What was George Orwell's original title for '1984'?

George Orwell’s original working title for Nineteen Eighty-Four was The Last Man in Europe.

Orwell worked on the novel during the late 1940s, while his health was deteriorating and the political anxieties of the postwar period were intensifying. The title The Last Man in Europe reflected the novel’s focus on Winston Smith’s isolated attempt to preserve private memory, independent thought, and human feeling under totalitarian rule.

The book was ultimately published in 1949 as Nineteen Eighty-Four, commonly written as 1984. Orwell considered other possible dates during the drafting process, and the final title is often interpreted as a reversal or rearrangement of 1948, the year in which much of the writing was completed. The exact inspiration for the final date remains debated.

The Last Man in Europe is best described as an original or working title, rather than the title of an earlier published edition. That distinction explains why Nineteen Eighty-Four is the only title readers normally encounter. “The Last Man” alone is not the original title; it also recalls Mary Shelley’s 1826 novel The Last Man.