 Mary Shelley maintained that she derived the name "Frankenstein" from a dream-vision.Despite her public claims of originality, a number of other sources have been suggested as Shelley's actual inspiration.The German name "Frankenstein" means "stone of the Franks", and is associated with various places in Germany, including Frankenstein Castle ("Burg Frankenstein") in Darmstadt, Hesse, and Frankenstein Castle in Frankenstein, a town in the Palatinate.