In late summer, I was washing up in a pond when I noticed
the plants growing around me. Tall with leaves like
arrowheads. Blossoms with three white petals. I knelt
down in the water, my fingers digging into the soft mud,
and I pulled up handfuls of the roots. Small, bluish tubers
that don’t look like much but boiled or baked are as good
as any potato. “Katniss,” I said aloud. It’s the plant I was
named for. And I heard my father’s voice joking, “As long
as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve.”
E
—The Hunger Games
very name in the Hunger Games series plays a significant
role in characterization, either through revealing further untold
backstory or foreshadowing the character’s final resolution of
the series. The Capitol characters’ names relate to their realworld historical parallels in the ruling or fall of Imperial Rome,
like Cinna, while District-born characters’ names are reminiscent of their home’s Specialty, like Thresh, both the strong and
deadly District 11 Tribute of the 74th Games and a lethal, efficient aspect of agricultural cultivation (to thresh is to beat grain
from its stalks; a thresher is a highly dangerous farming machine).
The Hunger Games series is, like all war stories, one person’s
journey. And like all works written in first-person, it presents
us, the readers, with one character’s version of Panem. However,
due to Suzanne Collins’ extraordinary attention to detail and
skill with historical, scientific, and literary allusion, the books
also tell dozens of further, deeper stories about the Second
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Rebellion and fall of the Capitol than meets the eye. Embedded
in its characters’ names are personal histories, motivations for
rebellion, and connections between the page and our world that
make the Hunger Games grow from an enjoyable reading experience to a rich, thought-provoking analysis of the contemporary Western world.
And, from a fangirl’s perspective, more entertaining, as well!
After all, who wouldn’t be inspired by learning that Woof’s
name comes not from the sound a dog makes, but the crossthreads of a loom, which ties to his home in District 8?
Katniss Everdeen
Katniss, as she herself explains in the books, is a starchy tuberroot aquatic vegetable also called sagittaria. This generic name
means “belonging to an arrow” in Latin and refers to the shape
of the leaves; however, in our Katniss’ case, this takes a more
metaphorical meaning. Katniss plants are found in canals, ponds,
ditches, and slow rivers, but are never abundant.
Given Collins’ love of Greek mythology, Katniss might also
be an intentional partial homophone to Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt, who was considered a “bird goddess” and whose
traditional symbolic motif is a bow and arrow.
Suzanne Collins spoke with EW’s Shelf Life just before Mockingjay was released in August 2010, and she talked a little about
the origins of Katniss’ last name:1
I sort of half read Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge.
It was assigned in 10th grade, and I just couldn’t get into it.
About seven years later I rediscovered Hardy, and consumed
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four of his novels in a row. Katniss Everdeen owes her last
name to Bathsheba Everdene, the lead character in Far From
the Madding Crowd. The two are very different, but both
struggle with knowing their hearts.
Further thoughts on Everdeen, and why it’s an appropriate
name for Katniss and her family:
Everdeen seems to be a portmanteau for evergreen and Dean (surname).
An evergreen plant is one that has leaves in all seasons, which
seems to relate to the Everdeens’ stalwart survival and ability to
flourish despite harsh conditions. Like evergreens, which grow
in the summer and are dormant in winter, Katniss and her
family are renewed in the seasons between hardships. Between
the 74th Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell, Katniss begins
to forgive her mother and the Everdeen women regain their
closeness as a family; between Katniss’ second Reaping and the
war on the Capitol, Prim matures and comes into her own as an
apprentice to Mrs. Everdeen.
Evergreen plants grow well in poor soil or on disturbed
ground. The shelter provided by existing evergreen plants can
make it easier for younger evergreen plants to survive cold and/
or drought, much like the shelter Katniss provides for Prim.
Owing to the botanical meaning, the term evergreen can refer
metaphorically to something that is continuously renewed or is
self-renewing, like Katniss’ resolve.
Dean means “of the valley.” Though it may be a stretch, Katniss, like a valley, is metaphorically between two “mountains”:
on one side, Gale, revenge, and offensive attack, and on the
other, Peeta, noble intentions, and peace. It may also refer to
District 12‘s location in the foothills of the Appalachians.
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Cinna
The Capitol characters in the Hunger Games series owe their
names to Roman imperial history, and most commonly to historical figures mentioned in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Cinna is
a prime example.
Historically, there were two major Cinnas of note involved in
Caesar’s death: Cinna the Conspirator, and Cinna the Poet.
The first Cinna was Cornelius Cinna, a conspirator against
Caesar who played a key role in enlisting Brutus to the assassins’
cause. In 78 BC, Cornelius Cinna allied himself with patrician
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in attempting to overthrow the
Roman dictator, Sulla; however, Lepidus was caught and killed.
Cornelius Cinna was exiled as punishment for his involvement
in Lepidus’ uprising. However, before he left Rome, he sought
out the support of Julius Caesar for the rebellion against imperial rule (as Caesar had not been elected to power yet). Caesar
refused to join the rebellion, but remained friends with Cinna
and later even recalled him from Spain to Rome for aid in the
Roman Senate.
Eventually, Cornelius Cinna was granted a praetorship by
Caesar. This can be seen mirrored by Collins’ Cinna in that he
chose to design for District 12—something like a career “exile”
that he managed to turn into a huge boon for himself, his tributes, and the Rebellion—and yet was retained as a stylist for the
fan-favorites of the Quarter Quell, which gave him a seat of highly
visible power over the public of Panem, somewhat akin to a praetorship in Rome. The final fate of Cornelius Cinna is unknown.
The second historical Cinna, Helvius Cinna, or “Cinna the
Poet,” was a friend of Catullus—and of Plutarch, which is an
obvious tie between the Hunger Games trilogy and Rome and
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Julius Caesar, since Collins’ Cinna and Plutarch are also highranking co-conspirators and do seem to have been friends. Ovid
included Helvius Cinna in his list of celebrated erotic poets and
writers. At Julius Caesar’s funeral in 44 BC, where Helvius
Cinna was walking in the funeral procession as a tribune (or
representative) of the people, the populace was in such rage at
Cornelius Cinna that some members of the crowd accidentally
murdered Helvius Cinna, thinking he was the conspirator.
A representative of the people and a poet/artist. Sound
familiar?
Shakespeare adopted Plutarch’s version of Cinna’s death in his
Julius Caesar, adding the black humor through which he often
expressed his distrust of the crowd:
CINNA. Truly, my name is Cinna.
FIRST CITIZEN. Tear him to pieces, he’s a conspirator.
CINNA. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.
FOURTH CITIZEN. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him
for his bad verses.
CINNA. I am not Cinna the conspirator.
FOURTH CITIZEN. It is no matter, his name’s Cinna.
Pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him going.
(Act III. Scene iii)
Since Collins’ Cinna is such an enigma, much of his personal life
and background must be extrapolated or inferred from allusions
in the series. It is telling that both of the historical Cinnas—Cornelius and Helvius—were both men of some mystery themselves.
However, there are distinct markers in Collins’ Cinna that reveal
details about his background and involvement in the Rebellion.
See Chapter 13, “Truly, I Am Cinna.”
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Peeta Mellark
Peeta is a homophone for pita, a type of bread—appropriate given
that the Mellark family vocation is baking, in which Peeta personally seems to take a genuine interest. Peeta is also a Dutch
derivation of Peter, meaning “the rock,” which is a role that Peeta
seems to play for Katniss. Despite her best efforts, she does indeed
need his grounding to stay alive, sane, and—eventually—happy.
The additional homophone pietà is Italian for pity or lamentation, particularly in a religious context. Michelangelo’s favorite
of his sculptures was the Pietà, Jesus’ body cradled by Mary. It
has long been legend that Michelangelo stabbed a man to
achieve the knowledge necessary to sculpt the human form in its
moment of death so accurately, fueled in part by a perceived stab
wound in the abdomen of the Christ figure that lends credence
to the stabbing legend as well as opening the door to “Michelangelo Code”-esque conspiracies. The Pietà stabbing wasn’t in
the leg—and Michelangelo’s fabled victim probably didn’t frost
himself in mud—but the image of Katniss cradling Peeta in the
cave still works as a compelling reference to the Madonna cradling the body of Christ.
Together with Finnick’s name, Peeta’s name (and one of his
motifs, bread) evokes the phrase “loaves and fishes,” alluding
that they help Katniss “feed” the entire nation of Panem.
Panem’s society is a bureaucracy of welfare; people submit their
names to the Hunger Games in exchange for grain and oil. Peeta’s role in the Second Rebellion both literally and metaphorically feeds Panem’s citizens by eliminating that barrier to
obtaining food and freedom.
Peeta’s name also has a literal connection to Panem itself, as
panem means “bread” and pita is a type of bread. As evidenced
through the series, the connection between Panem and Peeta is
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THE PANEM COMPANION
261
reflexive: whatever is happening to Peeta is also happening to
Panem, or vice-versa. When Peeta is falling in love with Katniss
during the 74th Hunger Games, so is Panem. When Peeta
speaks of the unfairness of the Quarter Quell and reaches out to
the other Victors for support, the rest of Panem’s populace is
beginning to erupt in civil unrest, supporting each other in a
series of interdependent uprisings. And, most importantly,
when Peeta is captured and tortured into insanity, Panem itself
simultaneously dissolves into fractious, chaotic disarray. The
ending of Peeta’s story is the same as the ending of Panem’s
story: because of Katniss, both are able to attain peace and new
growth.
The potential origins of Mellark are less clear. The name is
likely a portmanteau or a proprietary name; however, it could
find its origin in “lark,” a type of songbird, which could relate
to the pointed mention in The Hunger Games that, when Katniss
sings, “all the birds stopped to listen.” In old Europe, lark
tongue was considered a highly prized delicacy; certainly Peeta’s
speech is of high value to the Rebellion. Additionally, the Oxford
English Dictionary lists Mell as meaning, “To speak, talk. Of
birds: to sing.” Suzanne Collins has stated that one of Peeta’s
intrinsic “gifts” is a “facility for language,”2 and that speech is
“how Peeta navigates his world.”3
Interestingly, it should be noted that larks have traditionally
been used in Western literature for several of the same purposes
mockingjays (the birds, not the Katnisses!) are in the Hunger
Games trilogy. Traditional Western literature uses the lark to
symbolize merriment, as the lark sang hymns at the gates of
heaven and announced the coming of the day. Because of the
bird’s boundless energy, the lark is also used as a symbol of hope,
happiness, good fortune, and creativity—all things that Peeta
symbolizes in the Hunger Games series!
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Gale Hawthorne
A gale is a very strong wind, potentially referring to “the winds
of change” in the case of Gale Hawthorne and his revolutionary
nature.
Another possible, though less likely, point of origin for Gale’s
name is Richard Nelson Gale, a British soldier who served in
both WWI and WWII. Given Suzanne Collins’ military family
background, it is not altogether impossible that she would have
looked into various war heroes for characters like Gale, Boggs,
or the Leegs. Richard Nelson Gale famously came away from his
war experience with a distrust for weapons-heavy battle strategy,
which of course also proves to be Gale’s undoing in the world of
the Hunger Games.
As for Hawthorne . . . Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American
writer who often dealt with the theme of the inherent evil and
sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages. Gale
possesses a black-and-white worldview and lives by a deeply
entrenched personal moral code similar to those in Hawthorne’s
works. Hawthorne may also refer to a genus of shrubs and trees
also known as hawthorn or thornapple, which has fruits with
stone seeds similar to the ones in peaches and plums, but also
bears thorns. Like his possible namesake, then, Gale Hawthorne
can provide sustenance and sweetness—if you can get through
the harsh exterior first.
The Giggling Fangirl in me insists that I also point out the
traditional Scottish saying, “Ne’er cast a cloot til Mey’s oot,”
which basically boils down to “Never take your clothes off until
hawthorn’s in bloom.” Gale did kiss all those girls on the slag
heap, after all . . .
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Finnick Odair
Finnick is most likely a portmanteau meant to evoke commonalities of traditional Irish naming. It is most likely a combination of
fin, for District 4’s ocean/fishing specialty, and nick or Nicholas,
meaning “victory of the people.”
Odair may be a play on Adair, a Scotch-Gaelic name meaning
“happy spear” (like Finnick’s trident!). However, given Suzanne
Collins’ lifelong love of Greek and Roman mythology2, it
stands to reason that Odair likely also takes origin in the name
Odysseus.
Finnick’s arc in the Hunger Games series almost perfectly
mirrors Odysseus’ journey over the course of the Illiad and
Odyssey: he is victorious in battle (the Games) but is not allowed
to return home to his wife; he has to escape the alleged paradise
of the Island of the Lotus Eaters (the Capitol) and is threatened
by the Laistrygones and evil witch-queen Circe (Snow); he is
forced to endure and must escape the sexual perversions of the
Sirens (Capitol citizens, his sex slavery); he has to make his way
home between the monsters of Scylla and Charybdis (his choice
between slavery and torture in the Capitol or the death of Annie,
Mags, and his family if he fails to comply with Snow’s wishes);
and he goes to Hades and back to find his wife again (the Quarter
Quell and the retrieval of Annie from the Capitol). Further evidence of Finnick’s connection to the Iliad and Odyssey is his
chosen Talent of poetry.
For more on the role that Finnick plays in the series and
how the trials of Odysseus (and Finnick) provide a foil for the
hardships faced by Katniss in the Hunger Games series, see
Chapter 8, “Gender Roles, Sexuality, and Exploitation in
Panem.”
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If you liked this sneak peek from
THE PANEM COMPANION, don’t miss
THE GIRL WHO WAS ON FIRE
WITH ESSAYS FROM:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Mary Borsellino
Sarah Rees Brennan
Terri Clark
Bree Despain
Brent Hartinger
Adrienne Kress
Sarah Darer Littman
Cara Lockwood
Jackson Pearce
Diana Peterfreund
Elizabeth M. Rees
Carrie Ryan
Ned Vizzini
Lili Wilkinson
Blythe Woolston
SMARTPOPBOOKS.COM/HUNGERGAMES
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