The Addams Family has been around for several decades, and a new rendition of their tales has now made its way to Netflix via their latest show, Wednesday. Focused on Wednesday Addams, the show depicts her misadventures in her supernatural school, Nevermore.
Whether you’re a new fan or not, you must be wondering how Wednesday ended up with such a peculiar name. Wednesday isn’t a particularly scary name, so it doesn’t match the family’s spooky brand. But is there any other special meaning behind it?
Wednesday Addams is named after a line in a children’s poem called “Monday’s Child.” The exact line that served as inspiration for Wednesday’s name is, “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.”
Wednesday and her mother, Morticia, have a tense relationship in this show, but the latter tries to express her affection when she explains the meaning behind Wednesday’s name.
As both of them share a love for all things morbid, the reminder of what Wednesday’s name meant became a sweet moment for them to reconnect.
Originally, when Charles Addams created the Addams family, they were simply nameless newspaper cartoons. This all changed when Addams was approached to create a TV show which would require fleshing out more concrete details about the characters.
During this process, “Monday’s Child” also served as a real-life inspiration to Addams, who was desperately trying to come up with names for the character but couldn’t seem to find any that he liked.
Then his friend and actress, Joan Blake, suggested the name “Wednesday,” citing the poem. And thus, an iconic character was born!
You might expect the explanation to have been as simple as Wednesday being the day of the week she was born on. However, that’s not the case!
The Netflix show does have a clever Easter egg regarding this detail. In the same episode, Wednesday comments that she was born on “Friday the 13th.” Apart from the supernatural connection to the date, it also hints at the fact that Wednesday’s middle name in the 1960 TV show was Friday.
Yup, Wednesday’s full name is Wednesday Friday Addams!
About Wednesday
Wednesday is an American coming-of-age supernatural comedy horror television series based upon the character Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jenna Ortega as the title character, with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Isaac Ordonez, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Fred Armisen, and Christina Ricci appearing in supporting roles.
Wednesday is expelled from her high school and enrolled in Nevermore Academy in Jericho, Vermont, a school for monstrous outcasts once attended by her parents. Here, she discovers she has psychic abilities that help her solve a local murder mystery with the help of Jericho’s sheriff.
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