**From Puddleglum to Puddlegum: What Narnia Names Say in English, and What They Become in French** **Puddleglum** → **Puddlegum** **Puddleglum** is the name of the Marsh-wiggle in *The Silver Chair* and *Prince Caspian*. In French, it is translated as **Puddlegum**. **Other Narnia names:** - **Aslan** → **Aslan** - **Reepicheep** → **Reepicheep** - **Mr Tumnus** → **M. Tumnus** - **Cair Paravel** → **Cair Paravel** - **White Witch** → **La Blanche Sorcière** - **Turkish Delight** → **Loukoum turc** - **Digory Kirke** → **Digory Kirke** - **Polly Plummer** → **Polly Plummer** - **Peter** → **Peter** - **Susan** → **Susan** - **Edmund** → **Edmund** - **Lucy** → **Lucy** - **Shift** → **Shift** - **The Magician's Nephew** → **The Magician's Nephew** - **The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe** → **The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe** - **The Horse and His Boy** → **The Horse and His Boy** - **Prince Caspian** → **Prince Caspian** - **The Voyage of the Dawn Treader** → **The Voyage of the Dawn Treader** - **The Silver Chair** → **The Silver Chair** - **The Last Battle** → **The Last Battle** - **En bref** → **In brief** - **Le saviez-vous** → **Did you know** - **À l'écran** → **On screen** - **Pour aller plus loin** → **Going further** - **Son histoire** → **The story** - **Dans le livre** → **In the book** - **Dans les livres** → **In the books**
Puddleglum means "gloomy puddle"; in French, it became Puddlegum, and the wordplay was lost. Shift, meaning "the trick," remained Shift. Trufflehunter, however, did become Truffle-Hunter. This Narnia guide glossary of 280 names explains what the Narnia names mean in English, how they were translated into French, and which ones vary between editions.
- 280 entries: characters, places, objects, peoples, titles, and expressions, with the translation process for each.
- 83 names kept, 8 adapted, 189 translated (site classification).
- In brief
- Did you know
- On screen
- Going further
Names that speak
Lewis loved names. Some are simple English first names (Peter, Susan, Polly), others are pure sound inventions (Reepicheep, Tashbaan, Charn). But many are speaking names: ordinary English words, assembled to describe the character. An English-speaking reader immediately understands that Puddleglum is a marsh-dweller and gloomy; that Shift is cunning; that Trufflehunter hunts truffles. The French reader, however, only receives this meaning if the translator has conveyed it.
This is the purpose of this page: to explain what the names of Narnia say in English, and what they become in French. The complete glossary (280 entries) is available in the data, with for each name the translator’s method and a note when it changes from one edition to another. It also serves the reader who visits an English-speaking site like NarniaWeb, or who watches the original films.
The story of the speaking names in English, and what remains of them in French
- English name — What it says in English — French name — Does the meaning pass through?
- Puddleglum — puddle, “flaque,” and glum, “morose”: a name that announces a gloomy marsh-dweller. — Puddlegum — lost
- Marsh-wiggle — marsh, “marshy,” and wiggle, “to wriggle”: the name of the creature who lives in the marshes. — Touille-Marais — kept
- Trufflehunter — “truffle-hunter”: the badger who digs. — Chasseur-de-Truffes — kept
- Glenstorm — glen, “glen,” and storm, “storm”: the centaur with a thunderous voice. — Ouragan — adapted
- Wimbleweather — weather, “weather”: a giant as changeable as the weather. — Gros-Temps — kept
- Pattertwig — patter, “to patter, chatter,” and twig, “twig”: the chattering squirrel. — Saute-Brindilles — kept
- Farsight — “far-sight”: the eagle who sees from afar. — Longue-Vue — kept
- Jewel — “jewel”: the unicorn of Tirian. — Joyau — kept
- Moonwood — moon, “moon,” and wood, “woods”: the hare with keen hearing. — Bois-de-Lune — kept
- Slinkey — to slink, “to sneak, slink”: the treacherous fox. — Furtif — kept
- Ginger — ginger, “ginger, reddish-brown”: the cat in The Last Battle. — le Chat Roux — kept
- Shift — shift, “shiftiness, cunning”: the ape who manipulates everyone. — Shift — lost
- Puzzle — puzzle, “puzzle”: the donkey who doesn’t understand what he’s made to do. — Puzzle — lost
- Swanwhite — “white as a swan”: the queen so beautiful that her reflection remained in the water. — Blancheur-de-Cygne — kept
- Lantern Waste — waste, “waste, uncultivated land”: the heath where the lamppost stands. — la Lande du Réverbère — kept
- Dawn Treader — “dawn treader”: the ship that sails toward the rising sun. — le Passeur d’Aurore — kept
- Rumblebuffin — to rumble, “to rumble”: a giant whose voice can be heard from afar. — Tonitruant — kept
- Thunder-Fist — “thunder-fist”: the nickname gained by Corin the boxer. — Poing-de-Foudre — kept
- Dufflepuds — the name evokes duffer, “clumsy, awkward”: the creatures with one foot. — les Nullards — kept
- Clodsley Shovel — clod, “clod,” and shovel, “shovel”: the mole who gardens. — Pelle-de-la-Motte — kept
- Lilygloves — lily, “lily,” and gloves, “gloves”: a mole with pale paws. — Gants-Blancs — kept
- Fledge — to fledge, “to grow feathers”: the horse who grows wings. — Plume — adapted
The balance is clear: French translators have almost always conveyed the meaning when it was obvious (Farsight, Jewel, Trufflehunter), and often lost it when the name was also a common word in French (Shift, Puzzle) or an untranslatable portmanteau (Puddleglum). The case of Puddlegum is the most curious: his people, the Marsh-wiggles, are translated (Touille-Marais), but not him.
In the book
Of the 280 entries in the glossary, we count 83 names kept as-is (or nearly so), 8 names simply adapted to French spelling or pronunciation, and 189 names or expressions translated. The count is ours, entry by entry.
In the books
On the 280 entries in the glossary, we count 83 names kept as-is (or nearly so), 8 names simply adapted to French spelling or pronunciation, and 189 names or expressions translated. The count is ours, entry by entry.
Keeping the name. Proper names without apparent meaning mostly remain intact: Aslan, Caspian, Tirian, Jadis, Shasta, Aravis, Rabadash, Calormen, Tashbaan, Charn. They already have an exotic feel, no need to change them. This is also the choice made for Shift and Puzzle, at the cost of their meaning.
Adapting. Some names are slightly Frenchified to sound natural: Reepicheep becomes Ripitchip, Puddleglum becomes Puddlegum, Peepiceek becomes Pripicik, Eustace becomes Eustache. Mythological names take their classic French form: Silène, Pomone. The Calormene titles of nobility (Tarkaan, Tarkheena) are kept.
Translating. When the English name has a meaning, the Gallimard translation often conveys it, sometimes inventively: Trumpkin becomes Trompillon, Wimbleweather becomes Gros-Temps, Pattertwig becomes Saute-Brindilles, Glenstorm becomes Ouragan, Pittencream becomes Crème-grêlée, Miss Prizzle becomes Mademoiselle Crécelle.
On screen
The French translations of the films from 2005, 2008 and 2010 mostly reuse the names from the Gallimard books. They add a few names absent from the novels, which the screenwriters invented: Ginarrbrik for the witch’s dwarf, Oreius for the centaur general in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lilliandil for Ramandu’s daughter. These names do not appear in any of Lewis’s books. In Quebec, the films were released under the general title Les Chroniques de Narnia, and in France under Le Monde de Narnia.
Going further
There have been three major waves of French translations:
- Hachette (1952-1953), in the Idéal-Bibliothèque collection, translated by Mrs. E.-R. Blanchet: only the first two books were published, under the titles Le Lion et la Sorcière blanche and Prince Caspian : le retour à Narnia, republished in Bibliothèque rose in 1973.
- Flammarion (1980-1984), in the Bibliothèque du Chat perché: L’Armoire magique and Le Prince Caspian (Anne-Marie Dalmais), Le Voyage de la « Belle Aventure » (Michel Baron) and Le Fauteuil d’argent (Hélène Seyrès).
- Gallimard Jeunesse (since 2001), in Folio Junior, finally all seven books: Anne-Marie Dalmais for the first two, Cécile Dutheil de la Rochère for Le Neveu du magicien, Philippe Morgaut for the other four. In 2005, the series is renamed Le Monde de Narnia and L’Armoire magique becomes Le Lion, la Sorcière blanche et l’Armoire magique.
As several translators worked on the series, the same name can change form from one book to another, or from one edition to another: 10 entries in the glossary are noted as varying according to the edition or the film. The most visible case is that of the ship from Caspian, the Dawn Treader: le Passeur d’Aurore in Gallimard, la Belle Aventure in Flammarion.
Going further
And the films?
The French versions of the 2005, 2008 and 2010 films mostly reuse the names from the Gallimard books. They add a few names absent from the novels, which the screenwriters invented: Ginarrbrik for the witch’s dwarf, Oreius for the centaur general in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lilliandil for Ramandu’s daughter. These names do not appear in any of Lewis’s books. In Quebec, the films were released under the general title Les Chroniques de Narnia, and in France under Le Monde de Narnia.
In brief
The story
How to read the glossary
Each entry shows the French name used on the site, the original English name, the translation method (kept, adapted, translated), known variants and the page on the site that discusses it. It can be sorted either way: from French to English, or from English to French.
For questions that these names raise for French-speaking readers (why “Belle Aventure”? What does Puddlegum mean?), see also our answers to readers.
- number of entries — 280
- source — Generated on 20.10.2026 from the fields nom_fr / nom_original / variantes of the character and world sheets.
- entries —
- expression — l'Âge d'or — the Golden Age — variantes — lien
De la première aube à la dernière nuit : l'histoire de Narnia
— traduit — false - personnage — Ahoshta Tarkaan — the grand vizier — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Alberta et Harold Scrubb — Alberta and Harold Scrubb — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Edmund le Juste — Edmund the Just — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Edmund Pevensie — Edmund Pevensie — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Edmund le Juste — Edmund the Just — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Peter — Peter — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Susan — Susan — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Lucy — Lucy — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- personnage — Reepicheep — Reepicheeep — variantes — lien — traduit — false
- expression — l'Âge d'or — the Golden Age — variantes — lien
- source —
- garde — nom conservé tel quel ou presque
- adapte — nom francisé dans son orthographe ou sa prononciation
- traduit — nom ou expression traduits
- nombre variantes selon edition —
- traduit — 189
- garde — 83
- adapte — 8
En bref
Voici une liste des noms et expressions propres à la traduction française des Chroniques de Narnia, et des adaptations ou traductions partielles qui en découlent.
Le saviez-vous
- nombre variantes selon edition — source —
Les noms et expressions des personnages et du monde de Narnia sont parfois adaptés, traduits ou conservés selon les éditions françaises.
- source —
- traduit —
Les noms et expressions sont traduits en français.
- adapte —
Les noms et expressions sont adaptés en français.
- garde —
Les noms et expressions sont gardés en français.
- traduit —
- source —
Les noms et expressions sont parfois traduits, parfois adaptés, parfois gardés en français.
À l'écran
- Le Lion, la Sorcière blanche et l'Armoire magique
- L'Odyssée du Passeur d'Aurore
- Le Prince Caspian
- Le Fauteuil d'argent
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