You know the Mad Hatter’s name. It’s Tarrant Hightopp!
No, actually it’s not. That’s from Tim Burton’s film version.
Well, then, what does Lewis Carroll call him? Only, the Hatter.
The Hatter as depicted in the book.
In the Disney animated version, I can clearly remember Cheshire Cat saying, “the mad hatter” in a way that implies “mad hatter” is not his name. He’s only saying that the hatter over there is mad.
The Mad Hatter from the Disney animated version.
But he’s like one of the important characters in “Alice in Wonderland”. Surely he has a name, right? Maybe the answer lies in where the Mad Hatter originated from. Who or what is he based off of in the original Lewis Carroll version?
Where the Mad Hatter came from“The phrase ‘mad as a hatter’ was common in Carroll’s time. ‘Mad as a hatter’ probably owes its origin to the fact that hatters actually did go mad, because the mercury they used sometimes gave them mercury poisoning.
Carroll may have asked Tenniel to draw the Mad Hatter to resemble Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer near Oxford. Carter was known in the area as the Mad Hatter, partly because he always wore a top hat and because of his eccentric ideas.
It is also often suggested that Tenniel made the Mad Hatter resemble the politician Disraeli.
Mark Davies arguments that it may have been Thomas Randall, an Oxford tailor.”
(from this website.)
So what are we saying?
Well, the Mad Hatter does not have a name. Even if Lewis Carroll had an idea for a name, it’s not written down anywhere. Darn it.
The Mad Hatter in Red, White, or In Between
I merged the names, Theophilus Carter and Thomas Randall.
And so, his name is… drum roll please… badabum, badabum,
Theophomilus Kranterdale Hatter
Because “Theophilus” is such an awesome first name and I had to keep that. His friends call him Theo. And just like Tim Burton’s version, Theophomilus was not always mad.
Share this:
