Babar is the elephant king in a set of picture books for children, first written and drawn by Jean de Brunhoff in France, and later continued by his son. In the story Babar’s mother is killed; he goes to the city, puts on a suit, and goes home to rule the elephants. The books are gentle, old-fashioned, and full of calm green forests and palace rooms. For a child, Babar is simply the elephant in clothes who is a king. Though actually, some adults now argue about the stories — city clothes on a wild animal, and a rather colonial idea of ‘becoming civilised’. That argument is later; it is not what the name means on a children’s shelf. This is a character’s name, not a word for a real kind of elephant. Capital B.