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

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.

Animals

In French, the Latin-derived word for the fox was replaced by, from Renart, the fox hero of the Roman de Renart (originally the German Reinhard).

Traits

Real persons

Fictional or mythological characters