The Twenty-First George Eliot Memorial Lecture: The Names of George Eliot

\u27What\u27s in a name?’ asked Juliet. Our response would surely be different if Romeo were no longer called Romeo, and from that romantic balcony in Verona there came the cry: \u27O Egbert, Egbert, wherefore art thou, Egbert?\u27 As an exploration of George Eliot\u27s names should reveal, there is far more significance in names than Juliet or we might imagine. Allowing for minor differences, George Eliot chose or was given seventeen different names during her life-time: Mary Ann(e) Evans, Little Mama, Marianne Evans, Marian Evans, Clematis, Deutera, Polly, Pollian, Marian Lewes, Marian Evans Lewes, Mutter, Madonna, The Prioress, our Lady, Beatrice, Mary Ann Cross - and supremely, of course, George Eliot. Some names are more significant than others. Some were chosen for her because people wanted to define her own capacity for change. The names she chose or liked for herself suggest a quest for identity: she knew that she adopted different roles (\u27we are all of us Dramatis Personae in our own life\u27), and there is a strong element of self-defining and self-affiliation in the various names preferred