The Doctor’s name has always been one of the many ongoing mysteries of Doctor Who. But what could it be?

When you think of the Doctor, what do you think of? You think of his clothing, his gadgets, you think of his many incarnations, you think of his companions, and you also think about his villains. If you take Doctor Who as a classic story with an antagonist and a protagonist, The Doctor would obviously be the protagonist but who would be the antagonist? The Master right?

Alright well we already know the Master’s original name is Koschei. The term koschei:

is an archetypal male antagonist, described mainly as abducting the hero’s wife. Which is appropriate considering the Master’s ability to live on despite many “deaths.”

And if you take the Doctor to be the “hero” who opposes the Master then we should take a look at his wives. Well the T.A.R.D.I.S. is widely accepted as the Doctor’s wife within the Doctor Who universe because of S6E4’s The Doctor’s Wife, and the Master DOES abduct the T.A.R.D.I.S. in S3E11: Utopia when he steals it and uses it to go back to the 21st century. So the tale still fits. More so when you look at the origins of the name Koschei:

The spelling in Russian and other Slavic languages (like Polish “Kościej” or Czech “Kostěj”) suggests that his name may be derived from the word kost (rus. кость, pol. kość) meaning ‘bone’, implying a skeletal appearance. SOURCE

And this is awesome once more because when the master returns inThe End of Time: Part 1, he looks pretty skeletal. 

Alright, so let’s wrap this up by turning to Russian folklore to find the name of the Doctor. In the tale The Death of Koschei the Deathless, Koschei is ultimately defeated by Ivan Tsarvich, one of the main heroes of Russian folklore, usually a protagonist, who often struggles with Koschei. So the Doctor’s name is Ivan.

But we won’t know for sure until later. My money is on Ivan.

SOURCES: x,x,x,x,x
Here’s a link to my original Storify article. (x)

The Doctor: Matt Smith

Amy Pond: Karen Gillan

Rory Pond: Arthur Darvill

River Song/Melody Pond: Alex Kingston