#( also not me screaming because artbreeder did not let me give halley long hair... because she HAS long hair

[jillvalcntines-archive]

name meaning

RULES: Search and post the meaning of your OCs’ names (if you made their name up or they go by a nickname, post an explanation of how it came to you)! Bonus if you can find something for their last name too (+ to make it funnier i’ll add why i chose the name <3)

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CARMEN — is a name with two different origins, and therefore meanings. The hebrew meaning (from karmel) means “garden” or “vineyard”, while the latin meaning is “song”, “poetry” or “truthful”. 

I chose the name Carmen, because it’s one of my favorite names. I also chose the name carmen because of the opera “Carmen” which is one of my mom’s favorite operas she has visited and the song “Habanera”, an aria of this opera, has THIS epic version, which I LOVE. It’s the first one in Carmen’s character playlist, as well! (Also because I created trailer-style videos before, I constantly get a video game trailer in my head for Carmen’s “own” game [like RE4 was for Leon] and this is the song used in the trailer. Yes, I am weird, thank you for noticing.)

LARA — is a name with several different origins, which can all mean completely different things, but since Carmen is of hispanic heritage, I will go with the spanish meaning, which is “Protection”. 

(okay, this here might be a little surprise, BUT Lara isn’t actually Carmen’s second given name, but her paternal name (as in spanish naming customs & in some hispanic countries the children have two last names: the paternal surname and then the maternal surname. ) I love this meaning so much, because it clearly shows what Carmen would do for her loved ones. She is a very protective person, so she’d do anything to save them, which... doesn’t always work. I also chose Lara, because Carmen has a Lara Croft “phase” later on, and I read they actually intended for the original Lara to be hispanic, so I made a little homage to my first role model ever.

LOPEZ — is a common spanish surname (especially in Mexico, where Carmen’s maternal grandparents come from) and is the anglicized version of López, meaning “Son of Wolf”. It is also her maternal surname and her “official” surname (or rather the one she is called with, instead of Lara Lopez)

Little FUN FACT #1: okay, so this was basically BY COINCIDENCE and I did not plan this at all, but I thought it’d be funny to mention that Carmen’s name (the one she uses on every form or official paper [Carmen Lopez]) can be translated as “Song of the Wolf”, and that later on Chris’ squad is the “Hound Wolf Squad”, because... you know, wolfs usually show other wolfs they invade their territory by howling and that was just completely  👀 👀 to me! (I have a silly little lore about this regarding Carmen’s role in Village, but I have to think a bit more about this, but it’s angsty and a bit heartbreaking)

Little FUN FACT #2: Carmen is not a big fan of beer and actually enjoys wine more (her favorite is red wine), so her name meaning vineyard is also just happy coincidence and making me smile so much.

Little FUN FACT #3: So, even though Carmen keeps Lopez in her name, when she marries Chris her full name is actually Carmen Lara Lopez Redfield, and she goes by both Lopez and Redfield, although it happens that she is called Redfield by new people she meets... and if you take a look at the first fun fact, all I’m gonna say: Red Riding Hood.

SCARLETT —as in the color scarlet, represents courage, passion, force, joy and heat.

I haven’t written anything about Scarlett yet, but that girl is walking trouble. She has all those things mentioned above. She doesn’t think twice, as she is rather reckless about things (definitely not mirrored by the way I play Skyrim and run into every trap) and loves to play with fire. I also fell in love with this name because of the video game Venetica, where the protagonist is named Scarlett and she is the daughter of death... and since my Scarlett is a thief and definitely not someone who shies away from killing someone, she is my little anti-hero and not the hero those bards sing about in the Last Dragonborn.

WYNTER —other varianation of the name ‘Winter’, but in this variation also means ‘son’ or ‘child of winter’.

That was pretty easy, as I went with the Nord name giving techniques and gave Scarlett a name that could easily fit into the Skyrim narrative, since she is a born Nord.

FUN FACT #1: I explicitly chose two names for her that could be viewed as complete opposites. Scarlett (passion, heart, red, fire) and Wynter (snow, cold, ice, water), because even though Scarlett is a passionate, and rather sexual woman, her appearance is cool with pale skin, blond hair and icy blue eyes, which just shows the duality she expresses. She really is the “don’t judge the book by its cover”.

HALLEY — is a female name of Scandinavian origin and means Heroine.

That the name means Heroine was just another BIG coincidence, as I chose the name Halley because of Halley’s comet! My shepard is a big paragade, with her being paragon in the first Mass Effect game, Renegade in the second and gets to be more paragade in the third game again, but through everything she is the “beacon of hope”, or “shooting star” in the darkest night. There is also a very cute (and also sad) WIP with her and Kaidan (her love interest) where her name gets a special meaning.

KATHRYN — a variation of the name Katherine and means “pure” in greek

Not me chuckling, because Kathryn has probably never felt “pure” in her entire life. Kathryn is barely called by her entire name (except by Cullen in some private moments), as she refers to herself mostly as “Kat”, which is the nickname her twin brother gave her, because of her bright green eyes that sometimes light up like the ones of a cat. Because she is the mage and got often refered by a templar as filthy and dirty and cursed, she definitely never felt like a pure person and had to fight (often dirty) for herself to get through this bullying and straight down harassment of some templars in the Ostwick circle. No way, she’d feel good about this meaning or she’d rather point out the irony of it. (Even though Cullen would say otherwise).

NIMUE —meaning “Lady of the Lake” or “Water”, sometimes even “Water of Life”

I must say, I chose this name because of the Arthurian Legend with Nimue being the original owner of Excalibur, a magical sword, and Kathryn later on learns the way of the Knight-Enchanter, and it’s an absolutely beautiful name really.