20 iconic fictional characters that you may not know were named after actual people

Freddy Krueger wasn’t just a name that Wes Craven imagined. He was bullied as a child by a guy named Fred Krueger. Craven definitely got the last laugh by naming one of the most notorious movie villains of all time after him. 

Writers have been naming their characters after real people for centuries. Oscar Wilde named his eponymous character Dorian Gray after a man he knew named John Gray.

If you want to be immortalized on television but don’t actually want to be on screen, befriend a showrunner. Greg Daniels, showrunner of The Office, named Jim Halpert after one of his best friends, a D.C. attorney of the same name. 

Alberto from Luca was named after the film’s director’s childhood friend. Enrico Casarosa was friends with a boy named Alberto Surace when they were kids, and the two Albertos had similar personalities. 

Michael Warren, the showrunner behind Family Matters, jokingly named a character after his friend Steve Erkel. Steve Urkel wasn’t supposed to last past one episode, but he became an icon, and real-life Erkel had to deal with sharing the name of the world’s most famous nerd for years. 

Camilo from Encanto got her name for a couple of different reasons. One reason was that it sounds like the word “chameleon.” Another is that it was a tribute to a Colombian tour guide named Camilo, who showed Encanto’s filmmakers around the country. 

Famed screenwriter Gene Roddenberry served in World War II with a pilot named Kim Noonien Singh. He altered the name just a bit to get one of the characters in Star Trek. 

Dopinder in Deadpool was named after a real person, too. Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool himself, named the character after a friend of his who died after being struck by lightning. 

John Carpenter was friends with an English film producer named Michael Myers. Carpenter named the iconic Halloween villain after Myers to thank him for his work. A gift card might’ve sufficed, but this worked, too. 

Animated characters always have such clever names. Zan Owlson in DuckTales was named after one of the show’s producers, Suzanna Olson. Working in entertainment pays off in unexpected ways. 

You’re probably more familiar with the real Max Schreck than you realize. He played the vampire in the original Nosferatu. He also inspired the character of the same name in Batman Returns, except the name is spelled Max Shreck.

Here’s a bit of a mind bender: Max Arciniega is an actor who played the character Krazy-8 in Breaking Bad. He also inspired the character of the same name on the hit series. 

Hugo Stiglitz might spark your brain for multiple reasons. It’s the name of the iconic Inglourious Basterds character, and it’s the name of a Mexican actor and director who inspired the name of the character. 

Auric Goldfinger, one of the most famous James Bond villains, was inspired by a real person. Author Ian Fleming named him after his neighbor Ernő Goldfinger, an architect who, to our knowledge, was not a dangerous fiend like the character he inspired. 

Another famous Hugo, Hugo Gernsback was an editor in the 1920s who helped usher science fiction into the mainstream. He inspired the character of the same name played by Keegan-Michael Key in Tomorrowland. 

Cosmo Kramer of Seinfeld fame was inspired, in name and personality, by a comedian named Kenny Kramer. Kenny was Larry David’s neighbor, and he had a predilection for all the same quirks that Cosmo is known for. 

Your parents might’ve caught this the first time they saw Mean Girls. Janis Ian was named after the famous singer of the same name. The real Janis Ian wrote the song “At Seventeen,” which laments the difficulties of being an outcast, something the fictional Janis Ian is familiar with. 

Rocky Balboa was named after the famous boxer Rocky Marciano. While Balboa has become more famous, Maciano was arguably the better boxer. 

You can probably guess who Naomi Campbell from Skins was named after. Yep, the famous supermodel. The show’s creator wanted the character to be strong and independent, just like the model. 

Many Simpsons characters have been modeled after real people, and that trend started at the very beginning with Homer Simpson. The cartoon patriarch was named after the show’s creator’s father, Homer Philip Groening. Creator Matt Groening used the names of his other family members to make up Homer’s family, too.