r/TopCharacterTropes • u/dream_monkey • 13h 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/pyrhus626 12h ago

Darth Vader started as wanting to invoke the vibes of “dark” and “invader” to sound scary and intimidating, which is how Lucas came up with all the Darth names. Every one is a play on some scary sounding word, and not a hamfisted reference in Dutch.

Vader = Invader
Sidious = Insidious, even copies the format of dropping the -in prefix he used for Vader
Maul = Just maul, he didn’t even change up the word there
Tyrannus = Tyranny or Tyrant.

Think the overall track record makes it pretty clear Vader isn’t supposed to be Dutch, which I’m not even sure the Dutch word is pronounced the same way. The next best theory is that Lucas went to school with a kid whose last name was Vader and it stuck with Lucas as a cool sounding name.

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u/Crusaderofthots420 11h ago

Remember that this is the guy that created "Moralo Eval", who is morally evil. George isn't particularly creative with names

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u/Staugustine95 9h ago

Did he name all the characters? If so he’s got a lot more hits than misses. Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, Qui-Gon Jinn, Count Dooku, Wedge Antilles, all the sith titles

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u/Billy-Spud_Tater 8h ago

Fun fact: They changed Dooku's name slightly in Portuguese, because the way Dooku is spelled in English (while an unconventional arrangement of letters in Portuguese writing) would be pronounced by most Brazilian speakers the same way they would say the words Dou cu, which means I give anal.

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u/Brendanlendan 5h ago

Now we know why he was so desperate to get Obi-Wan to join him

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u/RecklessBravado 7h ago

How are you gonna just leave out my boy Glup Shitto?!?!

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u/Staugustine95 5h ago

How could I forget the one the only.

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u/Admirable_Ad8682 9h ago

He's the Rowling of space opera.

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u/Iorith 10h ago

To bad fair, that can be one of the hardest parts of writing a character, at least for me.

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u/alexjaness 8h ago

wait until you hear about Joseph Gordon-Die Hard.

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u/ShinInuko 8h ago

Not Lucas, but

Darth Revan. A revenant as he came back "from the dead" Darth Treya: traitor Darth Nihilus: An all consuming void in the force

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u/pyrhus626 7h ago

Eh at that point BioWare and Obsidian were deliberately trying to match the atmosphere and vibes of the new era of SW which included Lucas's silly names. And at least Revan = revenant and Malak = Malice aren't nearly as on-the-nose about it as the others.