What the #$%!
Charles John Huffman Dickens (1812-1870), as any literate speaker of the Queen’s English knows, was one of the greatest writers in the history of Western Civilization. No, his name was not funny, and not even eponymous. The origin of the term dickens as a mild oath or euphemism apparently dates to more than two centuries before his birth. But what the illustrious Mr. Dickens was, and to this day remains, is the godfather of funny names in fiction. His most famous character is the archetypal funny-named character, Ebeneezer Scrooge, who most certainly is eponymous. Dicitionary.com defines a scrooge as a skinflint or miserly curmudgeon. And while the use of the word generically to describe any Scrooge-like individual does not appear to have emerged until the late 1930’s, it clearly developed from Scrooge and A Christmas Carol.
But Scrooge is just the start. The list of funny names in Dickens’ oeuvre almost defies quantification. Dickens created hundreds of characters, dozens of which could easily qualify to be enshrined herein. The following are just a few of my favorites, gleaned from a list of over 70 wacky monikers.
Polly Toodle–a minor character, in a minor work (Dombey and Son), with a major funny name.
Wackford Squeers–the cruel, one-eyed schoolmaster of Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickelby. I actually think Dickens missed the boat on this one as this would make a great name for a small town mayor or lawyer.
Inspector Bucket–the detective who solved the mystery in Bleak House, he predated Sherlock Holmes by some 30 years. You also have to think this name may have been the inspiration for the modern day Inspector Gadget. After all, a bucket was probably seen as a gadget in the low-tech world of 1850’s England.
Neville and Helena Landless–twin orphans from Ceylon in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. You don’t suppose J.K. Rowling was influenced by Dickens, do you? These names sound as if they could have come straight out of a Harry Potter book.
Serjeant Buzfuz–a lawyer in The Pickwick Papers. An English band adopted this as their name. I guess Sergeant Pepper was already taken.
Anne Chickenstalker–a shopkeeper in The Chimes: A Goblin Story. This was the second of Dickens’ five short Christmas novels, being published between a Christmas Carol and A Cricket on the Hearth. Your poultry should be very afraid.
No! Not that Tiny Tim!
Tiny Tim Cratchit–the second most famous character, after Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol. I had to include him, if only to be able to use the picture and caption to the left.
Canon Septimus Crisparkle–The right reverend Crisparkle was a mentor to Neville Landless in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Could Dickens pile funny names on top of funny names, or what?
It would clearly take a short novel-lengthed document just to summarize all the funny names in Dickens works. Mr. m’Choakumchild…Mr. Pumblechook…Gaffer Hexam…Abel Magwitch…Prince Turveydrop…Simon Tapertit…Samuel Slumkey…Smike…Rogue Riderhood…Barneby Rudge…I couldn’t possibly list them all here.
So tell us. Who are your favorites and why?
Follow my own personal brand of silliness on my blog or on Twitter @MarkSackler
he obviously had a great sense of humor. my favorite is anne chickenstalker. nice post )
Thank you! Dickens had enough funny names, well, to devote an entire blog to them!
Was just gonna say, Anne Chickenstalker for the win! Maybe it’s so funny cause it’s plausible.
Reblogged this on The Millennium Conjectures™ and commented:
My monthly guest post on The Blog of Funny Names….
I would say he had a “keen sense of humor”. I love A Christmas Carol. Ebeneezer Scrooge is probably the most famous of his characters.
He certainly had a way with names, didn’t he?
Reblogged this on aamartyris.
Loved the Tiny Tim picture. But I have to admit it gave me flash backs. 🙂
Not as much as it gives me. I remember hearing Tiptoe Through the Tulips on the radio everyday, back in the day. Wow I’m old.
Mark–I feel for you. As I was only a “wee sprout” when that played on the radio every day my tolerance for repetition was much higher then. 🙂
I was a senior in high school. I think radio had only just been invented. 😉
LOL. Only The Shadow knows…
Loved this, Mark. So well-written! Anything that has words such as eponymous, oeuvre, quantification, enshrined, and miserly curmudgeon is tops in my book. Had never given thought to the wacky names in Dickens’ work. Excellent research for sure.
Wanted to put in my tiny claim to fame that sort of relates to your post: My aunt once (only briefly) dated Tiny Tim. How weird is that. Was looking it up to see when that might have been (outside of his marriages, I’d hope) and see that his real name is also funny name fodder: Herbert Khaury. AND he died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, so we shared the same space for a while. Crazy world.
Her name wasn’t Miss Vicki, was it? 😀
nope
Nice work, Mark! Those are all amazing names.
I also liked your little zinger at 1850’s England : “After all, a bucket was probably seen as a gadget in the low-tech world of 1850′s England.”. Haha, for some reason I found that quite amusing.
Well then, off to change my name to Wackford.
Thanks, Arto…er…Wackford!
Don’t thank me, thank Mr. Dickens. 😉
lol. “No! Not that Tiny Tim!”
polly toodle.. lord I love you guys.
One of my favorites is J. Alfred Prufrock. OH, NO! That’s T. S. Eliot.
My bad.
A friend and I made up funny names for ourselves in high school. I was Myrtle Albertina Snodgrass.
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Came to this late, but from Little Dorrit., among many others, my absolute favourite —
Mister Tite Barnacle. Seriously LOL.
I *adore* Dickens! Thanks for the post 🙂
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