Questions tagged [names]
For questions about names: of characters, including titles, nicknames, and honorifics; of in-universe locations, e.g. countries or planets; or of objects, e.g. vessels, weapons, etc. Questions can be in-universe or out-of-universe, about topics such as origins, meanings, usage and pronunciation. For questions about the title of a work of sci-fi or fantasy, use the [title-explanation] tag instead.
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Which Abednedo are named after Beastie Boys titles?
Some Abednedo have been named after albums or songs by the Beastie Boys, most famously Ello Asty after Hello Nasty. The Abednedo themselves having been named after part of the refrain to "...
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Why was Luke "Red Five"?
In Star Wars: A New Hope, at beginning of the attack on the Death Star, we see the pilots of Red Squadron check in.
Luke reports in as "Red Five", however we also ...
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Did C. S. Lewis indicate how he chose the name "Tash" for the Calormene's demon-god?
I recently learned that there is an archeological site near Aleppo along the Syrian-Turkish border, called "Arslan Tash." The name means "lion stone," apparently in reference to ...
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Why is Sauron's name similar to the Greek/Latin word for "lizard"?
The name Sauron is spelled like, and sounds very similar to the Greek word σαῦρος, or the corresponding Latin word saurus, which means lizard.
Is this just a coincidence, or is there a (known or ...
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Are there meaningful anagrams in Lord of the Rings character names?
Motivation
I just observed that "Denethor", the human steward who thought himself king has all the same letters as the word "dethrone" which is what he intended to do to Aragorn, ...
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Does Ron ever introduce himself as "Ronald Weasley" in Harry Potter?
Per Wizarding World (formerly Pottermore), Ron's full name is Ronald Bilius Weasley and he uses his family name Ron Weasley. I recognize that even the first time he met Harry, he called himself "...
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What are the origins of the names "Just Read The Instructions" and "Of Course I Still Love You"?
SpaceX / Elon Musk dubbed their East Coast floating landing pad (or "Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship", (ASDS) if you really prefer), Just Read The Instructions, apparently after a ship from ...
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What was Sarah Bartowski's (née Walker) birth name?
Did Sarah Walker Bartowski reveal her birth name?
And in which episode did they get married?
And in which episode did they realise they were in love?
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What is the earliest instance of Spock being called "Dr. Spock"?
As noted in the answer to the question Does Spock have a PhD?, Spock is never referred to on-screen as "Dr. Spock" in Star Trek. However, the "doctor" title has persisted amongst the general ...
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Why is "Droxine" a name appropriate for someone beautiful and pleasant?
In Star Trek, season 3, episode 21, "The Cloud Minders", Spock is considering his surroundings at the time, and one of its residents:
Here on Stratos, everything is incomparably beautiful ...
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Why are the worlds of Might & Magic referred to as "nacelles"?
Some worlds in the original Might&Magic universe are named "nacelle":
(VARN) Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle
(CRON) Central Research Observation Nacelle
(XEEN) Xylonite Experimental ...
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Why was Frodo "wise" and Samwise a "half-wit"?
According to the sources I’ve found (for example this one), “Frodo” comes from the Old English “fród”, meaning wise. (Apparently in “Hobbit Language” Frodo’s name is “Maura”, but I don’t know if this ...
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Why does everyone call Hagrid by his last name?
Throughout the Harry Potter novels, Rubeus Hagrid is the only character consistently addressed by his last name in a friendly manner. While the trio do frequently address their enemies by their last ...
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Is there only a single Skywalker family?
Given the size of the Empire, it seems highly probable that names would be reused. Although I'm not aware of any in canon, there must be other Skywalkers in the galaxy, leading me to my question.
Are ...
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What, if anything, is the name FRIDAY an acronym for?
At the end of Age of Ultron,
JARVIS is an acronym for for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. What is FRIDAY an acronym for?
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Why is Starfire named after an herb?
The DC Comics superhero Starfire is a Tamaranian princess who joins the Teen Titans after escaping her home planet of Tamaran. The most baffling part of her origin story is her real name: Koriand'r. ...
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Does the name Ten Forward have any precedent in the real world or in fiction?
Ten Forward is, of course the inconic lounge/bar/gathering area on the Enterprise-D. It is named after the fact that it is located at the forward extreme of the tenth deck, making it the most ...
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Mortal Kombat: Why is Scorpion called that name?
One of the most iconic characters of the Mortal Kombat franchise is Scorpion, an undead ninja whose real name is Hanzo Hasashi. He first appeared in the original video game as the arch-enemy of Sub-...
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Why are there two characters named Aegon?
Spoilers for the Season 7 finale of Game of Thrones, "The Dragon and the Wolf".
At the end of the episode through one of Bran's visions we learn that:
While we knew that Jon was the son of ...
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Why is Jon Vander's nickname "Dutch"?
In the Star Wars universe, there's a pilot named Jon Vander whose nickname is "Dutch".
I'm assuming that the Netherlands doesn't exist in Star Wars - or is at least sufficiently far away ...
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In Welcome to Night Vale, what name(s) were given to Khoshek's kittens?
In Welcome to Night Vale, Khoshekh, the cat hovering in the men's bathroom at the radio station, has a litter of kittens. They were all adopted (but continue hovering in the bathroom and are just ...
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Does the name of Shub Niggurath contain or reference a racial slur?
I've always thought that the name of the Lovecraft deity Shub Niggurath was intended to sound vaguely Semitic, but I recently noticed that it seems to encode a certain well-known English-language ...
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What is Snow's granddaughter's name in "The Hunger Games"?
Does anybody know what President Snow's granddaughter's name is?
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Why didn't Snape recognize the Marauder's Map?
When Harry was in the corridors trying to find Peter Pettigrew at night, Snape came. Snape took that map, and had a few attempts at revealing it. When he told the map to reveal itself in the name of ...
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Was the Star Wars capital planet named "Coruscant" after this passage from Pebble in the Sky?
Rereading Pebble in the Sky (1950), Isaac Asimov's first complete novel, I noticed a particular word near the beginning chapter 6:
Ennius looked at the stars. They were the real beauty to him, since ...
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What is the most frequently mentioned proper noun/adjective in Star Trek that remains undepicted?
Part of world-building involves making references to invented objects, people, and races. And since Star Trek had been going on for seven decades, there's been a lot of it. Sometimes some of those ...
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Why do the trolls have civilized names?
In The Hobbit, the trolls' names (Tom, William, and Bert) don't seem to fit their "uncivilized" characters. Why did Tolkien give them those names?
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Why are all the DS9 runabouts named after Earth rivers?
It seems whenever we hear mention of a runabout assigned to DS9 it's named after a river on Earth—the Rio Grande, the Ganges, the Yangtzee Kiang—is there a particular reason for this naming convention?...
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Why does Sabriel remark that "Touchstone" is a fool's name?
In Garth Nix's book Sabriel, the titular character discovers a statue of a man. She is able to reanimate the man, she asks his name, and he replies "Touchstone." She replies something along ...
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Why is the name Strider considered offensive?
To be clear, I am not asking why Aragorn and the Dunedain are treated as suspicious, but why the nickname 'Strider' (and Longshanks) is implied to have an insulting undertone, by Bill Ferny and ...
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Why are the names Sauron and Saruman so similar?
The names Sauron and Saruman are very similar in writing and pronunciation.
Is it an accident? or having an a forethought reason?
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How is Anakin’s nickname spelt?
This question was inspired by Valorum’s answer to the question on what the Tuskens did with Shmi Skywalker.
In it, he quotes the following from the official Attack of the Clones novelisation:
...
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Why were the twins named Luke and Leia?
In G-Canon, it is not revealed that Padme is pregnant with twins until she is in the medical bay ready to give birth. When asked what they should be named, she immediately responds without much ...
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Origin of Name "Zefram Cochrane" (Out-of-Universe)
While reading, I came upon the real-world Jacqueline Cochran, an American pilot known for, among other things, numerous speed records and flight pioneering. I thought this a funny coincidence with ...
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Who declared the Last Alliance to be the "last" and why?
Who named it, why and when?
Some possibilities I can think of:
They themselves chose it, meaning that if they would overthrow and destroy Sauron, no more such alliances would be needed.
Someone gave ...
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What's the difference between the names Eru & Ilúvatar?
If my Silmarillion memory serves, both are names of the ultimate creator. What's the difference? When should one used over the other?
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What happens when more than one person with the same initials joins the Men in Black?
As seen in the film, Men in Black (1997), when a person becomes a part of the Men in Black organization their name is erased and they are given a code name which is the first letter of their birth ...
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Has the name Althus been used before in a Fantasy series? [closed]
Not sure if this question is ok here or not but...
I am writing a fantasy novel and I have named my main character Althus and I am just wanting to make sure that it has not been used before...
...
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Does Gollum know that others call him Gollum?
I don't recall any of the characters in Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit calling Sméagol Gollum in his face. It seems to be more of a private epithet. Is this correct? Does Gollum know that others call ...
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What are the Legions High Gothic Names?
In the WH40K universe, a lot of High Gothic is depicted as Latin. E.g. the different branches of government: Adeptus Administratum (administro, latin for minister), Adeptus Munitorum (munitio, latin ...
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What is the term for how Star Wars characters have names based on real people, but scrambled?
I distinctly remember there being a page on Wookieepedia on this.
For instance, taken from this Quora Answer
Bo-Katan is a portmanteau of Dave Filoni's wife's name (Anne) and her cat's name…
Also, ...
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The Ander family in Tepper’s A Plague of Angels: who are they?
There are four families in the Place of Power, and Sheri Tepper appears to have named them after various well-known institutions:
Ellel — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Mitty — Massachusetts ...
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First use of the term "belter" in sci-fi as the demonym for asteroid belt inhabitants?
Obviously the series The Expanse has brought the term "Belter" into relatively common use. However, I have seen the expression used in Larry Niven's great novel Protector (strongly ...
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What is the meaning of 'Nor' in Cardassian?
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine we find out that the Cardassian name for the Deep Space Nine space station is "Terok Nor." Later, the Maquis (in The Maquis, Part I) use a protomatter implosion device ...
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Harry Potter characters with alliterative names?
Lots and lots of characters in the Harry Potter books have alliterative names (Severus Snape, Peter Pettigrew, Godric Gryffindor, Stan Shunpike, to name but a few).
Is there a complete list of such ...
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When do we first hear the name "Anakin"?
I recently watched the Original Star Wars Trilogy and I don't remember the name "Anakin" being said that much.
However Wookieepedia states:
Annikin Starkiller was the proposed name for the ...
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How is the name "Gandalf" pronounced?
I've been reading answers to the question asking how "Smaug" should be pronounced and I was wondering, is there an authoritative answer to the pronunciation of "Gandalf"?
I first read The Hobbit ...
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Is there a list of the names used for Sauron in Lord of the Rings?
In the preface to The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, authors Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull mention a surprising fact:
Dr. Richard E. Blackwelder once counted in The Lord of the ...
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What does "Turambar" mean?
Why was Túrin called "Turambar" (Master of Fate/Doom)? Is it something to do with the Second Prophecy of Mandos?
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What was Chewie's last name? Does he even have one?
I have never seen the new Solo movie, so this may be a dumb question, but really, what is Chewbacca's last name, if he has one? Han just calls him Chewie, Chewbacca, or thing's like that, and never (...
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