Abstract
Dictators are the main characters in many Hispanic-American literary works. The representation of the despots shows a variety of recurring features in which onomastic choices make a significant contribution. For instance, the messianic quality often attributed to dictators is already present in the titles of novels such as Yo, el Supremo, by Augusto Roa Bastos, or El Supremísimo, by Luis Ricardo Alonso. My paper investigates the role of the names, epithets and titles attributed to tyrants in the so-called ‘dictator novel’.