Trills And Naming Conventions

[Anomaly]

So here I am, Christmas day. Reveling in the best gift a guy could get from his parents - namely all the Fawlty Towers episodes on DVD.

While watching the credits, I notice something. The word 'Curzon' and immediately following it, the word 'Argent', both as names among the production staff of this brilliant but short-lived British comedy series.

I started to wonder if the names Curzon and Arjin were taken from Fawlty Towers. Well, it appears that Michael Pillar worked on the teleplays for both Emissary (naming of Curzon) and Playing God (2nd season, Arjin is the initiate). If there's a FT fan among the bunch, it's probably Pillar. I know that Argent and Arjin are different, but they sound very much the same when spoken. So much so that I thought the initiates name was Argent until I looked him up in the Ency last night.

I know when I name characters, I do one of the following things:

* Find a name that 'sounds cool'. For instance, a Tiburonian in my tabletop campaign is named Bels Anoranel, just 'cause it sounds neat. Otherwise it means nothing.

* Find a name that means something. Like Nemo Alman means 'nobody and everybody' (a character in an old screenplay I wrote long before Matrix).

* Find a name that pays homage to something that inspires me. I've got a character in my tabletop game named Ethan Edwards, which is a tip of the hat to the John Ford western The Searchers.

While I don't have any proof to the Trills and the latter naming strategy, it is certainly plausible. Any thoughts?

[Michael Barratt]

I do this sort of thing all the time. Most of my NPC humans are named with the aid of a "baby name book" so that their names match their personalities or lives in some way (helps me keep track of their character personalities/histories/etc, too, cuz I like knowing what names are supposed to "mean.")

As for the Trill Names, that's pretty cool. Makes one wonder.

The Doc

[Perrryyy]

I have a tendency to create characters based on characters from TV shows, and tweak those names accordingly.

Walter O'Reilly becomes Andorian administrative aide Latrew Rel

Ben Pierce becomes Enib Pirec (not a very Tiburonian sounding name, but what the heck?)

Sara Pezzina (Witchblade) becomes Bajoran police officer Sereta Pazar

Elisa Maza => Selia Azam

and Perry McPheeters becomes the Elaysian Pelori Maczar

As I spend a lot of time on line, I also have named characters for my online friends.

Voltaire becomes Vulcan master Tolvar, and so on.

I admit I do have a problem coming up with Klingon names, but I also have difficulties playing them, so I tend to shy away from the warrior bunch.

[ghosty]

I don't see a problem is stealing names from a classic British TV series. I've done it myself in some tounge in cheek adventures.

I seriously had a Captain E Blackadder and his yeoman Baldrick show up once years ago...oh how they shuddered at that one.

Then only last year we had a Federation milita officer (Dominion War era) named Mainwaring and his collection of geriatrics in his "Home Guard" company (all veterans of the Klingon Wars) which the PCs had to take in hand to fight off a Jem'Hadar invasion. They failed but had a lot of fun doing it.

[C5]

Since we are talking about Trills named after British TV series, I've been wondering for some time if there wasn't some Dr Who references in DS9 as well.

The first host of Dax was called Lela, wich sounds like DrWho's companion Leela. And in one episode, we learn that Ezri's original family name was Tigan - another DrWho companion, Tegan Jowanka.

Do you think it's possible, or is it just me being the brother of a rabid Doctor Who fan (probably the only existing French one IMO), who likes to make jokes on "Dax having a hard time when regenerating into the Ezri incarnation" ?

[Captain Zymmer]

I think DS9 was littered with references to British shows, which is probably why VOY didn't.

I guess B&B didn't watch those shows, they were too smart for them

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[Uruz]

Being a fan of the big angry balls of interstellar road rage, here's some hints as to how to name them.

First, I recommend checking out the <a href="http://www.kli.org">Klingon Language Institute</a> so you can have a Klingon spelling of your name as well as the Federation Standard spelling.

Unimportant, low-on-the totem pole Klingons by family prestige tend to have short, but harsh sounding names.

Worf. Kern. Klaag. Kang. Klang.

Basically, if you begin or end with a forceful sound, you're doing the right thing.

More important Klingons tend to have an apostrophe in their names. This allows for even <b>more</b> forceful speaking!

K'mpec. Qi'meq. Nu'daq (my favorite Klingon captain!)

If you take everyday names and rearrange them slightly, you'll do well.

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO SPEAK FORCEFULLY!!

[Dr. Jonas Bashir]

I've been working on the basic sounds of the Trill language. Ack, it's hideous: they have like four degrees of pronunciation between the s, the z and the sh (All of this taken from the original audio from the shows). But yet, no name conventions.

Now that Anomaly mentioned this connection, I think I'll investigate more in that way.

[Azar Kel]

Heheh here's a neat one. In my GS1 (Gamma Station 1) game, one of my players is the commader, and another is a Lieutenant Commander Starfleet Counter-Intel agent posing as the head of security team alpha aboard the station. His name is Ben Rogers. Which if you take the time, which two of my players did for extra XP, the name is an anagram for Rosenburg. I love cloak and dagger star trek.=)

[Anomaly]

Originally posted by C5
The first host of Dax was called Lela, wich sounds like DrWho's companion Leela. And in one episode, we learn that Ezri's original family name was Tigan - another DrWho companion, Tegan Jowanka.

Do you know the eps where Lela and Tigan were first mentioned? The next step would be to look up that episode, find out who wrote it (or pitched it), and see if there's a connection between the two.

[C5]

Originally posted by Anomaly


Do you know the eps where Lela and Tigan were first mentioned? The next step would be to look up that episode, find out who wrote it (or pitched it), and see if there's a connection between the two.

Hey, good idea!

Checking www.startrek.com..........

Well, as far as the writers are concerned, there doesn't seem to be any connection. Lela was first mentioned in Facets, while Tigan was in Prodigal Daughter, and the writers are not the same (resp. Echevarria and Thompson & Weddle).

Other leads, guys?

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by Uruz


If you take everyday names and rearrange them slightly, you'll do well.

Can you cite a Klingon example of this?

[First of Two]

I had a Klingon engineer named Khlu'less.

Also-rans:

Brak
Rok
To'Djam
K'offee
Frag
Klop
Kork
K'Pow
Kraw'dhad
Ru'bik
K'ibo

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by First of Two
I had a Klingon engineer named Khlu'less.

Also-rans:

Brak
Rok
To'Djam
K'offee
Frag
Klop
Kork
K'Pow
Kraw'dhad
Ru'bik
K'ibo

LMAO!

I love it! Thanks. I seem to remember someone running a Klingon named K'pau too..
Then they'res K'bam K'Rpau... I really couldn't think of any withouth resorting to sounds from Batman movies. Thanks again