Disney Facts: How the Seven Dwarfs got their names

Drawings of the Seven Dwarfs from the press booklet
for the 1967 re-release of the movie.

Earlier this week we looked at all the rides at Disney World that have closed and how the names of the Seven Dwarfs have changed over time. Now (thanks to a suggestion from The Disney Freak) we are going to look at the origin of the Seven Dwarfs' names.

The original story from the Brothers Grimm did not name the dwarfs. But while Walt Disney was making the 1937 film, he realized the dwarfs would be the focal point of the movie. "Snow White was a charming but standard heroine; the prince appeared only briefly; and the witch was a fairy tale villainess. The dwarfs would have to provide most of the comedy and human interest," according to the 1967 press booklet created for the 30th anniversary re-release of the movie.

Walt wanted names that would reflect the personalities they were creating for the dwarfs. Some of the names proposed were Jump, Gabby, Wheezy, Nifty, Sniffy, Lazy, Puffy, Stubby, Shorty and Burby.

Snow White animator Woolie Reitherman said in the press booklet, “For the leader we wanted a special kind of personality, a self-appointed bumbler who tries to take command but gets all tangled up. We called him Doc. It was a good handle for a per­son in authority, and it suited his personality. The strongly identifying names were a beautifully simple way of establishing character.”

Many voices were tried to help spark character names. Actor Billy Gilbert had a terrific sneeze and inspired Sneezy. Other names came through the process of elimination. Happy and Grumpy provided a perfect bal­ance. Sleepy and Bashful came natu­rally.

“Dopey was the toughest of all,” re­members Ham Luske, another Snow White animator. “The boys tried to make him too much of an imbecile, which wasn’t what we really had in mind. We wanted to pattern him after Charlie Chaplin and tried many ap­propriate voices. The voice that came closest to what we wanted sounded too much like Doc.”

“Then somebody suggested that maybe he shouldn’t talk at all. That was the answer,” he said in the press booklet. “We decided that per­haps Dopey could talk but that he never really tried.”