Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Names the Seven Dwarves Could Have Had
by Stacy Conradt - October 6, 2009 - 3:30 PM

q10

There have been numerous jokes over the years as to what Snow White’s sidekicks should have been named, but these were really options! The original fairytale left the dwarves nameless; theater productions over the years either followed that tradition or made up random names such as Quee and Glick. But Disney wanted his dwarves’ names to reflect their physical and character traits. Just think how different the movie might have been if Snow White’s most lovable little buddy had been named Dirty. Hmm.

6238-seven-dwarves1. Chesty. This just has “wrong” written all over it.
2. Deafy. Deafy also made it into a draft and his character was described in a manner that would probably make the American Society for the Deaf cringe:
“Deafy is a happy sort of fellow – he always tries to make clever remarks, but he misinterprets other people’s attitudes toward him. He feels, lots of times, that they are saying something about him, or that they have made some remarks, which they haven’t at all – he takes exception to the most ridiculous things. Throughout the picture Deafy and Gordon are always clashing. Deafy will pick up one word of the conversation in the early part, and whereas the conversation topic might have changed completely, he still sticks to the first thing that he heard, and in this way we hope to get some comical situations out of Deafy.”
3. Tipsy. A drunken dwarf may have sent the wrong message to children.
4. Titsy. Umm…

5. Jumpy. Jumpy almost made the cut, but was replaced by Sneezy at the last minute. You can read about his character in an early draft of the film, though:

“He is in constant twitchy fear of being goosed, but is not goosed until the last scene. Whenever he hears a noise behind him, he starts, and his hand automatically protects his fanny. He is also exceedingly ticklish.”

6. Dirty.

7. Sleazy. You have to agree that with dwarves named Chesty, Tipsy, Titsy, Dirty and Sleazy, this animated children’s movie would have sounded a lot more like a XXX porn.

8. Jaunty. I laughed out loud to think of the personification of a dwarf named jaunty.

9. Awful. Poor Awful sounds like he really earned his name. In this 1935 draft, he is portrayed as being a pathetic character who is convinced by his fellow dwarves that he is evil and immoral:

He most loveable and interesting of the dwarf characterisations. He steals and drinks and is very dirty. The other dwarfs have impressed on him that he is a soul beyond redemption. This fact he never questions. He feels powerless against the evil in him and accepts his damnation cheerfully. He is the perpetual fall guy for the others. He is blamed and punished for everything that goes wrong and, even when punished for somebody else’s misdeed, he takes his medicine with a cheerful “I deserve it.”

10. Hickey.

Definitely some questionable choices there. In the end, I think I’m glad Disney stuck with Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Grumpy and Bashful. Can you think of any particularly awful names for Snow White’s cohorts? You can’t do much worse than some of these!

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Comments (23)

  1. Tipsy, Titsy, Chesty, and Sleazy? I guess they’re better than Touchy, Feely, Testy, and Easy.

    reCaptcha: Magnetos Times. I would definitely read that paper (no lead in the ink please)

    posted by Steven on 10-6-2009 at 3:37 pm

  2. And it wasn’t until the dwarf population dropped to eight that the other dwarves began to suspect Hungry…

    posted by Layne on 10-6-2009 at 4:03 pm

  3. Here are a few more. I dare you not to visualize any politicians while reading further.

    Smarmy, Toadie, Cheesy, Clammy, Nosy, Loopy, Lippy, Zippy, Icky, Sticky & Ricky. Also Gandy, Randy, Tranny & Pee-Wee.

    The possibilities boggle the mind.

    posted by Tom on 10-6-2009 at 4:08 pm

  4. How about Crappy, Skeezy, Creepy, Gropey, Stumpy, Gashful and Cock?

    Sorry. Hard to find something that rhymes with Bashful.

    posted by Bert on 10-6-2009 at 4:20 pm

  5. Doobie, Potty, Weedy, Bammy, Gunny, Burnie, and Dopey could stick around for shits and giggles.

    posted by Will on 10-6-2009 at 4:24 pm

  6. Stinky, Dumpy, Shitferbrains, Loser, Dorky, Freaky, and Methuselah. I know, I know, Dumpy would be bad because he is self-conscious about the way he looks.

    posted by Bubba on 10-6-2009 at 4:30 pm

  7. Gassy, Gropey (keep away from Chesty and Titsy), Smelly, Snotty, Punchy, it’s just too easy.

    If anyone ever made a dirty version of the movie, they’d need 17 dwarves to cover all the dirty possibilities. Add one named, Fetish, too.

    posted by Dave on 10-6-2009 at 4:53 pm

  8. These remind me of the Seven Duffs from the Simpsons….Tipsy, Queasy, Surly, Sleazy, Edgy, Dizzy, and Remorseful

    posted by Reese on 10-6-2009 at 4:58 pm

  9. I prefer to call Disney’s dwarves by their diagnoses:

    Manic, Allergic, Lethargic, Idiotic, Medic, Ascerbic and Laconic

    posted by Bryan on 10-6-2009 at 5:11 pm

  10. Flirty, Turdy, Jerky, Pissy, Twitter, Animal, and Shy.

    posted by Deb on 10-6-2009 at 5:32 pm

  11. Horny?

    posted by Tim on 10-6-2009 at 6:48 pm

  12. We had three women at work we used to call Ditzy, Dingy, and Dumpy…

    posted by Maxwell Radcliffe on 10-6-2009 at 7:07 pm

  13. My sisters and I came up with Pretty, who would eventually run off with Sexy to be together.

    posted by Jo on 10-6-2009 at 11:52 pm

  14. Dumpy was actually one of the names brainstormed by disney

    posted by Bryan on 10-7-2009 at 12:05 am

  15. Reminds me of an old computer system that I used to work with that we had nicknames for several of the components. I remember Soaky, Flaky, and Blinky.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-7-2009 at 12:31 am

  16. Me and the guys at work were actually talking about this the other day (different conversation, long story) and we cam up with our non copyright infringing alternatives:

    Sneezy – Aidsy
    Happy – Valiumy
    Grumpy – Personality Disordery
    Doc – Rapey
    Dopey – Retardey
    Sleepy – Stonedy
    Bashful – Domestic Abusey

    posted by Smith on 10-7-2009 at 5:06 am

  17. How about Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde? Oh, wait…

    posted by Steven on 10-7-2009 at 8:23 am

  18. When I was child, my father gave me a troll doll with a nameplate that read something like, ‘Sleazy, the 8th dwarf.’ I had no idea that he could have been so right!!

    posted by Mike's Girl on 10-7-2009 at 8:59 am

  19. There was also Lumpy – but he died of cancer before they started filming.

    posted by Foo Bar on 10-7-2009 at 10:24 am

  20. The dwaeves’ names remind me of those ghosts from Pac-Man.

    posted by Sara in AL on 10-7-2009 at 11:35 am

  21. Having done youth work with at-risk populations for over a decade, I hate to admit that I’ve heard at least half of these names as “street” names. Who can take a young gangster named Cheese and Pee Wee seriously?

    posted by PiedrasPR on 10-7-2009 at 12:51 pm

  22. Does anyone actually recall the names they gave the smurfs? I watched an episode on cartoon network as an adult once…Handy? Really?

    For a little more Snow White Disney trivia…watch the scene where Snow White dances with the dwarves in the cottage. Then watch the scene in Disney’s Robin Hood where Maid Marion is dancing to “Prince John the Phony King of England.” The choreography is the same. The animators just traced over the steps and replaced the characters.

    posted by Hastings on 10-7-2009 at 2:31 pm

  23. I once heard of a gang member called “Macaroni”. I think I laughed for days.

    posted by KT on 10-14-2009 at 11:06 pm

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