawyer whose last name was Case.
Yes, but he changed his name because all his clients wanted a Jew, not an Irishman.
A lot of Tolkien’s character names, especially those of the Hobbits and Rohirrim, are descriptive, but because they come from Middle English or whatever, you wouldn’t necessarily know it. For example, Samwise Gamgee’s first name basically means “halfwit”, and Eomer (a name taken from Beowulf) means “horse-famous”.
Fantasy is probably one genre in which descriptive names are common. A genre in which they sometimes seem almost mandatory is comics/cartoons (Popeye, Dick Tracy, Boris Badenov, Wile E. Coyote, etc. etc.). This is probably also true of children’s books… although Dr. Dolittle would seem to be an example of a name chosen to be opposite to the character.
Well, it’s not as if her character’s name was Susan Jugs or Lisa Jugs! Her real first name was Jennifer, but her last name was never revealed.
Bill Cosby was “Mother,” and his last name was Tucker (Mother Tucker! Get it?). We never learn his real first name.
Speed (Harvey Keitel) was really named Tony Malatesta.
Someone already brought up Remus Lupin in Harry Potter, but what about Sirius Black?
When he decided to become an Animagus, did he pick the black dog form because of his name, or was it just a huge coincidence?
Also, Wesley Mouch in Atlas Shrugged. There are a lot of other similar names in Rand’s novels, but that one’s probably the most apropos for this topic.