What Is the Wizard of Oz's Real Name?

 

In my new book, The Lost Wizard of Oz, Glinda always calls the little humbug wizard, “Oscar.” Why is that?

In the original story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum does not tell us the little Wizard’s real name. He is just called “Oz.” Nobody asks his real name, and he doesn’t offer it. It is not until the fourth Oz book, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, that we finally learn his name.

In that book, Ozma has reclaimed her rightful place on her family’s throne. The Wizard has returned to Oz and Ozma wishes to meet him. In the interview that follows, she asks him the following question: “Please tell me, Mr. Wizard, whether you called yourself Oz after this great country, or whether you believe my country is called Oz after you.”

Notice that she, herself, doesn’t know and nobody in her court offers to answer the question for her. Funnily enough, the Wizard does not answer her question either. Instead, he tells her a little story about where he is from and what his actual name is.  It seems his father was a politician who named him “Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs.” Altogether, that means his initials were O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D. You can imagine the kind of trouble a name like that would give a child growing up. Who wants a nickname like “Pinhead”?

 

The Wizard’s Arrival in the Land.

As a young man, Oscar joined a circus and billed himself as a Wizard. He called himself “Oz” (Oscar Zoroaster). After a while he incorporated ballon ascensions into his act and had the word “OZ” painted on his balloon. One day, his ballon was swept away and brought to a magical land where he was accepted as a great Wizard and eventually declared himself king.

 

So What’s in a Name?

What’s in a name? In this case, quite a bit. Ozma explains that “Oz” means “Great and Good.” The kings of her family had historically taken the word “Oz” as a title, or “Ozma” in the case of a queen. She suggests the reason the people accepted him as their ruler was because of his adopted name. For him, that was a remarkable stroke of good fortune.

 

A Little Deceptive, Maybe?

Oscar ruled the Land of Oz for many years (we are never told how many). In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it looks like the Wizard decided to leave Oz because he was tired of keeping up the deception of being a great wizard. However, in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, he claims he left because he missed his native city of Omaha and longed to return home. All of that homesickness seems to disappear when Ozma invites him to live with her in the palace. That is a pretty good retirement gig.