Sanfacion

The capitol of Nuevo Rico in The Broken Ear

sans façon: without manners, rough and ready (Tintin, The Complete Companion)

Omar Ben Salaad

The Crab with the Golden Claws

salad

Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine

The Secret of the Unicorn

saccharin: a synthetic sweetener, in dilute solution 500 times sweeter than sugar

saccharine: adj., of the nature of or resembling that of sugar, overly sweet, cloyingly agreeable or ingratiating

Sophocles Sarcophagus

Cigars of the Pharaoh

sarcophagus: a stone coffin, especially one bearing an inscription

Sethru-Jamjah

The train Tintin escapes on in Cigars of the Pharaoh runs from Sethru to Jamjah

see-through jam jar

Bonus trivia question: Who is the old woman?

Aristides Silk

Pickpocket in The Secret of the Unicorn

Aristides: (Aristides the Just) 530? - 486? BC; Athenian statesman and general.

silk: a smooth, lustrous fiber from the cocoon of the silkworm,
Bombyx mori, used to weave fine cloth

Mr. and Mrs. Snowball

Cigars of the Pharaoh

snowball: a ball of snow, as for throwing

Spalding

Flight 714:

Flight 714: in order to effect his devious plans, a criminal named Spalding works as the unsuspecting Laszlo Carreidas’ assistant

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Red-Headed League”:
In order to effect his devious plans, a criminal named Spaulding works as the unsuspecting Jabez Wilson’s assistant.

Sznôrr

The Calculus Affair

snore: the noise made by some while sleeping

A hotel in Szohôd, Borduria. In frame 13 of page 49, the name on the sign is spelled Zsnôrr.

General Tapioca

Tintin and the Picaros and
The Broken Ear

tapioca: food substance prepared from cassava, in granular, flake, pellet or flour form, used in puddings as a thickener, etc.

Professor Hercules Tarragon

The Seven Crystal Balls,
Prisoners of the Sun

tarragon: an herb

Hercules: in classical mythology, Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and had great strength.
When he greets his old friend Calculus, Tarragon lifts Calculus off the ground. He has, according to Captain Haddock, “A grip like a mangle.”

Tel El Esdi

Land of Black Gold

Tel LSD

Thompson and Thomson see a hallucination of this city while driving through the desert.

tel (or tell): an artificial mound consisting of the accumulated remains of one or more ancient settlements, often used in Egypt and the Middle East as part of a place name

LSD: lysergic acid diethylamide, a powerful psychedelic drug that produces temporary hallucinations

Professor Alfredo Topolino

The Calculus Affair

topolino: Italian for “little mouse”

Italians call the Fiat Cinquecento (Fiat 500 or city car) the Topolino
The New Yorker 12 03 07 p43

Topolino is also the Italian name for Mickey Mouse
Wikipedia article on minor characters in Tintin

A. Torticolli

The Calculus Affair

Torticolli, torticollis, and cervical dystonia are all names for a medical condition in which the neck muscles contract involuntarily in various combinations.

A. Torticolli is the name on an ice-cream truck parked outside Marlinspike along with a crowd of rubberneckers (gawkers, sightseers). Page 15.

Rodrigo Tortilla

The Broken Ear

tortilla: in Mexican cooking, a thin, flat cake of cornmeal or flour;
in Spanish cooking, an omelet containing potato and other vegetables (called in American cookbooks, a Spanish Omelet)

Wadesdah

Land of Black Gold, The Red Sea Sharks

what is there? what is that?

Jolyon Wagg

Several Tintin Adventures

wag: to move about rapidly as in a dog wagging its tail. Presumably refers to Wagg’s tongue. In The Calculus Affair, Wagg says “That’ll give us a chance to have another chinwag together.”
Also, in British English, “wag” is used as a noun, meaning a wit or joker.

Igor Wagner

The Castafiore Emerald
and others

Signora Castafiore’s accompanist; Richard Wagner, German composer; also, Wagner is a character in Gounod’s opera Faust

Christopher Willoughby- Drupe

The Castafiore Emerald and others.

drupe: a fruit with a skin, a pulp and a hard seed, such as a peach, a plum, or a nectarine

Wizskitotz

King Ottokar’s Sceptre

whisky tot
tot: A small portion of a beverage, especially a dram of liquor.

Wolff

Destination Moon, Explorers on the Moon

wolf: a large carnivore of the dog family, Canis lupus, a favorite villain in folk tales and sayings, as in
“a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Wolff is also a common name of German origin.

Zloty

Cigars of the Pharaoh
(the well-known poet Zloty)

zloty: a nickel coin and monetary unit of Poland, equal to 100 groszy