M'aking up alien N'ames

[Locutus of Bored]

If in doubt, stick an apostrophe in th'ere.

This is still better than George Lucas's approach of using common words to become character names because they fit the character attribute. Take Darth Sideous - I guess he was called that because he is evil and INSIDIOUS.

Well, yeah. That was kind of the whole point.

They're not family names, they're made up names Sith Lords give themselves or their apprentices. The Emperor wasn't Joe Sidious IV of the Naboo Sidious'.

In a galaxy where they speak the Star Warsian equivalent of English (with all the languages English has borrowed from included) and words like insidious, plague, invader, tyranny, bane, and maul have meaning, why wouldn't they give themselves a badass name to both conceal their true identities and inspire fear in their enemies?

"Uh oh, here comes Dooku" sounds like you're about to have an accident in your pants and doesn't exactly carry the same weight as "Uh oh, here comes Tyrannus." Yeah, it's a bit on the simplistic mustache-twirling curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal side, but since Star Wars is based on old movie serials where that kind of villain would fit right in, it makes sense.

 

[Gaith]

La Forge: Captain, we are approaching the planet... Joebob.

When my brother was first in Afghanistan he was deployed around Jalalabad, which I didn't know from his letters because apparently the grunts simply called it "Jello Bob."

The first time I heard the name "Islamabad", I thought it was a lame joke in poor taste.

 

[DevilEyes]

There is a full page of potential Vulcan names. They had decided that the rules for all Vulcan names were 1) they were all 5 letters lock, 2) they all started with S, and ended with K, and 3) most of them had p as the second letter ... SPxxK. And they went through various combinations including Spook and Spunk.

Now that is just silly.

That's like saying, since my name is Ivana, every human female on Earth must have a 5-letter name that starts in I and ends in A.

But then again, from a real-world/television/production point of view it's not that bad an idea to give a fictional race similar sounding/looking names — however unrealistic that might be from an in-universe standpoint. Because for the viewer that makes them easier to recognize and supports the notion that it is one coherent culture. Granted, more variety is nice (I'm absolutely in favor of giving Vulcans names starting with letters other than S, T or V), but the idea to develop some kind of pattern and make alien names sound like they orginate from one place is not that disadvantageous. At least not to me.

But even from that point of view, after a while you risk the viewers getting confused with all those similar names... Surak, Sarek... Solok, Soval... T'Pau, T'Pol... V'lar, V'las...

 

[Checkmate]

Because for the viewer that makes them easier to recognize and supports the notion that it is one coherent culture.

Now that is something I do personally hate in fiction, but fantasy and sci-fi.

Apparently, modern Earth is the only planet that has more than one culture of a single race on it, more than one language spoken by that race, more than one type of government system for that race, and hell, more than one environment that the race thrives in! At best, oher races and planets might have an "old" language, but that's about it. And then, only if you're really lucky.

Drives me absolutely crazy.

 

[Starbreaker]

I accept one apostrophe, though I got sick of them a long time ago. (and since it's my opinion I DON'T CARE about real-world uses of apostrophes! I'm well aware from living on this planet that we already use them! Sheesh!)
I never liked using more than one as it makes the name hard to verbalize in my head as I read, if you know what I mean.

I couldn't have said it any better. It really takes me out of the story when I see A'B'C'D'E'F'G for some reason.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Oh, by the way...some of us have been through this whole apostrophe thing before:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=87848&highlight=apostrophes

 

[Kegg]

Apparently, modern Earth is the only planet that has more than one culture of a single race on it, more than one language spoken by that race, more than one type of government system for that race, and hell, more than one environment that the race thrives in!

This is partly the laziness mentioned earlier into play, but also, the rather curious notion that aliens, being mostly physically the same as humans, need a distinct cultural system to make them different from us. If a Klingon devoutly believed in everything a Ferengi believed, then is it only the forehead ridges that made him different from a Ferengi?

 

[Nardpuncher]

Apparently, modern Earth is the only planet that has more than one culture of a single race on it, more than one language spoken by that race, more than one type of government system for that race, and hell, more than one environment that the race thrives in!

This is partly the laziness mentioned earlier into play, but also, the rather curious notion that aliens, being mostly physically the same as humans, need a distinct cultural system to make them different from us. If a Klingon devoutly believed in everything a Ferengi believed, then is it only the forehead ridges that made him different from a Ferengi?

They would have to be able to mate.

 

[Deckerd]

Apparently, modern Earth is the only planet that has more than one culture of a single race on it, more than one language spoken by that race, more than one type of government system for that race, and hell, more than one environment that the race thrives in!

This is partly the laziness mentioned earlier into play, but also, the rather curious notion that aliens, being mostly physically the same as humans, need a distinct cultural system to make them different from us. If a Klingon devoutly believed in everything a Ferengi believed, then is it only the forehead ridges that made him different from a Ferengi?

The other thing to remember is that Starfleet is military/naval and if there's one thing the forces do for humans it's make them all the same. There aren't any social or cultural sets wandering around starships, so it makes sense to apply the same rule to aliens.

 

[Zameaze]

Apparently, modern Earth is the only planet that has more than one culture of a single race on it....

Point well taken. We did have a black Vulcan, though. But then again, I'm not sure that that counts as another Vulcan race.

 

[Trent Roman]

I imagine skin tone is as biologically irrelevant amongst Vulcans as it is with humans.

Despite the general trend, there are some exceptions, even in the big franchises. ENT had Andorians and Aenar on the same planet. Star Wars has the Mon Calamari and the Quarren from the same world, etc.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Kegg]

Tuvok's culture is treated as essentially identical to the culture of any other Vulcan, though. You could have had a white actor in the same role and probably not have to change a single line over the course of seven years.

While a fair number of sci-fi shows have diversified the casting of aliens race-wise, it doesn't follow there's any diversity in their cultures.

 

[Deckerd]

Humans and gungans on Naboo.

Everyone seems to be forgetting the Xindi.

I still prefer my explanation about why different species were homogeneous as regards culture - they were almost always officers or 'in uniform' in one way or another; like the humans.

 

[Kegg]

Humans and gungans on Naboo.

Everyone seems to be forgetting the Xindi.

Different species, in both cases, and each alien species was culturally monolithic (indeed there's even a degree of monoculturalism within the Xindi themselves).

 

[Chaos Descending]

The question would then be, how many of those are intentional? Quark, certainly. Jadzia, I'd be more dubious.

Jadzia is a Polish girl's name. Is the diminutive of Jadwiga.

 

[Myasishchev]

I think you mean DS9, rather than Trek as a whole.

Those were just the first that came to my mind. I could have mentioned Kang, or Troi, or Ilia, or Tarah...

I still say Garth of Izar was an alien, though.

As for monoculturalism, I think it's much of less of a big deal in something like Trek, when you consider than humans are just as monocultural as anyone else, and much moreso than their Federation partners (Andorians with their Aenar subspecies/subculture, Vulcans with their billions and billions of Romulans). Seriously, Sisko making some creole dinner is not remotely as culturally diverse as a species that didn't have contact between its two major civilizations for a couple thousand years...

 

[Python Trek]

Considering that when we meet an alien species in Trek (or just about anywhere else in sci-fi), they are, more often than not, portrayed as having a unified, planet-wide government, I would expect these various species to have a very large degree of cultural homogeneity. You could argue that it's kinda weird that Trek's humans aren't _less_ culturally diverse, given that, as of the late 24th century, they've had World Government for about 3 centuries............