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. It is a form of antonomasia.
Archetypal names are a literary device used to allude to certain traits of a character or a plot.
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.
Examples
Persons
- Nanook, a Native Alaskan
- Tex, a cowboy
- Hanako, an archetypal Japanese name for girls.
Groups
A name may also be an identifier of a social group, an ethnicity, nationality, or geographical locality.Some of the names below may also be used as ethnic slurs.
- Chad, a young, confident, masculine man that makes a strong positive impression with his assertiveness
- Karen, mainly used in the US for an entitled and demanding white woman
- Paddy, for an Irishman: from Saint Patrick, the patron of Ireland
Animals
In French, the Latin-derived word for the fox was replaced by, from Renart, the fox hero of the Roman de Renart.Traits
Real persons
- Genius: Einstein
- Polymath: da Vinci
- Womanizer: Casanova
- Traitor: Benedict Arnold, Quisling
- Betrayer: Brutus, Judas