Mutations of Proper Names in The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments: Literary and Televisual Transformations

This paper analyses the development and significance of proper names in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and The Testaments (2019), as well as their adaptation in the 2017 television series The Handmaid’s Tale by Bruce Miller. The research investigates the function of naming as a means of control, identity construction, and defiance in the dystopian society of Gilead. Through a comparative analysis of the novels and the TV series, this article highlights how the onomastic choices reinforce themes of oppression, power dynamics, and empowerment. Significant attention is directed towards the changes in the names of key characters, such as Offred, Agnes Jemima, and Baby Nicole, in different media, demonstrating how these alterations reflect a hypertextual narrative and ideological issues.