Dickens famously chose evocative names like Ebenezer Scrooge, Uriah Heep, and Betsey Trotwood. Each name conveyed character traits, social status, or moral qualities. He sometimes combined humorous sounds with symbolic meaning. This strategy made characters instantly memorable and influenced how readers visualized them. Victorian audiences loved deciphering name meanings, enjoying the interplay of wordplay, humor, and morality. Dickens’ obsession with names reflected linguistic creativity and insight into social psychology. It also highlighted the importance of branding characters for serialized readership. Naming became a signature of his literary style, ensuring characters endured culturally.
Name choices enhanced characterization and reader engagement, adding depth beyond plot and dialogue.
Shows how language and creativity intersect, influencing character perception and cultural memory over centuries.
Did you know Dickens spent hours testing the phonetic appeal of character names aloud before finalizing them?
[Cambridge University Press, cambridge.org]