The name Cruella de Vil is a pun of the words "cruel" and "devil", an allusion that is emphasized by having her English country house nicknamed 'Hell Hall'. The name 'de Vil' is also a literary allusion to Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), in which the realty firm Mitchell, Sons & Candy write a letter to Lord Godalming, informing him that the purchaser of a house in Piccadilly, London is "a foreign nobleman, Count De Ville." Count De Ville, however, proves to be an alias for Count Dracula himself.