(Loved Trope) Aptronyms

[u/dream_monkey]

Aptronyms are characters whose name is heavily symbolic or represent them as a character. Sometimes it is a subtle play on words, sometimes it’s just a clunky transliteration. Either way, it can help characterize a character and provide more allegorical depth. Authors must be careful not to delve into the realm of cliche, though.

1. Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter series) His name means Evil Dragon, and he tries really hard to live up to his name.

[Many commenters have pointed out that Darth Vader is not a true aptronym. I stand corrected .]

1. Darth Vader (Star Wars series) His name means Dark Father, which cleverly conceals one of the biggest reveals in cinema history.

2. Cthulhu (Lovecraft mythos) Cthulhu may just sound like a nonsense syllable, unpronounceable by a human mouth. The name is derived from the word “cthonic” which means a being that lives under the earth or in the underworld, so an ancient and terrible god that lies dreaming in death at the bottom of the ocean would definitely fit the description.

[u/SaltManagement42]

Obligatory argument that a Chinese person dealing with having a stereotypical name, and being the only Chinese kid in the school in the 90's was the most realistic thing to happen in the series.

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/ryeord/harry_potter_character_cho_chang/

[u/Strange_Potential93 → u/SaltManagement42]

Cho is a Korean given name and Chang is a Chinese surname Joanna couldn’t even bother to do anything but pluck stereotypical East Asian names out of the either and mash them together without regards to different languages and cultures, which isn’t surprising for the woman who gave all of Asia, Africa, and South America one wizard school each and gave Europe 3.

[u/_BREVC_ → u/Strange_Potential93]

To be fair to Rowling, her cultural ineptitude did extend to European peoples as well. The fictional Slavic wizarding school she sets somewhere in the Arctic circle (read: Russia - that can only be in Russia, geographically) is represented by a Bulgarian (these people are door-to-door neighbours of Greeks) named Viktor Krum. Viktor is a fairly normal name, and Krum is… also a male first name.

[u/Strange_Potential93 → u/_BREVC_]

Oh for sure she is overall a lazy and inept world builder probably because of her massive disinterest in any one not like her, this holds for anyone not Western European, to fat people, to gay people, to poor people (even though she herself was poor she has demonstrated no understanding of structural poverty) and most famously trans people

[u/santaclaws01 → u/Strange_Potential93]

She's just a bad would builder. The time turner was introduced one book, ignored the next, and then all conveniently in a drawer to be destroyed in the next book so that people would stop asking about them and why they weren't being used. 

[u/Strange_Potential93 → u/santaclaws01]

She’s more than just a bad world builder but she is also that