德古拉

德古拉 transliterates Dracula. The name connects two figures: Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic novel 《德古拉》 introduced 德古拉伯爵 (Count Dracula), the archetypal Transylvanian vampire; the historical inspiration was 弗拉德三世 (Vlad III) of Wallachia, nicknamed 'Dracula' (Romanian 'son of the dragon') and 'Vlad the Impaler' (穿刺公) for his brutal punishments. Stoker likely never read about the historical Vlad in detail — he just borrowed the name.

德 (dé, 'virtue') + 古 (gǔ, 'ancient') + 拉 (lā, 'pull') — the three characters are all standard transliteration syllables. Read aloud as Dé-gǔ-lā, you can hear 'Drac-u-la' clearly.