Meaningful names

[Wayfarer 0]

Thank you, everyone who created TSLRCM, contributed and continue to contribute to its development, and, by extension, all the members of the KotOR/TSL community the products of whose efforts constitute a total of 73 mods that I'm using plus many more that remain available. With the completion of a dissertation, I can finally savor the hell out of this game.

Before that, however, I wanted to share with you the meanings of some of the randomly selected default names in TSL, as well as invite you to translate homo- and heterophonic homographs used in the Star Wars universe, made-up proper nouns in particular, canonical or otherwise, into real-world languages. The following are actual word forms in Estonian, categorized here as female, male, and last names:

Eelda 'presume', verb (imperative)
Eeli 'before', postposition (genitive)
Hala 'keening', noun, v. (imp.)
Halla 'frost', n. (partitive)
Kella 'clock', n. (part.)
Kire 'passion', n. (gen.)
Leia 'find', v. (imp.)
Nime 'name', n. (gen.)
Padi 'pillow', n.
Pala 'piece', n.
Palee 'palace', n.
Reha 'rake', n.
Taset 'level', n. (part.)
Tina 'tin', n.
Vala 'pour', v. (imp.)
Valla 'loose; wide', adverb

Kell 'clock', n.
Sall 'scarf', n.
Torm 'storm', n.
Torus 'in(side) a pipe', adv. (inessive)
Valin 'choose', v. (indicative)
Vorm 'form', n.

Enda 'one's own', pron. (reflexive)
Kets 'athletic shoe'
Konn 'frog'
Kurn 'strainer'
Laut 'barn', n.
Morn 'gloomy', adjective
Noor 'young', adj., n.
Omas 'in(side) one's', adv. (ine.); 'owned', v. (3rd person singular imperfect)
Panda*
Panne '(frying) pans', n. plural (part.)
Saal 'hall'
Saar 'island', n.
Saast 'scum', n.
Salm 'stanza'
Salu 'grove'
Taban 'apprehend; hit', v. (ind.)
Valm 'parable', n.
Valu 'pain', n.

* When was the first time you noticed that Captain Panaka's "we'll be sitting ducks" rendered ducks canonical?

[Darth Hayze 19]

Wow, so they aren't just random letter smashed together. Cool!

[milestails 264]

Never knew this!

[Vriff 21]

Doesn't Homer Simpson come up if you randomize enough?

[LiliArch 115]

Isn't "Eeli" also a name in the Bible? A male, if my memory serves me right. At least in the Finnish translation.

 

A couple more, as they seem to fit this topic:

 

"Fett" is actually Swedish, and means "fat".

And "Juhani", though it doesn't mean really anything as-is, is a Finnish first name. For males.

[Kainzorus Prime 206]

Juhani is a Finnish cognate of the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning "God is gracious."

 

As for Eeli, as far as I recall, it was "Eli" in the bible.

[LiliArch 115]

Yes, but it is not one of those names that hold a meaning as a word itself, not only if you check where the name has come from. As a word, "Juhani" means nothing (though, as a name, it of course does) as far as I know. Unlike, say, "Pilvi", which means "cloud". (And yes, it is a first name. Sounds odd to me also, but that is the way it is.)

 

Eli? Interesting. I believe it depends on a translation. I checked, it really is Eeli in Finnish. The priest in 1 Samuel anyway, I'm not sure if the name appears somewhere else in another form. I guess "Eli" would have been a bit too odd name to use in Finland, as in Finnish there is a word "eli" which means "in other words".

[MrPhil 58]

I believe a lot of these names were chosen more or less randomly and might not have been intended to have another meaning in another language

[Malkior 476]

Welp, Verner is Scandanavian for "covered warrior" and Jorik (I still can't find the meaning) is a Nordic-based name. I think at least some of them are European surnames.