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Has the first name of the Emperor Palpatine been mentioned in any of the Extended Universe Star Wars works?

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I thought that Palpatine is this first name. – Goran Jovic Jan 10 at 11:20
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Could be Sue. It would explain why he's so angry all the time. – Zoot Jan 10 at 17:24
@Zoot - Mary Sue? – DVK Jan 10 at 17:59
I'm just thinking that it would be cool to have Johnny Cash count as part of the extended Star Wars universe. – Zoot Jan 11 at 2:31

3 Answers

up vote 16 down vote

No first name for the Emperor has been revealed to date.

Some background to Palpatine's lack of a first name is given in the EU book Darth Plagueis, where it is revealed that he used only his surname to spite his father Cosinga Palpatine.

Wookiepedia sums it up thusly:

In 82 BBY, Cosinga Palpatine's wife gave birth to their eldest son, Palpatine, who later insisted on being known only by the cognomen in order to spite his father and the rest of the family. The couple also had at least two other sons and two daughters.

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Thats suggests to me his name might be Cosinga (Jr.), then. If I wanted to spite my father by not using my full name, it would be because I have the same literal name. – Michael Itzoe Feb 18 at 18:45
up vote 5 down vote

Officially, it has never been revealed.

Even StarWars.com simply refers to him as "Palpatine".

In 2003, Steve Sansweet explained

Palpatine's first name, if he even has one, has yet to be revealed. That's not so unusual even in our own galaxy. For example, in one of the world's most populous countries, Indonesia, many people go by one name. And even some last names are just that, not family names. In the Star Wars universe, we doubt that there are many in the know for whom just plain "Palpatine" isn't enough.

To date, no EU materials have given him an official first name, though an early draft of The Visual Dictionary supposedly named him "Ethril". I can't find any scan of that online to confirm this though.

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+1, I like the "Frank" theory: 'Finally, some fans have jokingly suggested that Palpatine's first name is Frank, based on the line, "I must be frank, Your Majesty."' – bitmask Jan 10 at 12:17
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Surely, you can't be serious. – phantom42 Jan 10 at 12:27
Hey, if that name is good enough for the Bunny in Donnie Darko, it's good enough for that fancy emperor. – bitmask Jan 10 at 12:31
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That "wooshing" sound you just heard? That was an Airplane flying overhead. – phantom42 Jan 10 at 13:26
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@phantom42 - Don't. Call. Me. Shirley!!!! – DVK Jan 10 at 15:00
up vote 2 down vote

To complement Phantom's answer, another option aside from Ethril that the fans non-canonically use is "Cos"

The name comes from an early draft of Episode IV: A New Hope in which Lucas named the Palpatine-like figure "Cos Dashit."

The name was later sorta-recycled into his father's name, Cosinga Palpatine.

(src)

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Wouldn't the Palpatine-like figure in A New Hope have been Darth Vader? Or was this before the story was broken into three movies? – Xantec Jan 10 at 17:39
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@Xantec - according to Lucas, the story was always broken into 9 movies. </straight_face> – DVK Jan 10 at 17:59

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