Why is the manga called D.Gray-Man?

[Gold Knight]

Pretty good guesses there, thanks KeithZJ. I think I'd go with Death Gray Man or Damned Gray Man, depending on which character it's talking about.

[vlado]

A friend of mine got he's copy of shonen *don't know the number* and he says that the author gave an interview and sayd that d.grayman stands for dorian gray + man , the earl is dorian gray and allen is the man that will deafet him...

[kadoman]

Hm...wonder what the signifiance of Dorian Gray is? I've only read a couple of volumes but can see no reference to the original Dorian Gray.

[vlado]

Well the milenium earl is based on dorian gray , he will probablay die in a similar way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorian_Gray tough i didn't find similaritis betwen the earl and dorian

[kadoman]

Bit weird then! I guess it's another case of the Japanese just liking an English name and chucking it on the heap for the sake of trendiness! ha! The novel, by the way, is excellent. Highly recommended.

[vlado]

Yeah i re-read it last month it's art i tell you art

[TBBX]

I've never seen any interview that says the Earl is based on Dorian Gray. I remember an interview that said he was based on someone but it never said who. If you could find out from your friend where that interview was from it would help a lot

[Seta Soujirou]

doesn't make sense...the earl doesn't seem to be like a narcissist unlike dorian gray...

[haya5h1]

There's a theory bandied around Wiki that the Earl is rumored to be based on the Comte de Saint-Germain, a fairly eccentric individual/fraud/freak who quite fits the description Hoshino-sensei wrote. D-Gray-Man could logically be an intentional corruption of de St Germain.

oh, and a Thelemic friend pointed out to me that the Black Order's cross is very similar to the Rosy Cross, which plays a substantial role in Thelemic mysticism, which was founded by... Aleister Crowley.

I no longer begrudge Hoshino-sensei her research breaks.

[Nognir]

Maybe Dorian Gray stands for immortality of some sort

[Impel Down]

D. stands for dolls, Gray-man means humans, who are neither white (good) or black (evil), but gray. So, it's doll humans, meaning that humans are but dolls to fate.

[Absolutio]

I had/have this theory of D.Gray-man as a title who describes its main hero of the story - Allen.
My theory relies on the theory of Allen being part (or whole) Noah.
Well, in their world, Excorcists are "good"=white, and the Noahs are "bad"=black. And if someone's is a mix of White and Black, then he's Gray.
So D.Gray-Man stands for "The Gray Man" => Allen Walker.

[renrutal]

Aren't the Noahs the gray men?

[Digital_Eon]

Aren't the Noahs the gray men?

They're not all "men", exactly. ^^;; But they are gray, and I admit I thought it referred to them, too. Hoshino did say that the title referred to Allen and some other characters, which makes sense if you think about the Noah.

[Cyrus Drake]

i read about that Dorian Gray bit at wiki too and i certainly don't think he and the Earl are similar.. i agree that D.Gray-man refers to literaly 'The Gray Men' as in the Noah and since Hoshino-sensei said the title was referring to Allen and a few other characters then i guess Allen has something to do with Noahs.

also, i checked the meaning of Allen and it meant 'in tune'... anything to do with the piano?
oh and Earl too..it meant 'gentlemanly'..true enough..