The Power of Names

Inspired by our new media presentations and our discussions about how names, words, and letters were all believed to hold power in many civilizations throughout the 15th century, in this entry, I will examine the names of some of the most popular witches in modern media. I was struck by how unusual and unique many of the names of witches in modern media are. These names serve to not only phonetically distinguish these witches from other characters, but may also convey something about their intentions and powers. I wanted to investigate just that in this entry and dig a bit deeper into five of these names to discover what they mean and how they may reveal information about a character.

Glinda: Glinda is hailed throughout the Wizard of Oz as a “good witch”. In the Welsh language, her name literally translates to “Good” or “Fair”, which corresponds to her role in the film. “Glida” also has a rather light, airy, and feminine sound to it which also has positive connotations and matches her princess-like presentation in the film.

Ursula: The name of The Little Mermaid’s sea witch means “Female bear”. This name selection speaks to Ursula’s formidable nature and her disgruntled and aggressive demeanor throughout the film. The name itself has many vowels in it, but it does not have a particularly gentle sound to it. Rather, it sounds a bit other-worldly and a bit shadowy.

Wanda: Wanda is a name of Polish origin, and it means “wanderer in life”. This corresponds to Wanda’s character in the Marvel universe, as her family of Eastern European origin. Wanda’s character is also somewhat conflicted within the Marvel movie series. She first enters the series as an antagonist towards the Avengers, but then transitions to join their team. She is undeniably a good person with a soft heart and pure intentions, yet she endures incredible pain in the loss of her brother, Pietro, and Vision— this leaves its mark on her, and darkens her character a bit. Wanda is also a name with a somewhat whimsical sound. In addition, the actual name itself does mirror the sound of “wand” , a classic article associated with magic.

Jadis: This is the name of the “White Witch from C.S. Lewis’ the Chronicles of Narnia, book and movie series. I don’t believe that her name is ever mentioned in the movies, yet it does appear in the book series. Interestingly enough, one article said that this name was perhaps inspired by the Hindu word “jadu” which means “magic” or “sorcery”. Other sources say that it could have been connected with the French word “jadis” which means “long ago”, or “yore”. Both of these possible origins indicate something about the White Witch’s character, as she is an established practitioner of deep Narnian magic.

Maleficent: As we mentioned in class, many words that contain the root “mal”, which means “bad”, have negative connotations. Maleficent is no exception. This name translates to “doing evil or harm”, which is appropriate for her as her character is the villainous sorceress in the film. It also directly contrasts the name of the film’s protagonist, “Aurora”, which means “dawn”. In this way, we can see that authors use names to help build viewers’ perceptions of characters before we truly see their story arc unfold.