Character name puns

eytancragg asked: can we get a post on how the names of people are kind of like in-jokes?

 This is only a list of the ones I can remember at the moment important ones, not comprehensive.

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Momo - means ‘peach’ in Japanese. Named thus by Aang since he ate one.

Aunt Wu - ‘Wu’ means witch in Chinese

Kuei - Kuei means puppet in Chinese, and the Last Emperor is also known as the ‘Puppet Emperor’

Bumi - Bumi means earth in Indonesian

Ran and Shaw - the dragons are named ’ 燃烧 to combust, Ran - 燃 to burn
Shaw -烧 to roast ’ in Chinese.

Jeong Jeong - jiong jiong - jiong means fire in Chinese

Zhao - Zhao is a common family name in Chinese, it can also mean ‘to set afire’.

(a lot of the FN names can be translated as fire/fire related)

Piandao - 騙到 to trick, dao can also mean knife/sword 刀
edited: Also a kind of sword and the typical Asian kitchen knife.

Tenzin Gyatso - is the name of the current Dalai Lama

Möngke - is the name of a Mongol Khan

Longfeng - long feng means Dragon and Phoenix, Emperor and Empress, royal principle in Chinese

Dai Li - is the name of the KMT head of secret police, it can also mean ‘great strength’

Yue - ‘yue’ means moon in Chinese

Suki - can mean ‘like or love’ in Japanese, but also, if transliterated Tsuki (sounds similar), it means ‘moon’. Sokka just can’t help dating the moon.

Laogai - was the name of real life prison camps in China

Click me for more

So, if you haven’t heard of 20,000 names, you should click HERE because it is the bomb.

It separates the country origin and can separate name and female names for you.

Followers?

-H

TIP: Character Names

Looking at the credits on TV shows and movies— the names listed after ‘director’s assistant #3’, ‘boy who gets killed #34’, ‘person-who-brought-in-refreshments’. 

It’s always a source of interesting names and combinations :) 

Sailor Moon Character Name Origins Part II: The Other Solar System Soldiers

Once again! These are my own personal understandings and do not reflect what Naoko (or Junya I suppose) was actually thinking when you made these characters! If you think I’ve missed one important fact, message me I’d love to know more about these names! If I do another it will be Mamoru, Kakyuu and the Starlights.

Chibiusa （ちびうさ）

Chibiusa, the nickname of Usagi’s daughter, is as we all know simply a mix of “chibi”（ちび） which is a word to describe something that is small and cute,  and the “usa” （うさ）is from “usagi”（兔　うさぎ） her real name which means Rabbit. So Chibiusa is simply “Little Usagi” or “Little Rabbit”.

Michiru Kaiou （海王みちる）

The three Soldiers of the Outer Solar System all take their names from their respective planets. Together the three Soldiers cover the three non-terrestrial domains (that is, the Sky, the Sea and the Underworld). Michiru’s surname “Kaiou” （海王）is from the Japanese word for the Planet Neptune “Kaiousei”（海王星literally Sea King Star). Kaiousei, as a modern planet, is a translation, taken from the Roman God of the Sea, of course this is where Sailor Neptune’s powers come from. The final kanji from Neptune “sei” (星　star) is dropped to make Michiru’s family name. Michiru, is written in hiragana so its meaning is technically ambiguous. When Michiru is used as not a name it is a verb that we don’t quite have an exact equivalent word for in English, this is why you will receive a number of different entries in a dictionary. The verb is the idea of some sort of process that is reaching its peak, particularly a cyclic one. Though this seems a bit of an odd choice, but one idea that is very connotative to “michiru”　(満ちる) is “rising tides”, this is likely how Michiru received her name. A full literal name for Michiru may be “Sea King Rising” and should be extended to the idea of a rising tide.

Haruka Ten’ou（天王はるか）

Haruka’s name is similarly structured to Michiru’s. “Tenou” （天王）comes from Tenousei　（天王星）, the Japanese word for Uranus which is literally Sky King Star, which of course stems from a Greek God of the Sky. The “sei” (星star) is dropped from Haruka’s family name though. Sailor Uranus’s attacks seem to extend this sky idea to outer-space too. This is also the reason for the many references to the wind concerning Haruka. Like many names, Haruka can be written in a variety of ways, as it is a hiragana name is a little ambiguous, however when it is a mere word、Haruka（遥か）can mean “distant” or “far-away”, this could possibly be a reference to the Sky from Earth. A full literal name for Haruka might be “Sky King Distant”.

Setsuna Meiou　(冥王せつな)

Setsuna keeps in line with her companions with her name being from the word for Pluto, Meiousei　(冥王星), though the understanding of its literal meaning is slightly more complicated than Uranus or Neptune. Reading literally can give either “Dark King Star” or “Underworld Star”, but this makes little difference. Of course, the idea of Darkness is very tightly connected to the idea of the Underworld, so much so in Japanese that occasionally the context of the afterlife is assumed just by the kanji “dark”（冥）, so it should be understood that the word is coming from the Roman God of the Underworld, Pluto. Of course like the other two, The “sei” (星)is dropped out from Meiousei. Setsuna can mean a “moment” （刹那）, as in a moment in time, there a strong link between the word and the concepts of time, it can also be derived from the adjective “setsunai”（切ない） which can mean painful, heartrending or miserable, these words possibly relate to the sad nature of Setsuna’s story where she is doomed to Stay Alone forever guarding the Gates of Time. A full literal name for this character may be “Dark King Moment”.

Hotaru Tomoe　(土萠ほたる)

Hotaru, being Sailor Saturn breaks the trend of the other Outer Solar System Soldiers, Saturn is an ancient planet and therefore does not follow the same naming system as Uranus and so forth but instead the same system as Mercury, Jupiter and the others. That is, the name for Saturn in Japanese comes from the five Chinese Element, Saturn takes the name Dosei (土星literally Earth Star, but earth in the sense of the ground not in the sense of the Planet). Naoko does not seem to put too much connection between the Japanese name for Saturn and the powers of the character, instead she seems to use more ideas from Greek and Roman Mythology. However, Hotaru’s name does still contain, like all other major characters (barring Minako) the kanji associated with her planet, the “to” （土）is the same kanji as the “do” （土）in “dosei”. The “moe” means sprouting or budding. The name “Hotaru” （蛍）can mean “firefly”, this is directly referenced in the anime and the musicals. In the anime, an episode title (Shadow of Silence!? The Sway of a Firefly’s Faint Light) uses the word “hotarubi” (蛍火firefly light) in kanji to refer to Hotaru (Hotaru’s name is in hiragana making it once again, technically ambiguous). In the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars musicals during the song “Sailor Busters”, Usagi recognizes a shining bottom to be Hotaru. A full literal translation of her name maybe “Earth Sprouting Firefly”, in the sense she is a firefly that sprouts from the Earth. It is possible, this is to indicate her assumed short-life span, or to conjure up an image of Hotaru’s weak light flying away from Earth after she passes on.

Sheba Shingetsu Astarte
(柴・新月・アスタルテ Shiba Shingestu Asutarute)

As a foreigner, Sheba’s name is written in the Western format it is written with interpoints to mark her name as three separate words. Her given name “Sheba”（柴　しば） is actually Japanese, and transliterally is actually “shiba”, （しば）the kanji meaning “firewood”. I will note now, that just because a name is written in kanji, does not mean the name must be written transliterally in English, the name could just as easily be Shiba, Sheba, Siba, Siva, Sheva or Shiva, these are all pronounced identically in Japanese. However, I am settling on Sheba reasons to come. The explanation of “firewood” may come through her connection to Vulcan, it is revealed later that this poor character was manipulated by Death Vulcan (since Vulcan was the Roman God of Fire), Sheba may be seen as the “kindling” that led to Death Vulcan to bring so many other characters and events under his control. Sheba is a possibly a reference to the Queen of Sheba（シバの女王）, though the Queen of Sheba exists in many different variations, likely here she is likely to stem from Hebrew or Wiccan accounts, which have the most influence on the “Kessen / Transylvania no Mori” musicals. Sheba is said to be descended from Phoenicians, while the Queen of Sheba’s kingdom’s location is not clearly known, but the general area is similar. Likely the reason Sheba received her name is due to the Queen of Sheba’s strong identification with Lilith, where in the musical Astarte and Lilith of Darkness form a strong partnership as the Mothers. Shingetsu　(新月)　 is made of two Japanese kanji and literally means “new moon”, it can also refer to a crescent moon, likely as Astarte was sometimes a Goddess of the Moon, her symbol was a crescent moon too but in the musical, likely as Astarte with Lilith wanted to replace the current world order which was being preserved by Sailor Moon. Hence, Astarte would literally be the “new Moon”. Astarte simply comes from the Goddess Astarte and her Soldier form, Sailor Astarte. There is a minor planet also called Astarte. I will now try to debunk the other alternatives to Sheba which have been prevalent throughout the Sailor Moon fandom, the most common translation I’ve seen is “Shiva”, saying it’s a reference to a Hindu Destruction God, the greatest problem with this is that Hinduism pops up nowhere else in the entire Dracul Series, while Hebrew and Wicca references are numerous. Additionally, the Japanese concept of Shiva is very different, he has evolved into Daikokuten, a dwarf looking God of Fortune, something completely irrelevant to Sheba’s character. Shiva is also a Hebrew word that refers to a mourning period of seven days, though Judiasm references appear in the series, this particular one seems to be a coincidence, though the character has been in a period of mourning, it is not related to the number 7 which is at the root of this word. Siva is the name that appears in English in the official pamphlet of the show, however, since the pamphlet also uses “Duke” in place of “Baron” where the English word “Baron” is used to describe Gilles de Rais in the show, and the word “werewolf” is accidentally written as “warwolf”, it seems the creator of the characters, is not the person writing the pamphlets and we should not use the information too strongly. Siva however, is another name for Slavic goddess of love and fertility Živa, however Slavic references do not appear so like Shiva, it does not quite fit. A full literal name for the character could be “Firewood New Moon Astarte”.

The Amazoness / Samael /Sailor Quartet

CereCere (セレセレ SereSere)
PallaPalla (パラパラ ParaPara)
JunJun (ジュンジュン JunJun) and
VesVes (ベスベスBesuBesu)
form the Amazoness Quartet, the Sailor Quartet and the Samael Quartet and all have their names stemming from the same root and that is the first four discovered asteroids (at the time, some have now been reclassified). CereCere is from Ceres (セレス Seresu), PallaPalla from Pallas (パラス Parasu), JunJun from Juno (ジュノー  Junoo) and VesVes from Vesta (ベスタ Besuta), their Sailor identity forms, the reasoning for the way they are taken is likely because their names with their double sounds sound rather childish and cute which is highly relevant to their personality, being four young girls unwilling to become adults.