“Bladorthin the Grey” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Gandalf the Grey,” does it? Good thing J.R.R. Tolkien decided to do some name swapping. Turns out he’s in good company: here’s the story of Gandalf and other famous characters who experienced an identity change before publication.

1. The only Pevensie child who escaped from the first drafts of the Chronicles of Narnia series with his name intact was Peter. In an early version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter is the youngest child – not the oldest – and his siblings are Ann, Martin and Rose.

2. It’s a small change, but a significant one, especially to arachnologists. In Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White originally named his beloved eight-legged character “Charlotte Epeira” after the Grey Cross spider, or Epeira sclopetaria. He later discovered that he had mistaken the identity of the spider that served as his muse: she was actually a barn spider, not a Grey Cross. Accordingly, White matched the character’s name with her species, Araneus cavaticus, making his wise webspinner’s name “Charlotte A. Cavatica.”


Read the full text here: 17 Famous Literary Characters Almost Named Something Else - Mental Floss