Character Naming in Beloved

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And, for thy name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself." hakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II.ii Shakespeare's Juliet tells us that names are unimportant - inconsequential, in fact. A name is merely …

…of Genesis as the name of the third son of Adam and Eve, after Cain and Abel. If it is read in this way, Sethe is intended as a progenitor, as the Biblical Seth is an ancestor of Noah and thus of all humankind. But what Morrison's Sethe is a progenitor of is unclear. The only obvious thing which she creates is her own children, only one of which (Denver) she sees survive to adulthood.