Dracula's actual name was Vlad Tepes and he was not a Vampire
The name of Dracula was made famous by Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel with the vampire as the main character. That's how the whole world found about Dracula. The real Dracula was actually named Vlad Tepes(The Impaler) and was famous in the Middle Age as the blood thirsty Romanian Ruler who punished thieves, beggars and unfaithful noblemen in the most bizarre ways you can imagine.
Vlad Tepes was born in the city of Sighisoara, part of Transylvania, in the year 1431 becoming Wallachia's Emperor. During his lifetime he was married three times having five children, four boys and a girl. Most of his childhood was spent out of the country following his father, Vlad Dracul, which gave him access to different cultures and leaders.
What made him famous though were not his childhood years and personal life, rather the way he punished felons and enemies. Cruel and blood thirsty with his punishments his name didn't only became well known among the ones who feared him, but also in the history of the Otoman Empire and in Transylvanian and Hungary. Not tolerating injustice at all he fought for his country and the countries enemies both internal and external ones in the most barbarian and bizarre ways.
When Mahomed II came to conquer the Romanian country his army was welcomed by a terrifying landscape. In order to weaken the empires soldiers he ordered all the houses in their way to be burned among with the fields of grain and fountains to be poisoned. Creating not only harsh surviving conditions but a cruel landscape he was named by the Turks as Kazıklı Bey(The first Impaler)
Considering beggars pests to the country he found a not so orthodox way of getting rid of them. Gathered them all at a mansion filled with foods and drinks creating the delusion that they are going to enjoy a pleasant evening drinking, eating and dancing. After the frenzy begun ordered all doors to be sealed along with the windows and burned down the house.
Gypsies were also not his favorite country inhabitants so he forced them fight in his army against the Turks proving that he had a use for everyone. His goal was to make the country independent, clean with honest inhabitants that worked for themselves rather than stealing from each other.
During his years of ruling the small country of Romania, his punishments for thieves were so cruel that nobody could dare anymore to take any object that didn't belong to them. Thus he left a cup made of gold near a fountain for everybody to use and during his time ruling the country nobody dare to steal it.
His association with blood came from his favorite punishment. Using large stakes felons and other of his enemies were impaled through their torso. Then the stakes were erected in the ground with the felony hanging in this way for days until dying. That's how his name was associated with blood and became an inspiration for Bram Stoker and his famous blood thirsty novel character and hundreds of movies portraying the cruel vampire living in his castle from Transylvania.
For the Romanian history though he was a cruel emperor wanting nothing more than a free and prosper country and that's what he died for.
Source of information in Romanian:
https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/domnitorul-vlad-tepes-subiect-al-manipularii-de-peste-500-de-ani
https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/portret/articol/vlad-tepes-legenda-si-istorie