Name Meaning

I was saying that Darth is basically an abreviation for Dark Lord of the Sith.

 

So, Obi-Wan Kenobi is "Gentle Heart, Strong Heart". Interesting.

Yes, it does. Like I said, no idea if that's intentional or not, but I thought it was interesting as well.

Erm, this has to be the most delayed response to a post response ever, since that comment was from January


Something funny is that there's also an Ibo goddess named Ani. I was reading Things Fall Apart and it mentioned obi and Ani in the same sentence. That made me laugh


Also, "Obi" means a traditional sword belt worn by Samurai in Japanese

Yes, and actually all the Jedi costumes have obi's.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

"I was saying that Darth is basically an abreviation for Dark Lord of the Sith."

I know. What I'm saying is that if you would read this thread, you would know that "Darth Vader" was originally the name of a character before that character became a Sith (Vader was just a general in early drafts), which means that "Darth" originally had nothing to do with the Sith. In fact, at that time, they were originally known as the "Knights of the Sith", and since we don't see "Knith Vader" anywhere, well....

Since you apparently haven't bothered to go back and read all three pages of this thread, I'll post this little tidbit for you..

VADER
Welcome, Prince Valorum. Your exploits are legendary. I have long waited to
meet a Knight of the Sith. If there is any way I can assist you, my entire
command is at your bidding.

That pretty much sums it up. Make sense now?

 

okay, most of these are EU, but whatever.

Tahiri Veila- Veila is from Veil, which is something used to hide something or, as a verb, to hide something.

Riina Kwaad: Riina, I believe, comes from a hebrew name (Rina) meaning either Pride or Joy. I don't remember which. I just know its one of the two(AHHHH THE YUZAAN VONG SPEAK HEBREW- OR SOMETHING SIMILAR!

Anakin is a combination of the prefix "an"(not) and the word "Akin"(related to) Anakin therefore means not related to. So, Anakin Skywalker = Not related to Skywalker. (?!?!?!?!?!)

Wedge Antilles: Antilles is an old latin american/spanish myth about 7 cities of gold (el dorado, etc) located in the Antillies (caribbean sea and mexico) region

Siri is a pet name for a scandenavian name meaning victory.

and thats all I can think of that havent been mentioned.

 

But that wasn't the original spelling of Anakin, back when GL conceived of the character as Annikin Starkiller.

'Kin' in Japanese means 'golden'. And actually, 'Ana' can mean grace, if you go with the current spelling anyway. Personally, it seems more like with both things you get the prefix 'an' implying contrary to something. The fact that 'Kin' means golden is interesting either way, I think.

I wonder how much of this GL actually planned? I know that when I write, I usually give my characters names that mean something. But not always. I had a Jedi named Viljo, which means 'resolute defender'. But I also had an Imperial named Emil just because I wanted to (turns out that name means 'excellent', which might be a little ironic).

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

"I was saying that Darth is basically an abreviation for Dark Lord of the Sith."

It's also an abreviation for "DARk sword-grass moTH", and "DARtmouTH".
It doesn't mean anything, it's just a coincidence.

 

*Gets terribly strange looks on face* Perhaps Anakin is just the SW equivlent of Arthur, as in king arthur?

When I do name meanings I often think about people who have had that name in the past.

Talon (As in Talon Kardde) is the claw of a bird.

Zekk is from Zak which is from Zach which is from Zachary which is from Zacharia which means something like God is My Light or God is my Keeper.

Calamari is an italian dish involving shrimp.

I looked Jinn up in the dictionary. It has the alternate spellings Djinn, Djinni, Jinni, and Genie.

Tatooine is part of the name of a town in Tunisia where they filmed ANH

JEDI is an acronym for Judge.Educator.Deffender.Inspiration. Or at least it is by my friend's dad's reasoning.

 

Calamari is an italian dish involving shrimp.

Actually, it's French. Fried squid. Hence, the Mon Calamari look like squid. It's tasty, too.

Tatooine is part of the name of a town in Tunisia where they filmed ANH

Well it's a town a few miles south of where they filmed. They didn't actually do any filming there, though. It's spelled a little differently, like Tatouine or something... I can't remember exactly. But it's clearly the inspiration for the name.

I thought we had discussed the name "Jedi" somewhere earlier in the thread, and it was related to some far-East culture thing...

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Darn, a lot of the ones I would have mentioned probably have been. I looked into this a good 3 years ago and had a whole list on paper. I was going through encyclopedias and atlases.

Here are some that come to mind.

Anakin: Someone mention the director Ken Annakin (I met him once!) but there is another word simaler to Anakin that means something like "archetypal hero".

Gungans: Despite what Lucas said about his son calling big machines "Gungans", there are actually a lot of small places named "Gunga" in southwest Africa.

Coruscant: Coruscate means "to give forth flashes of light; sparkle and glitter."

Naboo: The Nabu were an artistic society in 19th Century France.

King Veruna: A small name in SW, but Verona... I would suppose.

Geonosis: Genesis?

Kamino: Camino, a car.

Hoth: There's a Hotham Inlet in Alaska. Or maybe a play on "Hot".

Bespin: I dunno, a gas mines... BP?

I always thought Count Dooku was partially inspired by Count Dracula. C'mon, it's Christopher Lee! 8)

To add what someone said of Qui-Jon Jinn. I beleive Jinn means "genie" in some language. Qui-Gon had something too.

Ackbar: I think there was a great Indian general called Ackabar.

Ki-Adi Mundi had some big thing I found. Mundi I think means world.

Lando: Orlando?

Calrissian: You're guess is as good as mine.

Adi Gallia: I forget about Adi, but Galliant?

Fortuna: Fortune. There was something else too.

Rune Haako had something. Sorry, I'm doing these by 3 year-old memory.

Alderaan: Alder: "Any of various deciduous shrubs or trees of the genus Alnus, native chiefly to northern temperate regions and having alternate simple toothed leaves and tiny fruits in woody, conelike catkins."

Then there is Alderman. Take the "m" out for an "a".

Ody Mandrell: Odd mandrill? There is someplace Mandrell I think.

Ric Olie: Ricolaaaaaaaaaaaa

Tarkin: Tarquin, bad Kings in early Rome or something. Look it up if interested.


Watto: There was a French painter Watteau who lost everything and died in obscurity. Wait, don't all French artists do that?

Tarpals: Tar pal.

 

Jainaism is a religion in India.

Rune and Haakon are Scandinavian boys' names.

...and Doku is a drunk person in Finnish

 

Solojones: calamari is a plural from an Italian word calamaro - squid, whereas my french lexicon doesn't recognize word calamari...

 

Gungans: Despite what Lucas said about his son calling big machines "Gungans", there are actually a lot of small places named "Gunga" in southwest Africa.

I had heard the inspiration for this might have been Gunga Din, the poem by Rudyard Kipling. Gunga Din is a native who's a water carrier for some British sailors. Gunga Din saves the narrator's life, but the narrator still has a downward view of him because he's a native. There was even a movie made inspired by it. The soldiers also did a lot of swordfighting in the movie. I think it would be easy to see the inspiration there

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Bail Organa= to bail on something is to chicken out. Also means a sum of money paid to get someone out of jail. Organa is from Organic, meaning living.

 

But in a less slang way, 'Bail' means to scoop out water from the bottom of a sinking boat. I don't think the character's supposed to be a chicken, but rather someone who's trying to fight the downfall of the government.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

According to my Episode I Scrapbook: "For the word Jedi, George Lucas was inspired by the Japanese Jidai Geki, which refers to a drama set in medieval Japan during the time of the samurai."

Also, something strikes me... It's pretty clear that Lucas drew some inspiration from Tolkien in writing Star Wars; by the time Episode II began casting, Chris Lee had been cast as the off-White Wizard, Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think the character of Dooku is an homage to Tolkien, inspired by Saruman, the respected White Wizard who fell and helped Sauron create an army to overthrow the free peoples of Middle Earth.

 

Obi-Wan-Kenobi = Only One Kenobi

For in a new hope, it is implied that he is the only one left.

Take it or leave it, I've always thought of it this way. What do you think?