Onomastics of the Novel “Malakout” by Bahram Sadeghi

As naming is of paramount importance in human communities, creating suitable and meaningful names is an important task of the writers. The author can choose various general, specific, mix and descriptive names with respect to theme and story environment, or even let them unnamed. Like writing styles, using names in story is different from person to person. Being familiar with the aim of the writer for choosing each name, helps audience to have a better understanding of the underlying meaning and hidden secrets in the story. Using a descriptive–analytical method, this research aims to study the onomastic of the characters in the novel “Malakout” by Bahram Sadeghi. In this story, names are analyzed based on point of view, character recognition and their meanings. Findings of the present research shows that most of the chosen names by Sadeghi are congruent with the characters in the story and have been chosen based on the action and behavior of the individuals. Furthermore, the usage of symbolic and metaphorical names in this story which are influenced by the special political and social era after the coup of 28th of Mordad 1332, reveals that a combination of political, social and cultural factors along with the specific lines of thoughts of the writer are responsible for his way of naming