What nickname do children give to the vampire Lucy Westenra in 'Dracula'?

Children call the vampire Lucy Westenra the “Bloofer Lady” in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The strange nickname comes from the children’s pronunciation of “beautiful lady.”

After Lucy dies and returns as a vampire, newspapers report that children near Hampstead are being approached by an attractive woman at night. The children describe her as a “bloofer lady,” while also reporting that she lures them away and leaves them with mysterious wounds.

The name is therefore both innocent-sounding and disturbing. It reflects the children’s limited vocabulary while disguising the danger Lucy represents. In the novel, Van Helsing and Lucy’s former suitors eventually discover that the woman in the reports is Lucy’s undead form.

The episode is easy to misremember because “Bloofer Lady” is not Lucy’s name while she is alive, nor is it a formal vampire title. It is a child-created label used in the newspaper reports after her transformation.