Lewis Carroll was kind of a weird guy. Most people know that by now. He was a mathematician at Oxford named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson who spent his afternoons rowing boats down the Isis with three little girls, telling them stories that would eventually change literature forever. But when we talk about character names from Alice in Wonderland, we aren't just talking about random whimsical sounds. There is a deeply personal, often academic, and sometimes biting satirical edge to the names he chose.
You’ve got the obvious ones. The Mad Hatter. The Cheshire Cat. But did you know the Hatter is never actually called "The Mad Hatter" in the book? Carroll just calls him "The Hatter." It's the narrator who calls him mad. It’s these little distinctions that get lost in the Disney-fication of the story. If you want to understand why these names matter, you have to look at the Victorian slang and the specific Oxford faculty members Carroll was secretly making fun of.
The Name Alice and the Real-Life Inspiration
Everything starts with Alice Liddell. She was the daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Carroll didn't just pluck the name out of thin air; he was writing for a specific audience of one. The character names from Alice in Wonderland are often coded messages to the Liddell family.
For example, take the "Lory" and the "Eaglet" from the Caucus-race. Those aren't just random birds. The Lory was Lorina Liddell, Alice’s older sister. The Eaglet was Edith, the younger sister. Carroll even put himself in there as the Dodo. Why a Dodo? Because Dodgson had a stutter. When he introduced himself, he’d often say, "Do-Do-Dodgson." It’s a self-deprecating joke hidden in plain sight.
Think about that for a second.
A world-famous literary figure named himself after an extinct, flightless bird because he couldn't get his own name out properly. That’s the kind of layers we’re dealing with here. It isn't just "nonsense." It's deeply personal.
Why the Mad Hatter Isn't Actually Named That
Everyone calls him the Mad Hatter. You’ve probably seen the Tim Burton movies or the classic 1951 animation. But in the original text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, he is simply The Hatter.
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The "Mad" part comes from a common Victorian phrase: "mad as a hatter." Hatters actually did go crazy back then. They used mercury nitrate to cure the felt used in hats. Prolonged exposure led to mercury poisoning, which causes tremors, irritability, and hallucinations. It was a literal occupational hazard called "erethism."
The character's personality—his twitchiness, his obsession with time, his erratic speech—wasn't just "wonderland magic." It was a commentary on a gruesome industrial reality. Some scholars, like Florence Becker Lennon, suggest the Hatter was specifically modeled after a local furniture dealer named Theophilus Carter. Carter was an eccentric inventor who lived near Oxford and was known for wearing a top hat and standing at the door of his shop. He even invented an "alarm clock bed" that threw the sleeper onto the floor. You can see where the obsession with time and waking up the Dormouse comes from.
The Cheshire Cat: More Than Just a Grin
The Cheshire Cat is probably the most iconic name in the whole book. But the name isn't an invention. It comes from the phrase "grinning like a Cheshire cat," which existed long before Carroll was born.
Where did the phrase come from? Nobody is 100% sure. One theory is that Cheshire cheeses were molded into the shape of a grinning cat. Another is that a local painter in Cheshire (where Carroll was born) used to paint grinning lions on inn signs, but they looked more like cats.
The name serves a structural purpose. The Cat is the only character who admits that everyone in Wonderland is "mad." By giving the Cat a name rooted in a common, earthly idiom, Carroll creates a bridge between the "real" world and the dream world. The Cat knows he’s a metaphor. He’s the only one in on the joke.
The Queen of Hearts vs. The Red Queen
Here is where people usually get confused. If you're looking for character names from Alice in Wonderland, you have to keep the two books separate.
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- The Queen of Hearts is from the first book (Wonderland). She is a deck of cards. She is "a blind fury," as Carroll described her. She represents passion and uncontrolled anger.
- The Red Queen is from the second book (Through the Looking-Glass). She is a chess piece. She is cold, strict, and formal.
People mix them up constantly. They aren't the same person. The Queen of Hearts is basically a toddler with a guillotine. The Red Queen is a "social engine" who runs because she has to stay in the same place.
Wait.
The Red Queen’s name actually inspired a biological hypothesis. The "Red Queen Hypothesis" in evolutionary biology posits that species must constantly adapt and evolve just to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing species. It’s named directly after her line: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."
Bill the Lizard and the Minor Names
We can't ignore the smaller guys. Bill the Lizard is a great example of Carroll’s naming conventions. Bill is a laborer. He’s the one who tries to go down the chimney to get Alice out of the White Rabbit’s house.
The name "Bill" was very "everyman" in Victorian England. It contrasts sharply with the high-concept names like the Mock Turtle or the Gryphon.
Speaking of the Mock Turtle—that’s a pun that has aged poorly because we don't eat the same food anymore. In the 1860s, "Mock Turtle Soup" was a real thing. It was a cheap version of green turtle soup made from calf’s head (brains, ears, and all). That’s why, in the original John Tenniel illustrations, the Mock Turtle has the head, hind legs, and tail of a calf, but the shell of a turtle. The name is the recipe. It’s literal food humor.
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The Jabberwocky and the Portmanteau
When we look at the names in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, things get linguistically dense. Humpty Dumpty actually explains the naming logic to Alice. He introduces the concept of the "portmanteau"—two meanings packed into one word like a suitcase.
- Bandersnatch: A creature that is "frumious."
- The Jabberwock: "Jabber" (excited chatter) + "wock" (an old Anglo-Saxon word for offspring or fruit). So, the Jabberwock is the "fruit of much chatter."
Carroll was obsessed with how names carry weight. Humpty Dumpty famously says, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." This is Carroll’s philosophy in a nutshell. He didn't want the names to be descriptive; he wanted them to be evocative.
Why Do These Names Still Work?
Honestly, it’s because they feel like they’ve always existed. You say "The White Rabbit" and people immediately think of anxiety and being late. You say "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" and people think of pointless bickering.
Carroll took existing folk language (like the Tweedle brothers, who were originally part of a poem about two feuding composers) and gave them physical bodies. He turned linguistic ghosts into living characters.
The character names from Alice in Wonderland persist because they aren't just labels; they are archetypes. They represent specific human failings. The White Rabbit is the anxiety of the upper-middle class. The Duchess is the ugliness of performative morality. The Caterpillar is the dismissiveness of the intellectual elite.
How to Apply This Knowledge
If you’re a writer, an educator, or just a fan, understanding these names changes how you read the book. It stops being a "random" drug trip (which, for the record, it wasn't—Carroll was a conservative deacon who likely never touched hallucinogens) and becomes a masterclass in satire.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers
- Check the Illustrations: Always look at the original John Tenniel drawings. Carroll worked closely with him. The visual "name" of the character—like the Mock Turtle having a calf’s head—is often hidden in the art.
- Read the Prefaces: Carroll wrote several prefaces for later editions where he explains some of the logic behind the "nonsense" words.
- Look for the Puns: If a name seems weird, Google it alongside "Victorian slang." You’ll usually find a joke about a 19th-century prime minister or a specific type of soup.
- Separate the Books: Don't let the movies lie to you. Keep your Wonderland names and your Looking-Glass names distinct to understand the transition from the "logic of dreams" to the "logic of chess."
The names are the key. They aren't just what the characters are called; they are what the characters are. Carroll built a world out of words, and the names are the foundation of that entire architecture. Next time you see a "Cheshire Cat" reference, remember that it's not just a cat from Cheshire—it’s a linguistic survival of a forgotten cheese mold, repurposed by a stuttering mathematician to entertain a dean's daughter on a sunny afternoon in 1862.
Identify which version of the text you are reading—the 1865 original or the 1871 sequel—to properly categorize the characters you encounter. Use a checklist of the Liddell family members to see if you can spot their "Wonderland" personas in the Caucus-race chapter. Compare the behaviors of the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen to observe the difference between emotional impulsivity and rigid, structural authority in Carroll's writing.