The Mock Turtle is a fictional character devised by Lewis Carroll from his popular 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Its name is taken from a dish that was popular in the Victorian period, mock turtle soup.

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, "Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?"

"It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from", said the Queen.Carroll enjoyed such puns on Victorian fashions and etiquette, and showed this frequently.

("tortoise" and "taught us" both being pronounced [tɔːtəs] in Carroll's dialect).