What is the name of the vampire in Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'?

The vampire in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is Count Dracula. He is the novel’s title character and its principal antagonist, an ancient Transylvanian nobleman who has become an undead vampire.

Published in 1897, the novel presents Dracula through letters, diaries, newspaper reports, and other documents. Jonathan Harker encounters him at his remote castle before Dracula travels to England, where he preys on Lucy Westenra and targets Mina Murray. Abraham Van Helsing leads the effort to stop him.

The character is partly associated with Vlad III Dracula, the 15th-century Wallachian ruler popularly known as Vlad the Impaler, although Stoker’s fictional vampire is not a straightforward biography of him. Dracula’s name and some historical associations helped shape the character, while the novel drew more broadly on European vampire traditions.

A common mix-up is confusing Dracula with Carmilla, the female vampire in Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella, or with Count Orlok, the renamed vampire in the film “Nosferatu.” In Stoker’s original novel, the canonical answer is Count Dracula.