The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection
The importance of Names.
Serack:
This is some really well put together information!!! I think I used to be close to this articulate in highschool but the Army made me dumberer.
--- Quote from: Thessaly on June 05, 2012, 03:29:19 AM ---Dresden, Harry: The name Harry is of Old German origin, and the meaning of Harry is "home ruler." Family surname footnote: Dresden is the name of the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. Possibly irrelevant, the word Dresden means "people of the riverside forest."
--- End quote ---
If you haven't seen it before, here is Jim's explanation of how he came up with the name Harry Dresden (well parts of it, there are other outtakes from interviews that talk about mashing together his middle names into the mix based off of other magicians)
--- Quote from: WoJ from 2011 Marscon ---How Jim came up with the name "Harry Dresden"
Harry Dresden, the name itself, I had just watched a videotape of one of my favorite movies at the time, which was Cast a Deadly Spell, and the tape would stop, and I would rewind it and try to play past it and it wouldn’t go past, but at this part in that movie where the main character, Fred Ward’s character, H. Philip Lovecraft shows up at the gangster bar, and the gangster’s henchman comes walking up to him and says, ‘(sneering voice) Harry wants to see you.’ And Fred Ward goes, ‘Oh. Harry wants to see me.’ ‘Harry wants to see you now.’ And what I got to hear about six times as I tried to fast forward past the stuck part of the tape was ‘Harry wants to see me. Harry wants to see me. Harry wants to see’ like that. And then I said, ‘Okay, the heck with that, I’m going to try and find something on normal television, which I hate, because there’s commercials. And, so I’m skipping through channels, it’s like eleven thirty on a Friday night in Kansas City, and I actually find a channel that’s showing reruns of Babylon 5. So it’s like, ‘Okay, acceptable.’ And I’m watching the episode of Amazon 5 (sic), with this ‘Harry wants to see…’ stuck in my head, and then Box Lightner (sp?) is on there playing his character with (deep voice) the gravelly Box Lightner voice, and he’s there talking about various military attacks that have happened throughout history, and one of the attacks that he mentions is (deep voice) 'Dresden'. ‘Harry wants to’ Dresden, it’s just stuck in my head. ‘Harry wants’ Dresden, okay fine, Harry Dresden, character name, get out of my head. And that’s where the name came from.
--- End quote ---
Edit:
--- Quote from: Thessaly on June 05, 2012, 03:47:11 AM ---Reserved for places & things. (Uncertain of how large a post's digit count is, so better safe than sorry.)
--- End quote ---
The post character limit is 20k including code. Usually when I paste the text into word, the character count that can be blocked is closer to 19.7kish (Yes I have hit this cap many times with my own reference posts)
dimpwnc:
I don't know if these are too tenuous, but here goes:
Rawlins, Henry: last name possibly an homage to "Easy Rawlins", an African-American noir detective by Walter Mosley ("Devil in a Blue Dress" is the first in the series).
McCoy, Ebenezar: possibly a reference to the expression, "The real McCoy", which means "the genuine article." (JB is aware of the expression, as Harry has used it a few times). First name: Hebrew, "Stone of Help."
Elaine Mallory: Last name possibly a reference to Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte d'Arthur. First name is greek for "brightness"; could also be a reference to one of the many Elaines in the Arthurian legend. One potential choice is Malory's Elaine who acted as bearer of the Holy Grail. IIRC, this is the same Elaine who tricks Lancelot into sleeping with her, trapping him in the role of her lover.
Raith, Lara: --edit, sorry, I didn't see you already had this one, but it's a different potential reference than the one above--Lara might be a reference to Lara of the novel Dr. Zhivago. The Lara in that story is a quintessential femme fatale who uses her sexuality to seduce and control the men around her. She also has a tempestuous relationship with her mother's lover (at one point she tries to shoot him); she starts out somewhat in his thrall, but ends up manipulating him. (Sound familiar?)
KevinSig:
Not much to add, but I recall mention that somebody found out that Fitz (maybe Fitzgerald) meant bastard. Which led to the speculation that he might be McFinn Jr. Of course, I think Jim put something of a kabosh on this speculation, in that he hasn't got any long term plans for Fitz's character.
Serack:
--- Quote from: dimpwnc on June 05, 2012, 10:53:23 AM ---McCoy, Ebenezar: possibly a reference to the expression, "The real McCoy", which means "the genuine article." (JB is aware of the expression, as Harry has used it a few times). First name: Hebrew, "Stone of Help."
--- End quote ---
Here is a great analysis on the name McCoy by Elegast found here
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,30581.msg1297607.html#msg1297607
--- Quote from: Elegast ---Amusing coincidence: Mac Aodha (MacCoy) means son of Fire in Gaelic! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCoy_(surname)) I wonder if Harry's predilection for fire is a common trait in his bloodline.
--- End quote ---
I think this is quite awesome.
--- Quote from: KevinSig on June 05, 2012, 11:49:58 AM ---Not much to add, but I recall mention that somebody found out that Fitz (maybe Fitzgerald) meant bastard. Which led to the speculation that he might be McFinn Jr. Of course, I think Jim put something of a kabosh on this speculation, in that he hasn't got any long term plans for Fitz's character.
--- End quote ---
I wrote a lot about that here
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,27953.msg1192958.html#msg1192958
Edit: and I linked to it yesterday in response to something else the OP posted about.
Thessaly:
Updating after work. Interesting so far!
@Serak: I never saw that article, re: Jim's naming of Harry. Thanks for that!
Having read his Codex Alera series and then the Dresden Files, I quickly took note of the significance Jim often attributed to names. As with all things, sometimes the meaning behind a name or place is accidental. For instance, Dresden being the seat of kings in Germany is illuminating, but probably insignificant; it's not like Harry's going to bear one of the swords. (To stir the pot, there's more than one Dresden, although she's probably assuming another surname?) To that end I'm sure I'll be posting irrelevant information in parts that sound interesting, but which will likely get pruned or otherwise truncated later for brevity and ease of reading. As Joe Friday from Dragnet was so fond of saying, "Just the facts, ma'am." It's a place to start, anyway.
Most of my information as to the meaning and significance of names is largely things I've picked up over the years, or purloined from the web at large via google. Some of it may be a little fanciful, as we try to read meaning into it like a tarot card, but it's fun nonetheless. Something to note: there are perfectly wonderful compilations of character histories on wikipedia, which is why this thread serves as more of a speculative look into the meaning of the names involved. Some of it will be simple, some of it will be eye-opening; they can't all be gems and that's fine. :)
Also, my thanks to everyone for picking it up and running with it!
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