In García Márquez’s novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the author deftly applies names to transmit the novel’s themes. In this paper, we analyse García Márquez’s text from the perspective of community. We examine how names are used discursively to portray the roles of characters and their contributions to the fictional community in the novel, and explore the role of patriarchy in a society’s ambivalent commitment to preserving a community ideal known as the ‘cult of virginity’.