Home	What is an Anagram?	Advanced Anagramming	The Anagram Times	Anagram Hall of Fame	Odds & Ends	FAQ	Search	Contact Us

Also see:

Anagram hall of fame

Personal anagrams

Anagrams in Literature, Movies, and Beyond

Here are some instances where authors and other creators consciously used anagrams in their works, as titles, as names of their characters, and so on.

Literature | Movies | Magazines | Television | Music | Art

Literature

• Vladimir Nabokov = Vivian Darkbloom
  Vivian Darkbloom is a character in Nabokov's novel Lolita.

• Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort
  The author JK Rowling used an anagram to name the two identities of her villain in her Harry Potter series.

  To make sure his name remains an anagram, Tom Riddle has been renamed in Harry Potter translations. For example, in the French edition he is:
  Tom Elvis Jedusor = Je suis Voldemort

• Erewhon = Nowhere
  The author Samuel Butler titled his satirical novel as an angram; incidentally, the word "nowhere" is a literal translation of the Greek utopia.

• Roast Mules = Somersault
  In his novel Son of Rosemary, the author Ira Levin includes the term ROAST MULES whose anagrams must be found out.

• O, Draconian devil! = Leonardo da Vinci
  Oh, lame saint! = The Mona Lisa
  So dark the con of Man = Madonna of the Rocks
  In the novel The Da Vinci Code the museum curator Jacques Saunière is murdered. He writes a series of clues in blood before dying. These clues were anagrams related to da Vinci.

  Leigh Teabing = Baigent Leigh
  Leigh Teabing is the name of the Holy Grail expert in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. He coined this name by anagramming the last names of Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, from which he took inspiration.

• Claire McCleethy = They Call Me Circe
  Hester Asa Moore = Sarah Rees-Toome
  Clair and Sarah are protagonist and antagonist in the book Rebel Angels and use anagrams to rename themselves.

Movies

• October Sky = Rocket Boys
  October Sky is a movie based on Homer Hickam's book Rocket Boys.

• Miss Hester Mofet = Miss the rest of me
  Louis Friend = Iron Sulfide
  In the 1991 movie, The Silence Of The Lambs, the villain, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), was fond of anagrams. He hid a murder victim's severed head in a rented storage garage under the name "Miss Hester Mofet" which FBI Agent Starling (Jodi Foster) figured out was an anagram.
  Later when officials demand he give up the name of a serial killer, he lies and tells them it's "Louis Friend". Once again Agent Starling concludes that it's an anagram for "Iron Sulfide" (fool's gold).

• Redrum = Murder
  In "The Shining", a horror movie based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Danny, holding a knife, shouts REDRUM and writes it with a lipstick on a bathroom mirror. His mother sees in the reflection that it's MURDER spelled backwards.

• Setec Astronomy = Too Many Secrets
  In the movie "Sneakers", the protagonist finds the above anagram. The opening credits of the movie show these anagrams:

  A Turnip Cures Elvis = Universal Pictures
  A Few Astral Clerks Repel Newark = Lawrence Lasker / Walter F. Parks (the producers)
  Blond Rhino Spaniel = Phil Alden Robinson (the director)
  Fort Red Border = Robert Redford

Magazines

• Metamagical Themas = Mathematical Games
  Metamagical Themas was the title of a column Martin Gardner started in the Scientific American magazine. The column was inherited by Douglas Hofstadter who later published a collection of his columns under the same title.

Television

• Bart = Brat
  Matt Groening claims that he named Bart in his animated cartoon show by anagramming the word brat.

• Torchwood = Doctor Who
  BBC science fiction series Torchwood is a spinoff of Dr. Who.

• Gregory House = Huge ego, sorry
  In the television series House, in the episode titled "Housetraining", the character Dr. House says his name, Gregory House, is an anagram for "Huge ego, sorry."

Music

• Memory Almost Full = For my soulmate LLM
  Paul McCartney's 2007 album is titled Memory Almost Full. LLM are the initials of Linda Louise McCartney, his wife who died of breast cancer in 1998.

• Lyrics and poems that makes use of anagrams:
  doG (When a Child Says a Prayer), a song by Bill Pere

• I, Megaphone = Imogen Heap
  The album title "I, Megaphone" is an anagram for the artist's name Imogen Heap

Art

• Salvador Dali = Avida Dollars
  Andre Breton, the founder of surrealism, came up with this anagram to refer to Dali. Avida Dollars means, roughly, 'eager for dollars' in Spanish.

Do you know an anagram that belongs on this page? Write to us at (words at wordsmith.org).

---

What's New | About Us | Awards & Articles | Site Map | Contribute
Tips on Finding Great Anagrams | Uses of Anagrams

© 2010 Wordsmith