Archetypal name

Archetypal names are proper names of real, mythological, or fictional characters that have become designations for archetypes of certain personal traits.^[1]

Archetypal names are a literary device used to allude to a 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 unclear whether the reader is hinted of the biblical or Abraham Lincoln, and only the context provides the proper understanding.^[1]

Archetypal names for persons

• Bruce, a male hairdresser or interior designer^[2]
• Nanook, an Eskimo^[3]
• Tex, a cowboy^[2]
• Hanako, an archetypal Japanese name for girls.^[4]
• Jeeves, an archetypal name for a butler.^{[citation needed]}

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.

• Irishmen: Paddy, from Saint Patrick, the patron of Ireland^[1]

See also

• Stock character
• Placeholder name
• Eponym
• Category:National personifications
• List of eponyms

References