What's In a Name?

Just from reading Act I in Translations and listening to our discussion in class today, it seems to me that one major theme in this play is the importance of names. I know a lot of times, authors or filmmakers will choose the names of their characters very carefully, sometimes placing plot hints in them or names that add detail and give the readers more information about their characteristics and personality. My guess is that Translations is not exception to this trend.

I took some time to look up all the meanings behind the names used in Translations and I found some interesting details. Sarah means princess. Jimmy, or James means supplanter. A supplanter is someone who wrongfully or illegally seizes or holds the place of another, so this perhaps is a plot hint at something that will happen later on in the play. Doalty means black-jointed or dark-limbed. Bridget is another name that might not give us a lot, but perhaps I'm wrong. It means exalted and lofty. I'm not really sure if there's anything that can be taken from that. The meaning of Hugh really supplies us with more to his character because it means bright in mind and spirit. We already see that he's bright and intellectual from the moment he steps into the barn and starts speaking into different languages. In class, we talked a lot about the relationship between Owen and Manus, and the meanings of their names adds even more to this concept. Manus comes from the latin word hand. Nothing really special there, but Owen means desire born, which definitely adds to the idea of Hugh being the favored son. Yolland is just named after the real William Yolland who took part in the real survey. My favorite name meaning however, is Lancey (or Lance as I looked up), which comes from the english word for land. I just found that inventive that not only does it mean land, but that it comes from the english meaning of it.

Who knew that names could give us so information about plot, characters, and historical background?