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In the course of my reading the EU something dawned on me. The Jedi have dramatically different names then the non Jedi characters in the series to the point it seems they are from a different culture.

When we look at the Humans in the SWverse we find they all have names that could basically be considered European in our world with maybe some embelishments to make them seem cooler. But otherwise we have names that we would be familar with

Luke
Owen
Han(s)
Ben

Same thing exists for lastnames
Paplatine(Could easilly pass for an Americanized Italian name)
Veers(Has a German Vibe to it.)
Naberrie(Could pass for Spanish)

Now when we look at the Jedi names(mostly humans) they all have an Asiatic quality to them.

Qui Gon Jinn
Obi Wan Kenobi

as well as dozens of names from the EU.

Now if most humans have names that we would associate as Europeans and most Jedi have names that we would associate as Asian does the Jedi order give younglings who join the order say when they are toddlers or small new "Jedi names" that conform to the principles of the order. Otherwise it would seem strange that the Jedi would have names so disimilar to what seems to be the vast majority of the Galaxy.

There was a deleted part of the ROTS script where Anakin calls Obi-Wan "Ben" during the opening battle, and although I can't remember how the exchange took place, it had Obi-Wan puzzling over how Anakin knew his pre-Jedi birth name. I was looking forward to it in the movie and was disappointed it wasn't there.

Anakin's name was Anakin before he was a jedi...and was Anakin WHILE he was a jedi.

The relationship to ethnicities in the real world needn't be a distinction between jedi non-jedi when you realize that there're are billions of inhabited worlds in the SW galaxy, each of which probably has numerous cultures which would generate a very very large library of names.

Shadow WarChief wrote:Anakin's name was Anakin before he was a jedi...and was Anakin WHILE he was a jedi.

The relationship to ethnicities in the real world needn't be a distinction between jedi non-jedi when you realize that there're are billions of inhabited worlds in the SW galaxy, each of which probably has numerous cultures which would generate a very very large library of names.

Anakin was already 9 or 10 when he was taken in. He was old. Most Jedi are taken in as Infants or toddlers.

There would be a very large name library but that would also reflect in the Jedi Order there would be "European" names and there would be "Asian" names. The Jedi Order seems to be dominated by Asian names.

My guess is, Jedi who get IDed really early get a Jedi name (Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Sifo-Dyas) and Jedi IDed a bit later keep their names (Mace Windu).

while it's certain this counts, but Bastilla Shan, Revan or Malak don't have asian sounding names and those are their true birth names (at least in case of Bastilla).

What about Count Dooku?

Cykeisme wrote:What about Count Dooku?

is Dooku his name as a Jedi? (he takes the title after he has left the Order IIRC)

It seemed that since Dooku already had a title Count of Cosimo (or whatever, maybe I'm getting Don Quixote in my head), that allowing him to keep the title added an air of, I dont know, flair or celebrity status to the Jedi Order?

NeoGoomba wrote:It seemed that since Dooku already had a title Count of Cosimo (or whatever, maybe I'm getting Don Quixote in my head), that allowing him to keep the title added an air of, I dont know, flair or celebrity status to the Jedi Order?

Count or Serenno is correct title, but I always got impression that he didn't have title as a Jedi

Lord Revan wrote:

NeoGoomba wrote:It seemed that since Dooku already had a title Count of Cosimo (or whatever, maybe I'm getting Don Quixote in my head), that allowing him to keep the title added an air of, I dont know, flair or celebrity status to the Jedi Order?

Count or Serenno is correct title, but I always got impression that he didn't have title as a Jedi

He took up the title again once he left the Order; he wasn't a Count while he was a Jedi.

Manus Celer Dei wrote: He took up the title again once he left the Order; he wasn't a Count while he was a Jedi.

Well then theres that

Has anyone thought that its a purely 'Human' tradition?

I thought there were a couple of clone wars era stories about jedi who are confronted by relatives who have the same surname. I could be completely off the mark though.

After all, dark jedi change their names, so why can't eh jedi?

It's possible that some Jedi have different names that they had at birth. AFAIK, most Jedi are taken/recruited at ~4-5 years in age. Some of those may have been in less than happy circumstances so they changed the name.

However, out of SOD, the Jedi are/were modeled or influenced by Samurai and I do believe the PT era one's were influenced by other Asian martial orders.

Lucas was hardly original or extremely creative with his naming process.

AK_Jedi wrote:I thought there were a couple of clone wars era stories about jedi who are confronted by relatives who have the same surname. I could be completely off the mark though.

After all, dark jedi change their names, so why can't eh jedi?

Sith do change their names but I've not heard of other Dark Jedi changing their names

Lord Revan wrote:while it's certain this counts, but Bastilla Shan, Revan or Malak don't have asian sounding names and those are their true birth names (at least in case of Bastilla).

KOTOR happens, what, 10,000 years prior to the PT? Plenty of time for upheaval.

Actually it's between 5000 and 4000 years I believe, 40 years after Exar Kun was defeated.

Lord Revan wrote:

AK_Jedi wrote:I thought there were a couple of clone wars era stories about jedi who are confronted by relatives who have the same surname. I could be completely off the mark though.

After all, dark jedi change their names, so why can't eh jedi?

Sith do change their names but I've not heard of other Dark Jedi changing their names

right, I'm sorry, I meant sith

Kuja wrote:

Lord Revan wrote:while it's certain this counts, but Bastilla Shan, Revan or Malak don't have asian sounding names and those are their true birth names (at least in case of Bastilla).

KOTOR happens, what, 10,000 years prior to the PT? Plenty of time for upheaval.

Pfft...a mere 4000

It would make sense if Jedi changed their names, given the monastic nature of the Jedi Order: since the Jedi want complete dedication to the order, changing a new youngling's name would be a symbolic (and also probably highly effective) method of removing past emotional attachments.

Old Plympto wrote:There was a deleted part of the ROTS script where Anakin calls Obi-Wan "Ben" during the opening battle, and although I can't remember how the exchange took place, it had Obi-Wan puzzling over how Anakin knew his pre-Jedi birth name. I was looking forward to it in the movie and was disappointed it wasn't there.

If Ben was Obi-Wan's pre-Jedi name, and Anakin knew it, why would Obi-Wan bother changing his name back to Ben at all? Didn't Obi-Wan change his name in order to keep his identity a secret? If Darth Vader heard the name Ben Kenobi, he would know who he was immediately (not that keeping the name Kenobi was a smart idea either).

playloud wrote:

Old Plympto wrote:There was a deleted part of the ROTS script where Anakin calls Obi-Wan "Ben" during the opening battle, and although I can't remember how the exchange took place, it had Obi-Wan puzzling over how Anakin knew his pre-Jedi birth name. I was looking forward to it in the movie and was disappointed it wasn't there.

If this was Obi-Wan's pre-Jedi name, and Anakin knew it, why would Obi-Wan bother changing his name back to Ben at all? Didn't Obi-Wan change his name in order to keep his identity a secret? If Darth Vader heard the name Ben Kenobi, he would know who he was immediately (not that keeping the name Kenobi was a smart idea either).

Good point. I guess that's why it was deleted.