How did the name ‘Buratino’ come about?
The name of the main character in Aleksey Tolstoy’s fairy tale, ‘The Golden Key or The Adventures of Buratino’, is a direct adaptation of the Italian word ‘burattino*, which means ‘wooden doll’ or ‘marionette’.
In Italian theater, this term was used to refer to puppets manipulated by a puppeteer.
In the original Italian text of Carlo Collodi’s story, ‘Pinocchio’ is often referred to not by his name, but by the common noun ‘burattino’ – simply ‘puppet’. When Tolstoy decided to write his own work based on the Italian tale, he named his hero ‘Buratino’.
The choice of name was no accident. From the very beginning, it pointed to the character’s theatrical, playful nature. He is not merely a piece of firewood brought to life, but a puppet-actor who discovers the "golden key" to freedom and eventually acquires his own independent theater.
