Palpatine's first name revealed

[Panzersharkcat]

Link.

Social media was set a blaze this afternoon after a critical tidbit of information about a legendary Star Wars character leaked online. Ever since his introduction in The Empire Strikes Back back in 1980, Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine has had no first name, only later being know alternatively by his Sith title Darth Sidious. For years many speculated that the the beloved villain simply only had one name, now we've learned that's not that case. A few days ago at the 'A New Dawn' panel at New York Comic Con, it was revealed that the upcoming novel Tarkin, written by James Luceno, will finally reveal Palpatine's first name. Earlier today the Star Wars Wikia Wookieepedia updated their article on Palpatine with the new name and listed page 93 of Tarkin as their source. (Obviously one of their editors got an advanced copy of the novel.) So without further ado, The Phantom Menace's full name is....

SPOILERS!

-
--
---
----
-----
------
-------

Sheev Palpatine

So, what do you think? Does it fit him? Or are you glad it was never mentioned in the films? Let us know in the comments below, or in Club SWU on Facebook! And also be sure to pre-order your copy of Star Wars: Tarkin, which promises to give more insight into another iconic Star Wars villain: Wilhuff Tarkin.

*cringe* No wonder he went by just Palpatine.

[Darth Nostril]

Pffft In an early draft his name was Cos Dashit. This is actually an improvement.

[B5B7]

it looks like his "parents" were tossing up between shiv and sheep.
As for Tarkin, he will huff and he'll puff and he will blow your planet away.

[NecronLord]

Jesus. No wonder Palpatine hated his father.

[Vance]

That is rather poor.

[Gandalf]

To be fair, is there anything that wouldn't disappoint people somewhat?

If Palpatine had a first name when he was introduced, people wouldn't care so much and just refer to him as Palpatine. It'd be like if we never heard Wedge Antilles' name until now. "What sort of a name is Wedge?"

[Batman]

'Wedge' is merely unusual. 'Sheev' belongs on the 'list of things to do to make sure your kid ends up a supervillain'.

[Darth Nostril]

The bullying at school because of his name is what turned him to the Dark Side in the first place.

[Metahive]

Some people say that if Hitler's father hadn't changed the family name from Schicklgruber to Hitler, Adolf would have had no chance to become chancellor of Germany because no one could possibly take him seriously ("Heil Schicklgruber *pffffffft*").

Good thing for Palpy the Star Wars galaxy is full of silly names, huh? And let's be honest, "Palpatine" is silly enough already a name.

[Borgholio]

"Palpatine" does sound an awful like a chocolate drink mix I used to love as a kid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovaltine

[Purple]

I always thought it was a play on palatine. As in the Roman and later HRE title of nobility.

[Havok]

Most names in Star Wars are CORNY AS FUCK. Luke SKYWALKER, the hero who dreams of being among the stars. Han SOLO, the scoundrel that lives by his own rules... I mean, come on; Vader, Sidious, Maul, Tyranus.

Other than Sheev reminding me of the Dukes Of Hazzard remake movie, it's fine.

[Mange]

Most names in Star Wars are CORNY AS FUCK. Luke SKYWALKER

And it was changed from Luke Starkiller...

[Metahive]

Dirk Starkiller actually.

"I'm Dirk Starkiller, I'm here to rescue you!"

[Napoleon the Clown]

Well he did kill the Death Star, so it kinda works.

My take: "Sheev" sounds like the sort of thing you'd encounter on fanfiction.net. But whatever, names Lucas came up with can be pretty goofy. Nute Gunray? Boss Nass? Mace Windu? (Please don't kill me, Mr Jackson)

[Mange]

Dirk Starkiller actually.

"I'm Dirk Starkiller, I'm here to rescue you!"

The name was still Luke Starkiller when Star Wars was in production (it wasn't changed until the Death Star scenes were filmed in England and thus stayed during the filming in Tunisia). As for "Dirk Starkiller", I wonder if that's not some sort of rumor as the early drafts doesn't include that name (though GL might have toyed with different names).

[Borgholio]

Actually the very first name was Anakin Starkiller in the first draft.

[Channel72]

Palpatine didn't even have a name until the prequels anyway* - he was just "The Emperor". That's really all we ever needed to know.

* Yes I know his name came from shooting scripts or EU stuff way before the prequels, I just don't care.

[Mange]

Actually the very first name was Anakin Starkiller in the first draft.

Well, it was "Annikin" Starkiller. The very first protagonist was Mace Windy (from the 1973 outline).

[Metahive]

Now that I think of it, "Sheev" sounds like "schief" which is German and means "crooked", "askew" or "slanted". It's used with several negative connotations in certain idioms like "Schiefe Bahn" lit. "crooked path" which means "criminal career".

I wonder if it's intentional?

[Borgholio]

Well, Darth Vader has been roughly translated to mean "Dark Father", so it's possible.

[Darth Yan]

I would have thought it was cosinga palpatine ii (like his dad). On the other had, it does explain why palpatine hated his parents.

[Tritio]

That's an odd first name. I would have preferred:
There are some who call me... 'Tim'? =D

[Havok]

I always thought Darth was just short for DARk lord of the siTH as a kid. I think Lucas made up some BS about it being Dark Father, but as the name was around before Vader was actually Luke's dad, I doubt it and I'm probably correct.

[Havok]

That's an odd first name. I would have preferred:
There are some who call me... 'Tim'? =D

That would have been bad ass.
Timothy, Timustrus, Timoffen, Timmos, anything that could be shortened to Tim.