The characters in Djinn are no more fully delineated than in Robbe-Grillet's previous novels, and may be even less coherent. Names are given, but the individuals to whom they belong seem to shift. The names Boris and Laura evoke the characters in Un Regicide (1978), but here, Boris might be Simon, and Laura might be a mannequin, or even Djinn/Jean, whom she resembles.

Djinn/Jean is not only the name of the American female, but also the name of the young boy who is hurt, or dead (he "dies often" according to Marie), and a later version of Marie — now called Djinn — tells Simon "all little boys are called Jean." Simon himself may be Djinn; the name, like its equivalent, Jean, is masculine in French. Also, according to the anonymous narrator of the prologue, Simon/Boris/Robin was known by his students as Yann "which they...