Ghost World
Daniel Clowes
Fantagraphics Books
1997
What’s in a name? Everything.
Names play a big part in Ghost World. The characters are called by their legal names, nicknames, imagined names, and incorrect names. They receive these names through birth or social interaction, and the usage of these names communicate specific intentions.
By giving someone a name you construct the lens they are viewed with. A story about Biff Tannen comes across differently than the same story told about George McFly. When characters attribute fabricated names to each other it enforces a certain perspective on them; depending on their level of familiarity, it is either met with hostility or warmth.
John Ellis of Ghost World is a total skeeve, supporting digitally manufactured child pornography and underground torture films. He bases his edgy persona on being offensive. As Enid puts it, “He’s totally just a pathetic pussy whose mommy didn’t love him enough.” In short, he’s exactly the type of person that would go around handing out nicknames.
He changes Rebecca’s last name to from Doppelmeyer to Doppelganger. No explanation is 
explicitly given for this change, so let’s analyze his motivation. John Ellis expresses sexual interest in Rebecca, an idea that she is decidedly not interested in. John Ellis’ spidey sense picks up on her disinterest and he calls her a “stuck up bitch” who “thinks she’s cute enough to pull off that stuck-up virgin ice queen shtick.” To sum it up, he has voiced resentment over this perceived rejection. A doppelganger is a person that looks like you but is not you. In essence, this is John saying that Rebecca is her own double. She looks like herself but is not herself. For him to call her a doppelganger, a person he only knows peripherally, is a real dick move. To alter the name of a someone you know but are not close to is presumptuous and stinks of pretended familiarity.
On the flipside, altering the name of a person you are genuinely close to is a sign of bonding. Returning to Rebecca, people that know her well call her Becky. It isn’t made clear if she prefers to be called this or if someone else started calling her by a nickname, but her grandma, Enid, and Josh call her Becky. Meanwhile, John Ellis who barely knows her calls her Rebecca. He is not close enough to call her by the same first name as other people, and misguidedly went for a last-name-change. Rookie mistake. Everything about how he addresses Becky reveals their lack of a relationship. He has it backwards.
Other characters referred to by titles other than their birth names are Enid’s father (Dad/Pops) and Becky’s grandma (Oomie). To have a close relationship and consistently call someone by a nickname are signs of endearment.
As you can see from John Ellis, it is important to first actually know another person before acting as though you are close, and part of that process it to find out their first name. Characters that guess at other peoples’ names usually have social issues. Examples are the woman that shouts out celebrity lookalikes to passersby, John Ellis, and Enid.
The Shouting Woman is displaying aggressive behavior. She looms over the street from her window and smiles while yelling out who people resemble. She exchanges no pleasantries or explanations; it’s nothing but shouting. However accurate or funny she can undoubtedly be, this is mildly threatening behavior.
We’ve established that John Ellis is a jackass, and Enid tells Becky that he named two women walking past Angel’s “Georgie and Windy Girl.” Enid chooses names for strangers and acquaintances alike. She isn’t sleazy or loud about it like The Shouting Woman or John Ellis, but it’s safe to say that she is in an insecure place. Enid is facing difficult life choices and this partially manifests as mocking others.
Enid has many nicknames for people she does and doesn’t know: A guy Becky dated is “Larry the Fairy,” the harmless yet mysterious couple at the diner are “The Satanist Couple;” her dad’s most recent ex-wife Carol is “The Bitch;” John Crowley is “Johnny Shithead;” the waiter at Hubba Hubba introduces himself as Allen and she immediately calls him “Al;” she names the man at the bus stop “Norman” because of a nearby sidewalk slab covered in the name, an act she calls “retarded.”
This off the cuff nicknaming is not to imply that names are casual business in Ghost World. They are indeed serious business. Full names are given whenever possible when characters tell each other stories. It was David Lipton that gave Enid Goofie Gus. Melorra asks if they heard about Carrie Vandenburg’s cancer. Enid had sex for the first time with Allen Weinstein. Melorra is taking classes with Helen Morgenthal and Natalie Larios. The full names of people are included because names are integral to story-telling. Not knowing the full name of a person is an indicator of an incorrect perception.
Enid creates a flawed mental image of Daniel Clowes based on reading a sample of his work and misremembering his name. She tells Becky John Ellis showed her some of “David Clowes” comics and that she has “a pretty good idea what he looks like.” Then she goes to his book-signing and his appearance contrasts sharply from what she had pictured. When asked what he was like she calls him an “old perv.” Her idea of him was built with nothing more than a look at his comics and an incorrect name, and she was disappointed by the real Daniel Clowes.
Clowes’ decision to include himself in Ghost World functions as another way to demonstrate name importance. He is credited on the front cover, making his name common knowledge to the reader. When Enid tells Becky his name, readers will likely react to it with either “That’s not his name” or “Is he using a pseudonym within the book?” This question is put to rest when she sees the event bulletin with his name printed as “Daniel Clowes.” This character is indeed the writer of the book in our hot little hands. Including himself, along with the name discrepancy, shows the audience another angle on the name/mental image correlation by bringing it into our world outside the story. A character misunderstood the author’s name, created an ideal in her mind, and was disillusioned by who he really was.
Strong focus is placed on the name of Bob Skeetes. The first time Enid sees him at Angel’s she refers to him vaguely as a “creepy old guy.” In a conversation soon after this she calls him “some creepy Don Knotts guy,” a label she repeats even after later learning his name. First impressions stick. After he goes to her garage sale she tells Becky “He’s like this grisly, old con man… Like Don Knotts with a homeless tan… Bob Skeetes… That’s what his name is!” It’s punctuated with an exclamation point because it is exciting, and it’s exciting because she has discovered essential information about him. They know his name and can begin to actually know him.
An even more powerful entry point to a relationship with him is with his business card, which Enid finds and then gets his phone number off of. She wants to contact him but has no social reason for doing so, and prank calls him. Their knowledge of Bob is growing, but this knowledge is devoid of any positive interactions to serve as a foundation to friendship and/or romance and/or sex. It is unclear what Enid wants from Bob, but it must be at least one of the three options. Her insecurity is still manifesting as mockery: Instead of asking Bob for a psychic reading or to talk, she accuses him of being in cahoots with the satanists and trying to fool people with his toupee.
The two have another interaction when Enid spots him at the beach. She calls out “Hey! Bob Skeetes!” She knows his name, therefore she can address him and behave as though she knows him. They can talk to each other. Note that he does not call her by name. Whether or not he really remembers her is unknown. He ends her psychic reading with an invitation to schedule a full session, an invitation more businesslike than friendly. Their intrigue and name-knowing was most likely one-sided as he does not call her by name or pursue information about her.
With a high level of emphasis placed on birth names, nicknames, and imagined names, there is a special meaning to a character lying about what their name is. Enid tells John Ellis her last name is Coleslaw instead of Cohn. He doesn’t seem to believe it, saying “She claims it’s her real name”. Enid responds that it is her real name, that her dad had it legally changed. John says “I always knew you were Jewish!” His tone is derogatory, as though she was concealing her heritage or would even have a reason for doing so. But the reasoning for her to make up a last name for him makes sense. She tells Becky that John Ellis “hangs out with KKK guys” and later validates Josh’s guess that he is “obsessed with serial killers, circus freaks, guns, [and] Nazis.” Despite hanging out with John, Enid has clear misgivings about his beliefs. Misrepresenting her Jewish last name to an anti-Semite would be an act of self-preservation. Rather than deceit, this is omitting information from a potentially destructive person.
The usage of John Ellis’ name is of interest. At no point is he ever called by a nickname, an imagined name, or by simply first or last name. He is always John Ellis. He and Enid have a casual friendship and she makes many references to things he has done or said, but he is always “John Ellis”. This speaks to them being close but not actually liking each other. They have known each other a while but have not developed a close relationship, closing the door on creating a mocking name for him but also affectionate nicknaming. There is a level of formality to their relationship, expressed by their usage of first and last names. And there is a power imbalance made obvious by Enid knowing his last name but him not being sure about hers.
There are four levels of relationships in Ghost World, along with four different types of names. There are imagined names for strangers. Legal names for acquaintances. Natural nicknames for loved ones. And unnatural nicknames for people that want to be loved ones, but aren’t.
