What’s in a Name?

Star Wars names have taken on a life of their own. Sometimes it can be a distraction.



In the beginning, we probably didn't think much of the names given to Star Wars characters. In the film, there really aren't that many whose names are actually spoken. Aside from the mains, off the top of my head I can think of Owen and Beru, TK421, a bunch of Rebel Pilots, and "Governor" Tarkin. A few more characters are named in the credits, but most of us probably had no idea who those were unless we were old enough at the time to be reading comics, books, or magazines - or listening to audio books. I did none of those things in the beginning. I was 4 was Star Wars came out, and I think I got most of my information from Kenner Action Figures, or maybe if my dad somehow knew something because he read it somewhere.

The action figures started out with generic names like Hammerhead, Walrus Man, and Snaggletooth. These are pretty silly in retrospect, but neither we, nor Kenner, knew any better. In fact, LFL didn't know any better either. Those were their "names", and it really wasn't intended to get much deeper than that.

It wasn't until the EU really became a thing, that characters started getting "real" names, and so then we got Momaw Nadon, Ponda Baba, and Zutton. Again, it was harmless enough as we were starting to get a feel for an immersive universe that provided the backdrop for the action in the films.

I don't know where things went crazy. It was probably a slow burn. I never read much of any EU (I think I read Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and some Lando book that escapes me), until Timothy Zahn came along. He gave us Mara Jade and Talon Karrde; both of which seemed normal enough. But he also gave us Joruus C'Boath. The double "u" was supposed to differentiate his clone form from his original Jorus. To this day, I still can't pronounce C'Boath. I always said "See Both." And then he gave us Grand Admiral Thrawn, which was cool, except that his real name was Mitth'raw'nuruodo. Maybe that's where it went off the rails, with all the apostrophes and stuff.

When I did the review yesterday, I learned that Plourr Ilo's full name was Isplourrdacartha Estillo. Whatever. That made me think of Mitth'raw'nuruodo. And then I got to thinking, what are the dumbest names in Star Wars? Sometimes writers take Star Wars too seriously (like with Isplourrdacartha Estillo) and sometimes they go too far with silliness (Elan Sleazebaggano).

There are a lot of dumb ones, but my top one is Sio Bibble. Yep. Sio Bibble from Naboo. Nice work, George. Way to ruin Star Wars, jerk!

What's your pick for dumbest name in Star Wars?

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