Game Guides Archive
Thread: Star Wars Names: The Name Doctor is IN!
Cannot wait to be blasted for Novak Kayne.
I have used Nova for ages now but, the game already useurped it from me. BTW, he is a Rodian male.
Hi there. I'm a long time lurker, first time poster
This thread seemed pretty interesting, and I thought I would give it a stab.
Elias Anadarin
Human Male
Ranger/Pistoleer/CH
Thanks in advance, I have to say I am mightily impressed.
I actually have 3 cahracters though I don't play a lot, I'm more interested in switiching characters when one gets boring than power levelling just one.
I have: Zedire (Ze-deer) and Zerire (Ze-reer), both ending with Caline (Ka-leen) and both human. Also Eridez Enilac (E-ree-dez En-ee-lac), a Zabrak name but an exact reversal of Zedire Caline which I thought worked.
I played about with names in my head for about a month before I came up with somehting i liked, and this was it, though I didn't intend on the E ending's at first until I miss-spelt it accidentally and decided it suited the pronounciation more and looked nicer 
I also like the name, Ze-ca Lin (Zay-car Lin) which I may use for my never-going-to-exist Jedi unless someone else reading this post decideds they like it and steal it 
Anyway, thank you again, I hope you have time for a good analysis
(here comes my signature which after this post I will remove)
hey, this post looks interesting, I'll give it a shot...
Jonthen Scytale, human rifleman / smuggler
As a semi-interesting side note to this, I once saw a "formula" that Lucas supposedly used to come up with names when he got stuck. It goes like this:
Star Wars First name: Take the first three letters of your last name and add the first two letters of your first name. (Ex. John Smith's Star Wars first name would be Smijo)
Star Wars Last name: Take the first two letters of your mother's maiden name, and add the first three letters of the city where you were born. (Ex. mother's maiden name is Jones, city of birth is Chicago... Star Wars last name would be Jochi)
So in the example here, the full name would be Smijo Jochi. I don't know if this formula is real at all, but it's fun to figure out a name like that.
EarthWarrior wrote:
I post here only to make a simple point.
I truly admire what is being done here. It is fun and at least half-heartedly informative. However, the comparison of Star Wars names and any known derivations of earthly languages (either Eastern OR Western) has absolutely NO place here. Telling a player that his/her name is "too Irish" is preposterous, seeing as how there is no "Ireland" in Star Wars against which to compare anything. The same goes for every other earthly language/culture family.
The only problem I have is with unimaginative/derivative names; notice how every two of three wookiees sprt a name ending on "bacca" (or some similar phoneme)?
Ugh.
Nice effort, but take off your linguist's cap for a while.
Z
I strongly disagree. The purpose of this thread is not just to adhere to the thin verstiges of continuity that exists, but also to show that names can be immersive AND non-derivative. In the final analysis, it is what is going on in between the ears of the reader that determines the quality of name. While no Ireland exists in the Star Wars galaxy, every reader here knows of Ireland in our reality. Using a name like, say, O'Reilly is "too Irish" because it breaks the fourth wall...it removes the reader from the fantasy environment. When I complain that a name is too Asian, this is not born of some inward bias against 1/4 of the worlds' people, but an observation of the utter lack of Asian flavor (except in rare instances) in the movies and books. I seek to adhere to the spirit of the movies WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY not pulling the reader out of the shared fantasy. Egregious uses of slang, pop culture names and concepts not expressed in the movies but recognized by the readers are examples of this intrusion.
An example I love to relate is "Extreme Ownage," a player of which defended the name by using my "nicknames are good" policy...his mommy didn't name him "Extreme Ownage," it's his nickname. The question that needs to be asked is is this name in the spirit of the movies, which can be argued for. But the question of disruption of the shared fantasy is pretty inassailable: This is a very specific term belonging to a very specific subculture for very specific uses (and is already dying out, alas). I would argue that it is too disruptive to the fantasy, and therefore inappropriate.
Hopefully this clears this issue up. I've dealt with it before, but find that euphonious, appropriate and fun naming requires a healthy dose of egoism, and a healthy creative impulse, which I seek to celebrate in this thread!
RbT
Jaerek Osiris. jaerek is just a different spelling along the lines of how humans like derek or other respelling's
osiris is well I know there's a god named this in Egyptian, about the ruler of the dead, ewell here's my story
I was a pilot in my home world, transporting my group of troops from squad alpha veta 4x, I encountered quite an attack and was shot down. I was squad commander/pilot with well over 3600 hours piloting medium armored trans. I crashed into the ocean and luckily I survived the ordeal. the last name is just one I adopted, even if I cant come to grips with the loss of my group. (therefore I'm the leader of the dead) and I will get those who shot me down and murdered my crew
I now focus on bringing justice to those who believe the empire is the answer, I attempt to tame creatures in my spare time.
moondrgn wrote:
Riis wrote:
As you may already know, the Indo-European languages in the main lack certain possible sounds with any frequency, which to someone like me is a crime. Some of these sounds are Ml, Mr, Vr, Mp, Pm, Pv, etc.
Mr, Ml and Vrconstructions are perfectly legal in some Slavic laguages. Let me think if I can come up with some examples...
I believe the word mrav would mean an ant in south slavic languages. And milk would be spelled as mleko, mljeko, or mlijeko, depending on whom you ask (different dialects). Time, if I'm not mistaken (and I easily could be)is translated as vreme, vrjeme, or vrijeme (again, different dialects).
As far as the rest of them are concerned, I cannot think of any 'legal' examples. Pv does sound like a valid Chek or Polish construction though.
All that aside, I'd really like to hear your take on my main character's name:
Eclipse Draco
Human female, doctor/cm/pistoleer
Thank you for that note, moondrgn! I admit that the slavic languages are a weakness of mine. I admire them, but discovered recently that studying them in any detail will take more time than I am allowed to devote to such an undertaking.
I received a PM asking me about my language background. I do not study lannguages and language professionally, this is all strictly hobby for me. But that being said I can relate that I speak English and German with some degree of proficiency, speak some Dutch (much better than I can read it -- anyone who knows the language understands why), and know some Welsh.
I have tried unsuccessfully for years to gain a good understanding of Old English. The working vocabulary is HUGE compared to modern languages, which makes it very difficult for me.
I have studied Latin and Classical Greek, can recognize quite a bit from the Romance Languages (Portugese is very weak for me, Spanish, Italian and French I am pretty good). I can recognize some Japanese and Tagalog. I recently tried to learn some Russian, and have given it up in frustration (I am going to Kiev in the Ukraine in 2005!).
I am relating this not to get you to post a bunch of stuff in other languages (major internet social blunder!) but to express my belief that names, language and naming all require a good background in mulitple culture and languages. It is because of this diversity that I can draw from all of human history (or quite a bit of it ) to make my points about names. Certainly this level of commitment is not required to judge Star Wars names, it's just what I bring to the table.
Keep those names a'coming!
RbT
Please please please Riis!!! I gotta have my names reviewed!!! I've been waiting for almost two days (or something:smileyhappy
for this. I must have gratification!!!
Redmond
Redmond! I know.I really feel bad that I fell behind, I blame this evil computer I am typing on now. I vow to get another 30-40 names done tonight before bed...that takes it right up to you, if I am not mistaken. After that, in the morning before work you may notice I can bang away at a bunch of names, since I go into work at 11AM. My goal is to be caught up by tomorrow evening, so I can take names as they come better.
Why am I not doing them now? Well, another teacher is breathing down my neck to use the staff computer, so she graciously allowed me to type this note up before I got the boot.
Have patience, friends! The good news about YOUR namesare coming!
RbT
YAY!!! You acknowledged my existence! You're like a pseudo-celebrity here. It's cool. What do you teach exactly, hmmm? Thanks for your time.
Redmond