Archetypal name
An archetypal name is a proper name of a real person or mythological or fictional character that has become a designation for an archetype of a certain personal trait.[1] It is a form of antonomasia.
Archetypal names are a literary device used to allude to certain traits of a character or a plot.[1]
Literary critic Egil Törnqvist mentions possible risks in choosing certain names for literary characters. For example, if a person is named Abraham, it is uncertain whether the reader will be hinted of the biblical figure or Abraham Lincoln, and only the context provides the proper understanding.[1]
Archetypal names for persons
Archetypal names for groups
A name may also be an identifier of a social group, an ethnicity, nationality, or geographical locality.[1]
Some of the names below may also be used as ethnic slurs.
- Karen, mainly used in the US for a white woman who wields her white privilege to get her way
- Paddy, for an Irishman: from Saint Patrick, the patron of Ireland[1]
Archetypal names for traits
Real persons
- Genius: Einstein
- Lover, womanizer: Casanova
- Manipulator: Machiavelli
- Traitor: Benedict Arnold
- Wartime collaborator, traitor: Quisling
Fictional or biblical characters
See also
- Stock character
- Placeholder name
- Eponym
- Category:National personifications
- List of eponyms
References
- Egil Törnqvist (2004) "Eugene O'Neill: A Playwright's Theatre", ISBN 0-7864-1713-7, Chapter 8: "Personal Names and Words of Address"
- "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". arf.ru. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
- Handy, B.; Swaeny, G. (2003-08-18), The Summer of Bruce, Time Magazine, retrieved 2008-03-10
- Takeda Hiroko (2004) "The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan", ISBN 0-415-32190-5
- Ehrlich, Eugene (2014-01-28), What's in a Name?: How Proper Names Became Everyday Words, Henry Holt, retrieved 2020-08-04