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O, What's in a Name?

Saul Tigh

Franchise: Battlestar Galactica

Saul

Origin: English by way of Hebrew (שָׁאוּל‎,)

Meaning: "Asked for/prayed for"

Character Connection: Due to the various Biblical connections in the series, he is likely named after King Saul, whose reign supposedly marked the transition of the Israelites from a scattered tribal society ruled by various judges to organized statehood. This ties into how the series starts with everyone being a scattered group that comes together.

Tigh

Origin: Unclear.

Character Connection: It's possible that his surname may be a reference to Thailand, as the characters disperse throughout the planet upon arrival to Earth. The closest name I could find to his surname was Tighe, which is an anglicized Celtic surname.

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O, What's in a Name?

Rupert Giles

Franchise: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer

Rupert

Origin: Germanic

Meaning: Fame bright

Giles

Origin: Greek

Meaning: Protection or young goat

Character Connection: Rupert Giles is, in a way, the protagonist's protector, providing her with knowledge to help her be ready to face her foes.

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O, What's in a Name?

Ceasar

Franchise: Planet of the Apes (Prequels)

Origin: Latin

Meaning: Head of hair

Character Connection: Ceasar in the prequels is likely a tie-in to the original movies' Ceasar. The name was likely also chosen due to its connection to the military leader Julius Ceasar, as the character is also a master strategist.

All that being said, a name that means "head of hair" is quite fitting for a chimpanzee, eh?

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O, What's in a Name?

Ariel

Franchise: Disney's The Little Mermaid

Origin: Hebrew (אריאל)

Meaning: Lion of God

Character Connection: The first known mention of the name appears in the Torah as the name of an angel. It's possible Disney decided on the name due to the fact that mermaids are said to have beautiful and "angelic" voices. However, it's more likely that Disney chose to name the character after the spirit from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Like Shakesperean Ariel, Disney Ariel longs for freedom and is connected to a storm and shipwreck during which no one is harmed. Similarly to Disney Ariel, Shakesperean Ariel is also given a timeframe for when they will potentially gain their freedom (in their case it's two days instead of three).

Sidenote: It's worth mentioning that in the original text by Hans Christian Andersen, none of the characters have names.

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O, What's in a Name?

Maura Franklin

Franchise: 1899 by Netflix

Origin: The name has two potential origins (Latin or Irish via Hebrew) with very different meanings. As the character of Daniel Solace states that "Maura; [is] an Irish name" during a conversation with Maura, the Irish meaning was likely the one intended.

Meaning: Maura is the Anglicization of the Irish name Máire (a form of the name Mary), which in turn is based on the Hebrew name Miryam. The meaning of Miryam is debated, with some proposed meanings being "sea of bitterness", "rebelliousness", and "wished for child". However, it was most likely originally an Egyptian name, perhaps derived in part from mry "beloved" or mr "love".

Character Connection: The story takes place on a ship in the open ocean, where the character is rebelling against her father by travelling to New York. As we learn later in the series, Maura has some... er... unresolved issues with loss that may very well have turned her bitter toward life.

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O, What's in a Name?

Alice

Origin: Old High German (by way of Old French)

Franchise: Alice in Wonderland series by Lewis Carroll

Meaning: A shortened form of the name Adelais, which is the French-ified version of the Old High German name Adalhaidis. Adalhaidis, in turn, is made up from the Proto-Germanic words *aþala- (noble) and *haidu-, (appearance; kind), and the suffix -heit (-hood).

So, when put together, the name means "Of noble character or rank, of nobility."

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O, What's in a Name?

Pegasus

Origin: Latin (by way of Greek)

Franchise: Disney's Hercules

Meaning: The Latin form of the Greek name Πήγασος (Pḗgasos), whose meaning is slightly debated. It either has its origins in the root word πηγή (pēgḗ, “spring, fountain, fountain fed by a spring”) or it comes from the Luwian word for lightning (pihassas).

Character Connection: If the first proposed etymology is correct, it's likely a reference to where Perseus killed Medusa (Pegasus' mom) as well as a reference to Pegasus' father (Poseidon) having connections to water.

If the second proposed etymology is correct, it may be connected to the fact that Pegasus is said to bring Zeus his lightning bolts.

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O, What's in a Name?

Mario

Origin: Latin

Franchise: Super Mario

Meaning: Unclear. It may be a reference to the war god Mars, though it more likely is a reference to the sea (mare). This is because Mario is the Italian, French, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Nigerian English form of the Latin name Marius and Marius was the male form of the gens (family name) Maria (which is the plural form of the word for "sea").

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O, What's in a Name?

Kermit

Franchise: The Muppets

Origin: Irish

Meaning: Free man

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O, What's in a Name?

Ling Yi

Franchise: 1899

Origin: Chinese

Meaning: The meaning of her name depends on the characters used. There are three possibilities, but the most likely is probably 灵异 (or, more accurately, 靈異, since Simplified Chinese wasn't invented until 1949). This combination of characters could mean deity, monster, strange, mysterious, and/or supernatural.

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I think so too, but I wanted to make it clear that I wouldn't intentionally do it to a real person as well as to remind people that deadnaming irl is wrong and rude (to put it mildly).

Plus I'm not 100% up on the etiquette for dealing with deadnames, so I figured it'd be best to err on the side of caution in case I was unintentionally being rude. :)

Oh, What's in a Name?

Viktor Hargreeves

Franchise: The Umbrella Academy

Viktor

Origin: Latin

Meaning: Conqueror, winner

Hargreeves

Origin: Anglo-Saxon

Meaning: Either "grey groves" or "hare groves," depending on the medieval spelling of the name.

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Sidenote: I know that it's bad manners to deadname someone, but I looked up the name Vanya out of curiosity and came across quite an interesting pleasant surprise that I think is worth sharing.

Vanya

Origin: Slavic by way of Hebrew

Meaning: Graced by God

Character Connection: Vanya originated as a nickname for Ivan. In most Slavic languages it is either a strictly male name or a gender-neutral name. So, inadvertently, the show's creators originally gave Viktor a name that foreshadowed his coming out as trans.

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O, What's in a Name?

Pinocchio

Franchise: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Origin: Italian, possibly Tuscan

Meaning: Unclear. Either comes from a rare Tuscan word for "pine nut" or, if from Italian, it literally means "pine eye" (pino = pine, occhio = eye)

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IDK if you take requests, but if so, could you do Gideon from the Locked Tomb series? Thanks for hosting this blog, I love learning about meanings and symbolism in character names!

@teenslib Absolutely! I'm admittedly not familiar with the series so I might miss out on some character connections to the name, but if that's the case, feel free to add them in a reblog and I'll reblog back.

Ok, here we go:

O, What's in a Name?

Gideon Nav of the Ninth

Franchise: The Locked Tomb (book series)

Origin: Hebrew (גדעון)

Meaning: Great warrior

Character Connection: Gideon is, indeed, a great warrior and a high-ranking officer in the House of the Ninth

Nav

Origin: Slavic

Meaning: Likely comes from a Proto-Slavic word for "corpse, deceased" (*navь-). It is also the name of one of the underworlds in Slavic mythology and is also related to the Lithuanian and Latvian words for death.

The Number 9

This is a bit trickier, since each culture has different meanings for each number, though nine is a recurring important number in many cultures.

In most cultures, nine is generally considered lucky, though in Japan it has negative connotations because the word for nine sounds like the word for torture.

In Tarot, it represents a sense of completion, where you're close to reaching your goal but no quiiite there yet; you still need to double-check that everything is ready.

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O, What's in a Name?

Olek

Franchise: 1899

Origin: Polish by way of Greek

Meaning: A short form of the name Oleksy, meaning "helping, defending."

Character Connection: Olek can be seen helping several characters throughout the series and is Ling Yi's protector on several occasions.

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O, What's in a Name?

Wilbur

Franchise: Charlotte's Web

Origin: Old German and Old English

Meaning: In Old English, it comes from the nickname "wildbor" (wild boar), whereas in Old German it meant "brilliant".

Character Connection: Wilbur is a piglet, and "Radiant" is one of the words used by Charlotte in one of her webs to describe Wilbur.

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O, what’s in a name?

Sybil Trelawney

Franchise: Harry Potter

Sybil

Origin: Greek

Meaning: Seer, oracle

Character Connection: She is the Divinations professor at Hogwarts and was the seer who proclaimed the prophecy that led the series’ villain to go after the protagonist.

Trelawney

Origin: Cornish

Meaning: The open town near the water

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O, what’s in a name?

Dolores Abernathy

Franchise: Westworld

Dolores

Origin: Latin

Meaning: Dolores comes directly from the Latin word dolor (pain). The name means, quite literally, "pains”.

Abernathy

Origin: Uncertain, possibly Pict. 

Meaning: Uncertain, although some linguists believe the “Aber-” part of the name comes from a Pict word meaning “confluence” (which in turn means “an act or process of merging”).

Character Connection: Dolores is an AI who was brutally tortured for decades by visitors to the AI park she was a part of. In the first season of Westworld she gradually gains sentience and her different programmed personalities merge into a new unique persona.