 On August 9 , 1934 , twenty @-@ one pages of notes — entitled " <unk> suggestions " — were compiled by staff writer Richard Creedon , suggesting the principal characters , as well as situations and ' gags ' for the story . As Disney had stated at the very beginning of the project , the main attraction of the story for him was the Seven Dwarfs , and their possibilities for " <unk> " and " gags " ; the three story meetings held in October and attended by Disney , Creedon , Larry Morey , Albert Hurter , Ted Sears and Pinto Colvig were dominated by such subjects . At this point , Disney felt that the story should begin with Snow White 's discovery of the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs . Walt Disney had suggested from the beginning that each of the dwarfs , whose names and personalities are not stated in the original fairy tale , could have individual personalities . The dwarfs names were chosen from a pool of about fifty potentials , including <unk> , <unk> , <unk> , Hickey , Wheezy , Baldy , Gabby , Nifty , <unk> , Swift , Lazy , Puffy , Stuffy , Tubby , Shorty and <unk> . The seven finalists were chosen through a process of elimination . The leader of the dwarfs , required to be pompous , self @-@ important and bumbling , was named Doc ; others were named for their distinguishing character traits . At the end of the October story meetings , however , only Doc , Grumpy , Bashful , Sleepy and Happy of the final seven were named ; at this point , Sneezy and Dopey were replaced by ' <unk> ' and an unnamed seventh dwarf . 
