Tepes is Romanian for the Impaler. He was the second son of Vlad Dracul - thus in Romanian, Dracula, son of Dracul.
During his practical imprisonment, Vlad Dracula was said to have learned various methods of torture and execution, an experience which led him to unleash a series of atrocities in the years to follow.
It should be noted that at the time, in the 1400s, what we consider atrocities today were accepted. Among his refined punishments imposed upon his enemies were being skinned alive, set afire - much as Daesh continue to do to this day - dismemberment, and of course, impalement. The latter was one of his favored techniques, hence his nickname - Vlad the Impaler. Supposedly, he dipped bread into human blood and sucked upon it, which may have given rise to Bram Stoker's famous Count Dracula, set in Transylvania, where the actual Dracula was born in 1431.
