ways_back_room | Weekend Entertainment: What's in a name?

Tess' birth name is Lutessa Lena Luthor. It seems she wasn't called Tess until she was adopted out and her birth father demanded her name be changed. I've head-canoned her full name to be Theresa (Tess) Emeline Mercer.

Kylo's birth name is SPOILER SPOILER Ben Solo, ostensibly named after Kenobi. Where Kylo came from I don't know but Ren is a reference to the Knights of Ren and it's being assumed they all carry that last name. Hopefully episode VIII will expand on that.

Not canon or reliable or even likely, but amusing: there's an internet meme going around tumblr that one's Dark Side name comes from the second two letters of one's mother's maiden name and the last two letters of one's father's family name, plus the first three letters of your first name, with an R replacing the first letter.

sKYwalker = KY
soLO = LO
Ben = REN

(Mine turned out as Arnn Rar, which is just too many Rs by half.)

Aha that's funny, although, wouldn't Leia's maiden name be Organa? I don't think she ever adopted Skywalker.

Perhaps the meme meant birth-name? I don't remember the exact wording.

(BWAH. Mine is Rorr Ret. Way too many Rs, represent!)

Hey, you can make it one word - Rorret the Wookie, perhaps?

Mine would be Igee Ron.

(using my personal journal rather than the characters' because I can't think of a dang rhyme for this)

"Zecora" used to be the Oromos' word for zebra, although it apparently is no longer used. (One of those websites which lists name meanings and origins also gives its meaning as "magical, strong female, wise," which is certainly appropriate, except all it gives for origin is "African," which is... less than helpful? Plus I can only even find it on one such site, which leads me to suspect that the reason it's so appropriate is that someone made the meaning up based on the character. Whereas the MLP wiki links to a 1901 text from the Zoological Society of London.)

Enzo Matrix's name is not particularly meaningful. His last name is simply because his sister is Dot Matrix, which of course is one of the show's rampant puns. As for his first name:

Alrighty then. Risk of losing my “mythical ‘Reboot god’ status” not withstanding, here – because you demanded it – is the full and true story behind Enzo’s name:

Waaaaaaaaay back when the show was still in development, and we were all still in London, In-ger-land, Phil, Ian and I were having a creative meeting with Chris Brough, our (at that time) shiny new Reboot Producer. He was telling us that it would be important for the sale of the show to a US Network to have a ‘kid’ in it for our young audience to relate to.

Now, it has to be said we weren’t too happy about that idea. After all, we didn’t want no stoopid kid character ‘ruining’ our kick-butt, high-tech action show just to appease the networks!

But Chris was adamant; “You have to have a kid… a little ‘Enzo’ running around in there…” he said.

Well, we griped and moaned, but eventually we gave in, and Dot gained a little brother. The name Enzo stuck because it was funny, and unusual – and besides, we’d think of something better later…

The rest, as they say, is history. From the moment he was added to the show Enzo grew and grew on us. Now he’s one of our favourite characters, and one of the most fun to write for, both comedy and drama. He’s the heart of the show – and the fact that we love the little spud so much is another reason for his return at the end of Season III!

So there you go – it’s not a reference to anything, it’s not a computer term, it’s
simply the first kid’s name that popped into Chris’s head when he was telling us the show needed a kid to make a sale. (Quite possibly because it was the nickname he used to call his own son when he was young, but don’t quote me on that teeny bit of the story.)

From the moment we heard the name it it stuck, and now we couldn’t imagine Enzo being called anything else. And despite our initial reaction (which I hope doesn’t upset anyone!) we couldn’t imagine the show without him!

Gavin [Blair]

The kanji for Abe no Seimei's name mean:

菊池 (Abe) = Double Serenity

容斎 (Seimei) = Clarifying/Purifying Light - this is an archaic pronunciation of the characters by modern Japanese standards.

Point of interest: Seimei's given name can also be written with kanji characters that read "noteworthy for being correct."

Sunshine goes by two names, neither of their meanings secret. She has been Rae since she was six years old, and after using her mother's maiden name (Lambeth) for four years, she took her step-father's last name (Seddon) when Charlie married Rae's mother. She has been Rae Seddon since she was ten years old. Even before then, though, Charlie had started calling her Sunshine. Rae thought it was a play on her name. Sunshine - Sun's Rays, right? Sunlight being her elemental affinity, both Rae and Sunshine fit her quite well.

Sunshine hasn't used her birth name since she and her mother left her father when Rae was six. Rae's father's family, the rather powerful Blaises, seemed to have something akin to theme-naming going on - the given names we see in canon all share dark/black associations. Rae's father was Onyx Blaise, and Rae's birth name is Raven Blaise. Though Rae believes the family to have been on the side of the good guys for the most part, she does have proof that the Blaise family has had dealings with Dark Others in the past, and knows that part of why her mother decided to take her daughter and leave her husband was because his magic-handling was putting them in danger. Rae knows there were rumors that Onyx Blaise was a sorcerer, the most powerful (and therefore most dangerous) kind of magic-handler, but she doesn't think anybody ever found any proof.

Rae, Sunshine, and Blaise (pronounced as Blaze) all fit the sunlight-seeking baker quite well.

Edited 2016-02-06 20:54 (UTC)

Starting with the inspiration for this topic, Ahsoka! So apparently back in the early 70s, when Lucas was first writing out his ideas for Star Wars, the Light Side and Dark Side each had a name, Ashla and Bogan respectively. He dropped the names and then a few decades later, Dave Filoni has an idea for a new character who he at first names Ashla. Ashla becomes Ahsoka, but I love the idea of her being an avatar of the Light Side down in her roots. I also love her earliest design (scroll down a bit, Tumblr page because I didn't bookmark the article I first saw it in and my Google Fu is failing me). The only info I am finding for the name Ahsoka is that it is a popular Indian name for boys and was the name of a past ruler.

For Izana, I am going to try and piece together things via Google traslate, so I hope I don't botch this too badly. The kanji for her name is 科戸瀬イザナ. And I am getting nothing from Google Translate aside from Izana. The name seems to be of Hindu origin and means "Powerful Woman", which doesn't fit Izana at all. I could see "insightful woman" or some such, but not powerful. Oh well.

Selina means Moon and comes from Greece, i.e. the titan goddess. Works pretty well give Cat is a goddess who works at night.

Sam: Samuel is either "Name of God" or "God has heard". Not sure this fits, though I like the hearing part given he helps people most by listening.

Hank: Well, Henry is Germanic and means "Rules his household". Not seeing that.

Luidaeg: I have no clue. I suspect is simply means Sea Witch. I've not been able to find the word anywhere.

Sabine: According this this article (Starwars.com), Sabine is named after the story of the Sabine women. Not sure what that means to her narrative aside from maybe choosing her ultimate fate?

Amelia seems to have a few meanings. In Latin is it "industrious" and "striving", while in Teutonic it means "defender". The Latin works for her now, and perhaps the Teutonic is her future. I'll know more in book 03 of her canon. I think the author likely was inspired by Amelia Earhart for the character, tbh.

And lastly, Rollo seems to be the first of his name and so it has no meaning.

Edited 2016-02-07 00:02 (UTC)

Rollo is the latinized version of Old Norse Hrólfr (renowned wolf), which is probably what Rollo's name actually was. The show is just using the most common version of his name, although they had him baptized as Rolf (in actuality, he was baptized as Robert).

Oh good point! Bad research on my end for not looking at the original name. Renowned Wolf fits him very well, especially after Paris.

Not sure how much I love giving Star Wars characters utterly Biblical names. But I have to add that it's interesting that Sabine the Mandalorian has a name one letter off from Satine, the late and lamented ruler of that world. I know when Rebels premiered, people were looking for a connection between the two.(And of course Satine was named for Nicole Kidman's character in Moulin Rogue, since Ewan McGregor was in that film as well as in the prequels and Satine and Obi-Wan were pretty much in love.)

I was firmly in the camp of her being related to the infamous Duchess Satine back when Rebels first started. Alas, the Filoni crushed all our hopes by clearly stating she is not.

Speaking of Rebels though, did you see the last episode? Hondo is back again!

As no one as seen fit to put Rebels on Netflix, I am way behind. Maybe on May 4, Disney will put the show up on their site for free again and I can get past the first five episodes.

Oh sorry! I hope you don't consider that a spoiler and I'll keep info under more careful wraps in the future.

Do you pay for cable? I know here on the West Coast, the Disney XD website has many of the episodes available for those they partner with (Xfinity, DIrectv, etc.)

I haven't had cable in a long, long time. It's not worth it to pay for dozens of channels we will never watch and a few we actively despise.

I hear you. We only pay for it as my wife and daughter have shows they watch.

The Master of Ceremonies is exactly that, and a little bit more. A master implies control (or someone very good at what they do, which he is). At face value, he is meant to present the entertainment, introduce the acts, and move the show along. But in a symbolic sense, he ties the narrative of the actual play together while making a satirical commentary on it. He hovers around the central characters like a puppet master. And he manipulates the audience into believing that everything is beautiful and things are fine.

(On a side note, I recently learned that actual emcees during this time did indeed pepper cabaret shows with subversive social commentary -- which is why the Nazi Minister of Propaganda specifically eliminated them from cabarets. This bodes even LESS well for my poor pup.)

Edited 2016-02-07 01:22 (UTC)

My pups' names have always been sort of obvious. With a few exceptions.

CharlieQuestion being "52_dropoff" refers to how Charlie died in the midst of 52, DC's weekly miniseries of nearly a decade ago (possibly the last great DC event comic). He dropped off in 52, you see. Instead of being picked up. Like in 52 Pickup.

I was trying way too hard to be cute with that one.

Otherwise, I go for things that make easy sense if you know the canon. Kirk told someone he was from Iowa and only worked in space. Cyborg says BOOYAH a lot. The Silver Age Flash was...the Silver Age Flash. And so on. I am not good with being too clever.

ETA: And now I seeing that the characters' actual names is the subject. Oops.

I don't think any of my pups have any significance to their names. Except, again, Charlie. Born without a name, the orphanage named him Charles Victor Szasz for no good reason. Except that writer Denny O'Neil was referencing, somewhat obliquely, controversial sociologist Thomas Szasz with the name. I never got that expect that Denny was establishing how contrarian Charlie would be.

Edited 2016-02-07 02:08 (UTC)

May's name is, canonically, a joke. Two jokes. Her name is May Daye. Also she is May because her personality is the opposite of her "sister" October. XD

Stiles is short for Stilinski. As far as I can tell, Stilinski is not a currently attested surname, but could be an alternate spelling of Stalinski, which is Polish. Canonically, the only known thing about Stiles's real first name is that it's hard to pronounce, but according to TPTB it's also Polish in origin.

The Tracksuit Draculas are thus named because they wear tracksuits and are Eastern European. Ha ha. Is joke, bro.

Lady Mary's full name is Mary Josephine Crawley. Crawley is an English geographic surname. Mary is both biblical—the English form of the Hebrew name Miryam—and a name of queens. Josephine is the English form of Joseph, again a biblical name from the Hebrew Yosef. In spite of this, Mary is not particularly devout. I think, more than anything, Mary's name is meant to sound aristocratic.

Carol's full name is Carol Susan Jane Danvers. Carol is, in a roundabout way, a female variant of Charles, derived from Karl, meaning "free man." Ultimately, I think Carol, Susan, and Jane are mostly a product of "names popular at the time the character was created. Due to the strange telescoping timelines, Carol now has a name that sounds somewhat dated for a woman her age, as Carol was well past it's peak popularity by the mid-70s. As for Danvers, Marvel basically stole it from DC's Supergirl (Kara Zor-el/Linda Lee Danvers). Unsurprisingly, Carol, of all the Marvel superheroes, has the closet match to Superman's power set. Also, Danvers means from Anvers (Antwerp), which I think has basically no significance for her character.

Edited 2016-02-07 18:02 (UTC)

Hahaha I don't think Victor Hugo ever created a character without a Meaningful Name. At least I have two of the easy ones to explain:

Joly sounds like joli/e, French for pretty/nice/cute. Which he is! He also has the nickname Jolllly, which sounds like the English "jolly", because he's a happy cutie. Joly is not the most symbolic or conflicted soul in his canon.

Bahorel's name and character are an homage/in-joke/ expy based on one of Hugo's old Romantic movement pals, Petrus/Pierre Borel. That's all! For Hugo it's surprisingly straightforward. :P

Edited 2016-02-08 03:16 (UTC)

Weekend Entertainment: What's in a name?

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