What is the name of the protagonist in the novel?

The protagonist in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is Offred. She is the first-person narrator, a fertile woman forced into servitude in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead.

“Offred” is not her birth name. It is a patronymic slave name meaning she belongs to, or is assigned to, a Commander called Fred. Handmaids’ names change when they move between households, reducing their personal identities to their reproductive function. Offred is assigned to the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, to bear a child for them.

A common mix-up is calling her June. The television adaptation explicitly gives Offred the name June Osborne, but Atwood’s original novel never definitively reveals her real name. Some readers infer that it is June from clues in the text, yet the novel’s canonical name for its narrator remains Offred. The name also echoes “offered,” suggesting sacrifice, and “of red,” referring to the Handmaids’ clothing.