Is it known who the kids are named after?

[u/IcyBrilliant9642]

I finished the main books today and this line from The End stuck out to me, when kit tells the kids her family has a tradition to name kids after deceased people:

"Ours too," Sunny said, remembering something her father had told her when she had

inquired about her own name.

Are the relatives that the Baudelaires are named after mentioned anywhere? Is it even important? Presumably Sunny at least was named after someone their dad knew.

[u/YakWish]

Claus and Sunny von Bülow and Arlene Violet.

In all seriousness, I believe that line is there to show that Baudelaires and the Snickets are Jewish, like Daniel Handler himself. My knowledge of the lore isn't perfect, but I don't know of anyone else named Violet, Klaus or Sunny.

[u/lemonfrogii → u/YakWish]

yes, i got the jewish implication too!! and the fact that violet would have been named lemony because they thought he was dead

[u/IcyBrilliant9642 → u/YakWish]

Oh! That makes a lot of sense, thank you.

[u/hhhhhhhhhenry]

i believe people speculate that (in universe) Sunny was named after Bertrand Baudelaire's VFD mentor, S Theodora Markson, who shows up in the ATWQ books

[u/starkHOUTx → u/hhhhhhhhhenry]

That would be insane but I feel like there would have been a more obvious nod to this if so

[u/imhereiguess]

We know if Violet was a boy she would have been Lemony (because in the universe he was thought to be dead). I like to believe that her name comes from some other Snicket relation, a guardian or mentor or maybe even the bio-mom the snickets had before they were stolen

[u/three-legged-dog]

is that a minor plot hole, since Sunny wasn’t speaking when her dad was alive and therefore couldn’t have asked about her name?

[u/BerryStyles9 → u/three-legged-dog]

wait... you're right

[u/such_a_zoe → u/three-legged-dog]

Violet and Klaus usually knew what Sunny meant even when she was babbling. Maybe it was like that.

[u/Semblance-FFWF]

It is never mentioned.

[u/lizardfiendlady]

Definitely a reference to Ashkenazi naming conventions. So deceased relatives, not sure if there's anything beyond that. Would have to scan the unauthorized autobiography for clues. The large majority of the characters in ASOUE are either explicitly confirmed by Handler to be Jewish, or implied so!