TheBoost said:

Been thinking about Star Wars character names, ever since we had that thread about stormtroopers and someone told me there's a stormtrooper named Davin Felth. That name sucks.

So I started thinking about the names people have in the movies.

I'm only counting human characters who's names are used in the movie.

Star Wars

Luke Skywalker... odd last name but it is English.

Owen Lars... Lars is a first name, used as a surname.

Beru Lars... It's a wierd name, but it's short.

Obi-Wan Kenobi aka Ben... A bit wierd, but very reminiscent of Japanese names. Can't get more normal than Ben.

Han Solo... Han isn't far from Hans, a real name, and Solo isn't usually a name but a recognizable word.

Leia... not far removed from normal names like Lee or Leigh.

Tarkin... not a normal last name, but wouldn't be wierd if you met Greg Tarkin at work.

Darth Vader... wierdest name in the first movie.

Empire Strikes Back

Piett, Veers, Motti, Ozzel... last names. Wouldn't stand out in the real world.

Lando Calrissian... This name is surely not from this world, and sounds 'exotic' even compared to other names from the movie.

Return of the Jedi

Mon Mothma... arguably the goofiest name in the OT.

Anakin... Not a real name, but resembles "Ken" or "Nick" grounding it somehwat.

Episode One

Qui-Gon Jinn- A fantasy name, but like Obi-Wan, tries to sound kinda Asiany.

Ric Ollie... Spelling aside, a normal name ("Whooooo!")

Padme Amidala... totally wierd.

Mace Windu... first name resmebles "Mason" but Windu is just weird.

Palpatine... grounded somewhat in reality with its assocsiations with the Palatine hill in Rome. Still all sci-fi-y

Episode Two

Dooku... no comment

Jango Fett... just plain strange.

Episode Three

Were there any new human characters?

My conclusion is that the names USED in the movies (Sio Bibble isn't named in dialogue) aren't anywhere near as weird as the names given to characters in the EU. In fact, most bare at least a passing resemblance to normal Earth names.

My final analysis is that EU names kinda suck. Then end. Thank you for your time.

Yea, but where's the fun if you exclude the weird alien names? Some of those can end up very funny with knowledge of the right language...

for example, Chewbacca is very similar to Russian "sobaca", i.e. dog. "Backe" means "cheek" in German, and "chew"... well, that's too reaching, maybe.

Jabba, again, is very reminiscent of the Russian "szaba", which means "toad". He also says "ya yest khochu" at one point, referring to "the Wookie", which, in Russian, means "I want to eat" :D

Fett? That means "fat" in German. "Maul"? Gee, Maul... that's "gob". Halt's Maul = shut your gob.

Now, of course, we all know what "to maul" is, so that leads us to the next category - the obvious, silly, cheesy names that are too obvious and kitschy to be taken seriously.

Skywalker? Like "Starkiller" :D

Solo? Cuz he's like "solo", right?

Vader? Well regardless of original ideas, it's like the German "Vater", which is "father".

Grievous? Insidious? Palpation, maybe? Maul? Greed$?

Gun Ray???

So anyway, you go back to, like, "Flash Gordon", with its "Princess Aura"s and "Prince Vultan"s, and you see that some of the original SW names were supposed to be not just "normal" and "English", but actually silly and campy.

Few annotations: Lea is a real name, although I only know it in Germany. Django is obviously a name, too. Never heard of a "Boba", though... Bobafett? Seriously? It's like "Fat Bubba" :D Or "Fatbob" :DDD