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Luke, Leia, Palpatine, Gon, Jinn, Obi, Wan, Han, Owen, Lars etc. all exist, either as fore or surnames, in various parts of the world.

Then you get things like Lando or Mon Mothma or Jango or Piett that AFAIK don't exist (they might, maybe I just haven't heard of them).

Any rhyme or reason? Do Lucas&co try to have non-earth names for characters, or obscure-earth names, or do they go for an even mix? Or is thought even given to it?

(Focusing on the humans here... There are no Jabbas, Greedos or Chewbaccas IRL to my knowledge but you could expect those characters to have made up names, even if it was a milky-way-centric sci-fi like ST, because they're aliens)

Edit: Come to think of it I believe in Japan Yoda exists as a name.

PALPATINE? Real name? I've never heard of anyone named "Mr. Palpatine" before. That'd be hilarious. Piett on the other hand, IS a real name.

Lots of Lucas' names are real names. He has so many characters that coming up with new names for each of them is a ridiculous bitch, and he claims that he's not very good at it. There's actually quite a lot that goes into naming a character. In Star Wars, the names generally are designed to create a sense of a unique culture for each species or planet group. Luke Skywalker is similar to Biggs Darklighter, but differentiated from other human societies' names (ie. "Leia Organa," "Han Solo," "Jan Dodonna," etc.), which are in turn more closely related to each other than alien names (ie. "Chewbacca," "Jar Jar Binks," "Admiral Ackbar," "Jabba the Hutt," etc.). I'm actually quite impressed by the work that the SW people do in maintaining such different nomenclatures for each of the different cultures involved, given the sheer scale of the project.

'Jango' is taken from a series of Spagetti westerns, IIRC.

A lot of the names supposedly are just phonetic spellings, or slightly modified versions of "real" names or those from fiction.

Yes, that would be Django, which is also the name of a singer. Real or nickname, I don't know.

Slartibartfast wrote:Yes, that would be Django, which is also the name of a singer. Real or nickname, I don't know.

You're right. There's also a couple of movies called "Jango" but that's not what I was thinking of, you got it.

Even place names come from other sources. Endor is Biblical (King Saul of Israel consults the Witch of Endor to obtain advice from the dead Samuel).

Palpatine is the name of a place in Rome, if I recall correctly.

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Palpatine is the name of a place in Rome, if I recall correctly.

Palatine? No, Palpy isn't named after one of the seven hills of Rome.

Actually, it's based on the name of a character from Taxi Driver, IIRC.

Cheers All,

Although I have no idea whether it was the source of the name, Hoth was the name of a German general during the Second World War. As I recall, he participated in numerous actions through the entire length of the war, commanding various armored units including those involved in the Battle of Kursk.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Actually, it's based on the name of a character from Taxi Driver, IIRC.

I've heard that too. Was the Star Wars novelisation the first mention of "Palpatine"? It came out 10 months after Taxi Driver, so that would allow time for it to be an influence.

I don't know. Was the prologue in the original printing of the SW novelisation? It would be weird to call him Palpatine in the first film's novelisation when his name during development was Cos Dashit even up to Empire.

Hahaha, he's Da Shit.

Then you get things like Lando or Mon Mothma or Jango or Piett that AFAIK don't exist (they might, maybe I just haven't heard of them).

Piett is a variation on a french name, afaik.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I don't know. Was the prologue in the original printing of the SW novelisation? It would be weird to call him Palpatine in the first film's novelisation when his name during development was Cos Dashit even up to Empire.

I don't know. I have an old copy (with the abstract art type cover and old title), but I'm sure it's not the very first printing. Next time I'm at my folk's house I'll have to check.

Things change...

Looking through starwarz.com's early scripts, that name is only mentioned once in the rough draft anyway (May, 1974). So the joke placeholder is there, but since then it's just "the Emperor."

Watching the X-Files movie the other day I was reminded that there is a place in Tunisia called "Tatouine." The name must have rubbed off on Lucas. ; )