r/TopCharacterTropes • u/dream_monkey • 11h ago

Lore (Loved Trope) Aptronyms

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Aptronyms are characters whose name is heavily symbolic or represent them as a character. Sometimes it is a subtle play on words, sometimes it’s just a clunky transliteration. Either way, it can help characterize a character and provide more allegorical depth. Authors must be careful not to delve into the realm of cliche, though.

  1. Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter series) His name means Evil Dragon, and he tries really hard to live up to his name.

[Many commenters have pointed out that Darth Vader is not a true aptronym. I stand corrected .]

  1. Darth Vader (Star Wars series) His name means Dark Father, which cleverly conceals one of the biggest reveals in cinema history.

  2. Cthulhu (Lovecraft mythos) Cthulhu may just sound like a nonsense syllable, unpronounceable by a human mouth. The name is derived from the word “cthonic” which means a being that lives under the earth or in the underworld, so an ancient and terrible god that lies dreaming in death at the bottom of the ocean would definitely fit the description.

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u/Lil_Mcgee 11h ago edited 10h ago

Edit: Possibly apocryphal

His name means Dark Father, which cleverly conceals one of the biggest reveals in cinema history.

Notably this one is a lucky coincidence however. Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker weren't intended to be the same person when Lucas wrote the original Star Wars. Pretty sure he just picked Vader to evoke "Invader"

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 10h ago

Most Sith lords tend to have some name invoking "this guy is obviously EVIIIL!" such as Revan meaning revenge, along with, off the top of my head:

Sidious.

Plagueis.

Maul.

Bane.

Tyranus.

Nihilus.

Desolus.

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u/Longjumping-Ear-6248 10h ago

Btw, Maul had two brothers: Savage & Feral. The same arc also reveals that their family name is "Opress"

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 10h ago

Sidious upon taking Maul to be a Sith: "Shit, I don't need to change anything, sweet"

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u/rooktherhymer 4h ago

His family: "Wait, Jerry... Did you seriously decide your Sith name would be Darth Jerry?!"

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u/BiddlesticksGuy 9h ago

Don’t know how Feral is pronounced, but importantly Savage is pronounced like a fancy perfume brand or something, so it comes out like Sa-Vahge instead of Sa-vedge like the regular pronunciation

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u/RadioMessageFromHQ 9h ago

Darth Sausage

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u/Lucifer10200225 9h ago

Nice to see some else who remembers Maul and Savage have another brother

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u/bowguyy 9h ago

Wait am I stupid? I thought Savage was Maul's apprentice and just the same race? Siblings makes more sense I just never realized that

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u/SarcyBoi41 10h ago

Malak too, that means anger. Which fits him very well, he is always described as thoughtless and anger-fuelled compared to Revan. SWTOR's Darth Angral is probably also derived from the word anger.

SWTOR obviously has countless other Sith, and many of them also fit this trope. Vitiate and Marr are both derived from words meaning to damage something's purity. Thanaton is likely derived from Thanatos, the Ancient Greek God of Death. Mortis obviously refers to death. Ravage requires no explanation. Jadus probably comes from "jaded," which he certainly is. Malgus probably comes from the word "amalgamation," which foreshadows his role at the end of the game's vanilla story when he tries to create a new Sith Empire that casts aside bigotry in favour of uniting and using the strengths of other races together.

Then there's Darth Baras, the only Sith Lord to use the obese character model, and he became a meme for it. The Greek word "barys" means "heavy." Lmao.

You mentioned Nihilus, but KOTOR 2 also has Darths Sion and Traya. Sion probably comes from the Hebrew word tzion, which seemingly doesn't have one exact English translation but has been used to refer to fortresses and monuments - possibly the writers intended it as a reference to Sion being unable to be killed unless he wills it. KOTOR 2 also has my least favourite Sith name - Darth Traya. It's not cool, clever or even funny, it's just the end of the word "betrayer" because she betrays people, which makes you wonder why anyone would ever work for her. It's the one really dumb thing about a character that is otherwise ingeniously written.

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 9h ago

I thought Malgus was derived from "Malignant"

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u/SarcyBoi41 5h ago

Understandable, but it definitely sounds more like amalgamation, which also fits his character better.

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u/V_Aldritch 4h ago

Darth Andeddu (say that name out-loud and hear what it sounds like) is the inventor of Dark Side Force techniques and Sith Sorceries that allow one to persist beyond the point of bodily death.

Y'know... almost like he's undead.

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u/cherry_armoir 9h ago

This isnt my favorite episode of Futurama but I always loved this joke

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u/DaveyDumplings 10h ago

You forgot Admiral Bonetopick

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u/Achilles9609 10h ago

I don't think Revan was supposed to mean revenge.

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 10h ago

It's a double one.

It does mean revenge, it also means revenant, tying into his story in KotOR.

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u/BoZo_Duck 9h ago

I don’t have a quote, but I am pretty sure Revan was derived from revanchism/revanchist, since they were retaking territory lost to the mandalorians. His name came from what they were trying to accomplish.

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u/Achilles9609 9h ago

Has that actually been confirmed? Because that's the first time I am hearing about that.

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 9h ago

I heard about it, but, also there's the one I was just replied, about revanchism.

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u/dream_monkey 11h ago

Serendipity

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u/Separate-Factor8661 10h ago

Yes, "Darth Serendipitous" was also considered but ultimately discarded

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u/Witty-Ad5743 10h ago

Sounds like the nephew of Mary Poppins.

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u/dreads80_palmate 10h ago

One of those happy accidents that ended up making the reveal even more iconic.

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u/Sr_Gr 10h ago

Classic George Lucas shinannigans, making up shit on the go and somehow everything fits perfectly

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u/rices4212 10h ago

I'm not sure his stuff always fits perfectly

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u/Missing_Username 10h ago

That particular skill had definitely burned out by at least 1997

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u/Lil_Mcgee 10h ago

It's like poetry

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u/rices4212 10h ago

There's a long history of silly ass sith names

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u/Viper61723 9h ago

Vader is so interesting to me because to Germans Vater is father. So they were like no shit when the reveal happened, but it wasn’t even intended to be obvious since Lucas didn’t know

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u/eo5g 10h ago

This is the first time I've heard this, do you have a source?

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u/Owy2001 10h ago

Check out Icons Unearthed: Star Wars.

According to his now-ex wife, he was really struggling for an origin story for Vader while writing Empire Strikes Back, and Vader being Luke's father was thrown out as a joke before they decided to run with it.

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u/upholsteryduder 7h ago

It's pretty obvious if you watch A New Hope, Obi Wan explicitly tells Luke that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered his father. The "well that was true...from a certain point of view" line was considered a pretty ham fisted retcon at the time

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u/Lil_Mcgee 10h ago

Looking it up I don't have a great one.