The article provides a semantic interpretation of the protagonists’ names, surnames, and nicknames from “Dream of the Red Chamber” by Cao Xueqin. “Dream of the Red Chamber” is one of the most significant pieces in Chinese literature, among other things, in the perspective of structural, semantic and functional aspects of characters’ anthroponyms. The academic novelty of this research is determined by a complex and detailed analysis of the anthroponomic structure of the characters’ names in the aforenamed imaginative text. The paper also provides semantic interpretation of protagonists’ naming and defines the role of proper names in creating artistic images of protagonists. As a result, the paper proves that the author of “Dream of the Red Chamber” did not choose proper names randomly but through them pursued a range of artistic goals. The choice of the names is an additional key to understanding the novel.