Character name etymology - ever found out about any on your own?

[EmperorBrandon]

I tend to find it interesting where character names comes from, which can be interesting in some cases (the car names in Nanoha for instance). I'm curious, though have you ever found out the origins of a characters name by chance? I didn't really know the Anten Seven in Outlaw Star were all named after insects until after I searched Hanmyo on Google Images today (found bugs popping up, and then I tried out everybody else and they bring up bugs too :P - except Jukai for some reason).

[Dylonius Funk]

I've allways found it amuseing when i see shows wiht characters named for exmaple Hikari or Otome. It would be the same as someone in Englush naming thier daughters Light and Girl.

[EmperorBrandon]

I've allways found it amuseing when i see shows wiht characters named for exmaple Hikari or Otome. It would be the same as someone in Englush naming thier daughters Light and Girl.

I don't think that's necessarily the case. I mean, Hikari or Hikaru are feasible names in Japanese right? (or maybe not, I don't know much about names at this point) Just because it means something in the modern language doesn't necessarily mean it would be perceived as weird, I would think...

[Dicrel Seijin]

I've always found it difficult, unless the kanji was provided and usually it's not. There are a lot of names that are in hiragana and katakana, and there is no way to determine, short of asking the creators, what the intent was in the names of the characters.

Wordplay is common though.

I've allways found it amuseing when i see shows wiht characters named for exmaple Hikari or Otome. It would be the same as someone in Englush naming thier daughters Light and Girl.

I don't think that's necessarily the case. I mean, Hikari or Hikaru are feasible names in Japanese right? (or maybe not, I don't know much about names at this point) Just because it means something in the modern language doesn't necessarily mean it would be perceived as weird, I would think...

Hikari and Hikaru are viable names. I have a friend whose middle name is Hikaru.

The interesting thing about living in Hawaii is that the local (i.e. ones in Hawaii) Japanese are linguistically frozen. Naming conventions are from the 1890s to 1930s or thereabouts (at the last large wave of migration). In other words, I have friends who have names that are considered old-fashioned by Japanese from Japan.

Dylonius, all names mean something. English names just tend to be a bit removed from their origins. I would consider 'Light' and 'Girl' to be no stranger than 'Cliff' or 'Rose' :P . A neighbor of mine actually has an uncle named 'Boy' (a rather odd, but common name in the Philippines).

But the celebrities have everyone beat with 'Moxie Crimefighter' (the actual first and middle name of Penn Gillette's daughter [Penn of 'Penn and Teller' fame] or 'Pilot Inspector' (can't remember the celeb who named this poor kid).

[Suwako Moriya]

In all honesty I can't say that I have. Since I honestly can't remember any off hand right now. Plus even when I'm informed of such things I tend to just forget them later. Still some naming patterns will be more blatant than others.

[populuxe]

That seems to be happening to me more and more lately. A few months ago, I came across a list of the historical names of the month in Japanese and realized that all the characters in Happy Lesson were named after them. In fact, in the manga, the town they live in is also named after a month.

Anther time, I was looking through Google images for a picture of Yotsuba from the "Yotsuba&!" manga, and discovered that Yotsuba is a four-leaf clover (which makes sense considering Yotsuba's hair design.)

[CGord]

The interesting thing about living in Hawaii is that the local (i.e. ones in Hawaii) Japanese are linguistically frozen. Naming conventions are from the 1890s to 1930s or thereabouts (at the last large wave of migration). In other words, I have friends who have names that are considered old-fashioned by Japanese from Japan.
That is interesting, how time & distance changes things like that. I find things like Spanish being spoken in Mexico & South America due to being conquered centuries ago by Spaniards fascinating.

But the celebrities have everyone beat with 'Moxie Crimefighter' (the actual first and middle name of Penn Gillette's daughter [Penn of 'Penn and Teller' fame] or 'Pilot Inspector' (can't remember the celeb who named this poor kid).
Rumor...Scout...Apple...this should be illegal. :p

[Pyocola]

I've allways found it amuseing when i see shows wiht characters named for exmaple Hikari or Otome. It would be the same as someone in Englush naming thier daughters Light and Girl.

I don't think that's necessarily the case. I mean, Hikari or Hikaru are feasible names in Japanese right? (or maybe not, I don't know much about names at this point) Just because it means something in the modern language doesn't necessarily mean it would be perceived as weird, I would think...
Yeah, it just seems weird because the exact same words don't happen to be used as names in the language you're translating to. Sasahara Kanji mentioned a couple in English, and in Swedish there are a few fairly common names like that as well, for example: Bear, Stone and Path.

[mrgazpacho]

I mean, Hikari or Hikaru are feasible names in Japanese right?

Yup. Friend of mine has a sister named Hikari.

[Relwarc]

But the celebrities have everyone beat with 'Moxie Crimefighter' (the actual first and middle name of Penn Gillette's daughter [Penn of 'Penn and Teller' fame] or 'Pilot Inspector' (can't remember the celeb who named this poor kid).

You're so right. And what about Gwyneth Paltrow's little "Apple"? Ugh, I feel so sorry for the kid. Well, if you're in show biz, the more you stick out the better, I suppose. Attention never hurts. You know, it's funny. I somehow find Japanese names to make more sense to me than the di-syllabic Korean first names. I guess there's something about the hyphen that's intimidating.

[mrgazpacho]

I somehow find Japanese names to make more sense to me than the di-syllabic Korean first names. I guess there's something about the hyphen that's intimidating.

You could always remove the hyphen :P

[Kellory]

That seems to be happening to me more and more lately.

Brings to mind my watching the first episode of Death Note. I was watching it, and I kept wondering why they translated his name to Light instead of keeping it as Hikari. It took me a few minutes to realize, listening to the show in Japanese, I had been mentally translating the whole thing and simply translated Light in my head automatically.

[Chepin]

Yeah, I long time ago I found out about the names and their meanings of the residents of Maison Ikkoku. All of their family names contained a number, the same number of their apartment number. So then it seemed to me like Takahashi Rumiko liked name puns a lot, and then I found out what the names meant in Ranma 1/2. Cute stuff.

[Relwarc]

I somehow find Japanese names to make more sense to me than the di-syllabic Korean first names. I guess there's something about the hyphen that's intimidating.

You could always remove the hyphen :P

Tell that to my Korean friends. :sd:

[Shiroi Hane]

I spent many a long while scouring Google and experimenting with babelfish to work out names and other stuff for Kiddy Grade, but I cannot specifically remember ever realising a name meaning accidentally (although I'm still conviced that, in fitting with the car theme in Solty Rei, Kasha is supposed to be Kärcher).

I do get a special glow when watching something while reading an amateur translation and realising that they have a name wrong (e.g. the ships in Stellvia were mistranslation for a long time as "KT" and I found myself thinking "if one type of ship is called Bianca, wouldn't it make more sense of the others were Katies?").

I remember I used to spend a lot of time in certain IRC rooms when Kiddy Grade was still airing and once helpfully pointing out in one (can't remember which) that a name they'd translated as "Bindledee" (or something of the like) was probably "Vendredi" since that was a real word. I then found out that feedback wasn't appreciated and never darkened their doorstep again.

[kimmiepooh]

I did. In the anime series, Bakuretsu Hunter (Sorcerer Hunters) - all the character's names were food-related. For example, the lead male character's name was Carrot Glace, and the 2 female lead's names were Tiramisu (an Italian dessert) and Chocolat (French word for chocolate). The other 2 supporting male character's names were Gateau (French word for cake) and Marron (not sure what this word translates to). That's all I've managed to find out from this series. Just thought I'd add that to this thread. :D :sd: :P

[kimmiepooh]

You were on the right track for Kiddy Grade. Eclaire's name is the word of a French pastry (specifically an eclaire) - (a kind of French dessert usually eaten for breakfast or for dessert :sd: ) , Lumiere's name translates to lamp/light (remembered that from watching Disney's Beauty and the Beast - oddly enough) :sd: :sd: . Oh and btw - also in Kiddy Grade - Viola and Cesario's names are originally from the Shakespearean play Twelfth Night. (Viola was the lead female character in the said play, and Cesario was the name of the boy that she was in disguise as in the aforementioned play as well.) Sorry, didn't mean for that to be very confusing. :(

[GrateSaiyaman]

I did a little digging here and there . . . There was Galaxy Angel and the pretty obvious character names like Vanilla and Mint or Forte (music). The ones that were a bit more obscure but not really very hard were Milfeulle ("cream-puff" French) or Ranpha Framboise ("Orchid" Japanese?, "raspberry" French) . . . Although I might've mixed them up or forgotten a few things.

I did stumble onto the Wikipedia website for the characters in "Shuffle!", they are all named for flowers something I thought was rather interesting. I was curious about Primula's name, I didn't know there were primroses that are actually called "Primula" . . . a whole genus.

[DocWatson]

I did a little digging here and there . . . There was Galaxy Angel and the pretty obvious character names like Vanilla and Mint or Forte (music). The ones that were a bit more obscure but not really very hard were Milfeulle ("cream-puff" French)
"Mille-feuille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millefeuille)" is the correct spelling—"Napoleon" in English. Also, Forte's family name, "Stollen", is "a sweet yeast bread of German origin containing fruit and nuts (http://m-w.com/dictionary/Stollen)". (The main characters are named after dessert-type foods.)

I did. In the anime series, Bakuretsu Hunter (Sorcerer Hunters) - all the character's names were food-related.

[...]
Marron (not sure what this word translates to).

"Marron{s} Glace{s} (http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=marrons%20glaces)"—see "marrons (http://m-w.com/dictionary/marron+)".

As for other shows, I helped with identifying the names (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.anime.misc/browse_frm/thread/b8577b3674600a1a/9227d2e99bf39f1b) (and again (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.anime.misc/browse_frm/thread/27fca6d8863d3d33/1e7e7c3b01466d0e)) in Scrapped Princess, as well as in Evangelion.

[DocWatson]

I forgot some of my favorite characters—the Shrike Team from Victory Gundam: the theme is "popular (American) female singers":

Peggy Lee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Lee)
Kate Bush (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bush)
Connie Francis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Francis)
Helen Jackson and Mahalia Merrill (from Helen Merrill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Merrill) and Mahalia Jackson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalia_Jackson))

Only Junko Jenko does not seem to fit the pattern. Though I must admit that someone else pointed out this theme to me.

[rpmurray]

But the celebrities have everyone beat with 'Moxie Crimefighter' (the actual first and middle name of Penn Gillette's daughter [Penn of 'Penn and Teller' fame] or 'Pilot Inspector' (can't remember the celeb who named this poor kid).

You're so right. And what about Gwyneth Paltrow's little "Apple"? Ugh, I feel so sorry for the kid. Well, if you're in show biz, the more you stick out the better, I suppose. Attention never hurts. You know, it's funny. I somehow find Japanese names to make more sense to me than the di-syllabic Korean first names. I guess there's something about the hyphen that's intimidating.

Gwyneth should have named her Ringo. Gave me the giggles when I was thinking about a certain Beatle.

[Dicrel Seijin]

You were on the right track for Kiddy Grade. Eclaire's name is the word of a French pastry (specifically an eclaire) - (a kind of French dessert usually eaten for breakfast or for dessert :sd: ) [snip].

I thought that the intended meaning for "Eclair" was "lightning"? Since her robot is called "Donnerschlag" (German for "thunder[clap]")?

(I did etymology searches at one point for "eclair" and "donnerschlag". The names for that show were to diverse and rather strange. :sd: )

[populuxe]

I forgot some of my favorite characters—the Shrike Team from Victory Gundam: the theme is "popular (American) female singers":
Kate Bush (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bush)
Kate Bush isn't American. She's British and Irish.

[quenelf]

Only the Sailor Moon character surnames (Tsukino for Moon, Aino for Venus, etc.) which are pretty obvious, but I didn't have very much Japanese then so it seemed cool. :)

--quen

[Shale]

My favorite is Junior, from R.O.D.

Remember Deep Blue, the first famous chessmaster computer from the 1990s? The successor program was called Deep Junior.

I'm not actually sure that that's where the name comes from, but I choose to believe that it is.

[Shiroi Hane]

You were on the right track for Kiddy Grade. Eclaire's name is the word of a French pastry (specifically an eclaire) - (a kind of French dessert usually eaten for breakfast or for dessert :sd: ) [snip].

I thought that the intended meaning for "Eclair" was "lightning"? Since her robot is called "Donnerschlag" (German for "thunder[clap]")?

(I did etymology searches at one point for "eclair" and "donnerschlag". The names for that show were to diverse and rather strange. :sd: )

For the full fruits of my research see http://www.kiddygrade.info/characters/ and http://www.kiddygrade.info/mech/

[Dicrel Seijin]

Dear Lord. O.O

Do they consciously plan this out? Or is it one of those pull at random from anywhichwhere approaches? (One specific example I'm thinking of is Burst Angel where, with the exception of the delectable Sei, the other three are named after the characters in Little Women. To my knowledge this is the only similarity between the two.)