What is the name of Victor Frankenstein's childhood friend?

Victor Frankenstein’s childhood friend is Henry Clerval.

Henry Clerval is Victor’s closest friend in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He grows up with Victor in Geneva and is portrayed as imaginative, humane, and interested in heroic stories and moral action. His personality contrasts sharply with Victor’s intense scientific ambition and growing obsession with conquering death.

When Victor becomes ill after bringing the creature to life, Henry helps nurse him back to health. Later, the two friends travel together through Britain while Victor secretly works on a second creature in the Orkney Islands. Henry remains unaware of the full horror surrounding Victor’s experiments.

The creature eventually murders Henry as revenge against Victor. His death is one of the novel’s clearest reminders that Victor’s secrecy and ambition endanger innocent people. Readers sometimes confuse Henry with Robert Walton, the Arctic explorer who hears Victor’s story, or with Ernest and William Frankenstein, who are Victor’s younger brothers. Henry alone is Victor’s childhood friend.