The Handmaid's Tale-The Long-Awaited Name Revealed

Good news!

 I’m rather pleased to inform you, my dear faithful follower(s) that I’ve finally discovered the name of the Handmaid. As this discovery serves as a strong incentive for me to abandon my state of idleness and unite with my long-lost keyboard, I shall now proceed with my next entry.

Apparently, the Handmaid’s name is Offred, though this is not her original name but the name the new reign enforced on her after the revolution. When I first encountered it, I thought it was merely an ironic pun on the word “red” and the prefix “off-“. Basically, as a Handmaid, Offred is obliged to wear red at all times, which actually contradicts the portrayal of the humble and reserved women of the new era, since red symbolises power, strength, desire and love. These are the last things; you’d expect a Handmaid to represent. However, perhaps under the new regime, this colour gained a whole new meaning and became the symbol of fertility. Nevertheless, the prefix “off-“ has a meaning of “being away from something”, which can be inferred from the words such as; off-centre, off colour, off-duty, offstage etc. The irony here is that when we combine these two words, we obtain a word, which means “irrelevant to the colour red” but considering that the Handsmaids are bound to constantly wear red, this word contains a curious paradox in its very structure.

On the other hand, after reading a bit further, I came across another Handmaid’s name, which was Ofwarren, whose commander was called Warren. Such unexpected yet simple connections between these names must speak for themselves! It became suddenly clear that the name Offred plainly stands for “the property of Fred, the commander.” There also seems to be quite a resemblance to the Icelandic patronymic (occasionally matronymic) naming system, which was formerly used in all Scandinavia.

Fjalar is the son of Jón (Jóns + son) Katrín is Jón's daughter (Jóns + dóttir)

So, after all the name of our heroine, Offred has nothing whatsoever to do with puns on words or ironies but a foreseeable act of returning to the roots, which is a part of this period of regression. In the end my assumptions have turned out to be mere coincidences, I needn’t have cogitated about the meaning of the name that deeply. Over-analysing much ? J

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