Where do the "Darth" names come from?

[slowpoke]

The Star Wars universe has traditionally had some painfully blatant references in the bad guys' names. I was trying to figure out what all the "Darth" titles meant and came up with a few but some are still elusive. (I'm sure most of these have already been discussed somewhere, anyone have a link?)

 

 

 

Darth Nihilus: Okay this is easy, nihilism, the void, hunger

 

Darth Traya: Sounds sort of like "betrayal" as we know.

 

Visas Marr (bonus non-Darth name): Presumably this is something about marring vision, which makes sense because she is physically blind.

 

Darth Vader: "Father" since he's revealed to be Luke's father, but if you know your German (or Indo-European) you might have had a hint in the original movie

 

Darh Sidious: An insidious threat, of course.

 

Darth Maul: Violent guy who mauls things.

 

Darth Revan: A revenant, someone who returns from the dead (or at least a mental death in KOTOR1).

 

Darth Malak: I'm assuming this is just a generic reference to malice?

 

Darth Bandon: Remember him from KOTOR1? I don't remember him having a personality other than "end boss" so I can't figure out what thisis supposed to mean. Maybe when he was a child he was abandoned by his parents at the daycare.

 

Darth Sion: I'm stuck here: how is this supposed to be a reference to pain or shattering?

[Darth Sirius]

The Star Wars universe has traditionally had some painfully blatant references in the bad guys' names. I was trying to figure out what all the "Darth" titles meant and came up with a few but some are still elusive. (I'm sure most of these have already been discussed somewhere, anyone have a link?)

 

 

 

Darth Nihilus: Okay this is easy, nihilism, the void, hunger

 

Darth Traya: Sounds sort of like "betrayal" as we know.

 

Visas Marr (bonus non-Darth name): Presumably this is something about marring vision, which makes sense because she is physically blind.

 

Darth Vader: "Father" since he's revealed to be Luke's father, but if you know your German (or Indo-European) you might have had a hint in the original movie

 

Darh Sidious: An insidious threat, of course.

 

Darth Maul: Violent guy who mauls things.

 

Darth Revan: A revenant, someone who returns from the dead (or at least a mental death in KOTOR1).

 

Darth Malak: I'm assuming this is just a generic reference to malice?

 

Darth Bandon: Remember him from KOTOR1? I don't remember him having a personality other than "end boss" so I can't figure out what thisis supposed to mean. Maybe when he was a child he was abandoned by his parents at the daycare.

 

Darth Sion: I'm stuck here: how is this supposed to be a reference to pain or shattering?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wasn't Sion a biblical city or something like that?

[Drakron]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sion

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion

[Dranoel]

Personally i think you are reading far to much into it. I don't think Lucas really gave it that much thought.

 

Visas Marr - a customs officer who screws up your application!

Darth Bandon - Daft bandy legged old fool!

Darth Vader - (germans do pronounce 'W' as 'V'!) daft fisherman who forgot to remove his waders (and full body waterproof suit)

 

 

 

Incidentally nihil means nothing - hence a nihilist believes in an absence of anything after death!

[dweaver99027]

Darth Malak: I'm assuming this is just a generic reference to malice?

 

Well, in greek, Malak would have the neaning of .. a____hole.. which pretty much sums up Malak's persona anyway...

[Grandpa]

We've done this before, but here's my answer again...

 

Scion is a little car popular amongst the younger drivers. Hence, Darth Sion is Lord of the Little Cars.

[Dranoel]

Personally I think they just sit there with a dictionary highlighting all the appropriate sounding names. Next come:

 

Darth Behemoth

Darth Juggernaut

and Darth Incontinence!

 

Some of the other names are crap too:

Freedon Nadd - Sounds like you are a Freedom seeking dodery old horse!

[Lifthransir Bane]

Darth Vader: "Father" since he's revealed to be Luke's father, but if you know your German (or Indo-European) you might have had a hint in the original movie

 

Darth Revan: A revenant, someone who returns from the dead (or at least a mental death in KOTOR1).

 

Darth Malak: I'm assuming this is just a generic reference to malice?

 

Darth Sion: I'm stuck here: how is this supposed to be a reference to pain or shattering?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Corrections:

 

Darth Vader-Lucas just thought it sounded cool

 

Darth Revan-I thought Revan was a re-voweling of Raven, but now that I look at this, this isn't a bad explanation.

 

Darth Malak-Malak is the Hebrew word for Angel. Dath Malak would literally translate into Shadowy Archangel

 

Darth Sion-a scion is a student. Sion doesn't seem to be able to get it all together without Traya, so his nature is to be a student

[><FISH'>]

vader was just random...im guessing they took ''invader'' and chopped the ''in'' off to form ''vader''.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Revan and Malak didnt change their names where as most of the Darths seem to take on a new name which represents the new persona.

[Msxyz]

Nihil = latin for nothing, empty also void (although the later may be better translated with vacuum)

[Darth Jebus]

vader was just random...im guessing they took ''invader'' and chopped the ''in'' off to form ''vader''.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Exactly. I think some of you guys and gals are reading too much into this. I mean, for some of the later names, such as Sion, Nihilus, Malak, Revan, etc., you can say the writers really did want their names to mean something that spoke of what they ultimately represented. But in early Star Wars, Lucas just thought the names sounded cool and harkened back to the Saturday morning serials of pop culture that he grew up with. That's all Star Wars was ever meant to be. It was a love letter to Flash Gordon, Copperhead Man, Rocket Man and Buck Rodgers, among others. But it was always a Saturday morning serial made for kids.

 

After Star Wars became the international phenomenon that it did, it kind of took on a life of it's own and thus, it blossomed into a modern day myth. As other writers began to develop and shape the Universe beyond the movies, Star Wars began to identify itself more and more with all of the world's mythologies that came before it. This is why you now have names like Nihilus, Traya, Sion, Sidious, Bandon, Tyranus, and so on and so forth.

 

The bottom line is, the name Darth Vader was created by Lucas because he just thought it sounded cool and villainy. Like the evil bad guys in those serials and comics that influenced him as a kid. Every thing else that has come later is representative of the "New Age" Star Wars that we have today.

[slowpoke]

Darth Sion-a scion is a student. Sion doesn't seem to be able to get it all together without Traya, so his nature is to be a student

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hmm, good point about the scion. Actually, I think typically a scion is used to refer to the younger members of a noble family, so it definitely correlates with being a student. What is that guy's name, anyway? For most of the game he was referred to as "Darth Sion" but I know there's at least one dialogue where he is named "Darth Scion".

 

 

As for Lucas choosing "Vader" solely because it sounds cool ... postmodernists would argue that the text is more important than the author's own intentions ( ! ). So the fact the Vader turns out to be a cognate of "Father" overrules what Lucas had in mind in the first place (I know, it sounds kind of goofy)

[Kissamies]

This has been discussed before and and probably will be discussed many times in future. Taken from another thread:

All of the Sith Lord names are given to symbolize something of course.

 

Darth actually translates as "Dark" I believe in some form of Latin.

 

Darth Bane - meaning as the Dark RUIN - BANE = meaning as a injury, ruin, death, or a poison.

Darth Traya - meaning as the Dark BETRAYER

Darth Sion - meaning as the Dark HEIR

Darth Nihilus - meaning as the Dark DESTROYER

Darth Revan - meaning as the Dark LEADER or RESISTANT - Revanous means to be stubborn and doing something anyway, to be resistant. Revan turned his back on the Jedi Council when he ignored their warning. He went to war anyway.

Darth Malak - meaning as the Dark ANGEL - MALAK = meaning angel

Darth Sidious - meaning as Dark INSIDIOUS

Darth Maul - meaning as Dark KILLER or DESTROYER - MAUL = meaning to tear up

Darth Tyrannus - meaning as Dark TYRANT

Darth Vader - meaning as Dark FATHER or some people have referred to Vader as Dark INVADER

 

That is what I picked up over a few places. If you don't believe me, then don't blame me, that is what I just heard.

Sion can also mean noise.

Vader probably is a random occurence, but I still do like the way how the names all can be taken to mean something.

[Sithmasteryoungy]

Whoa! I never realised all those names had such meaning! Well done slowpoke!

[Lifthransir Bane]

As for Lucas choosing "Vader" solely because it sounds cool ... postmodernists would argue that the text is more important than the author's own intentions ( ! ). So the fact the Vader turns out to be a cognate of "Father" overrules what Lucas had in mind in the first place (I know, it sounds kind of goofy)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Death of the Author and such. Forgot about this, as to Vader, you're right, I'm wrong.

[Lifthransir Bane]

Darth actually translates as "Dark" I believe in some form of Latin.

 

Darth Bane - meaning as the Dark RUIN - BANE = meaning as a injury, ruin, death, or a poison.

Darth Traya - meaning as the Dark BETRAYER

Darth Sion - meaning as the Dark HEIR

Darth Nihilus - meaning as the Dark DESTROYER

Darth Revan - meaning as the Dark LEADER or RESISTANT - Revanous means to be stubborn and doing something anyway, to be resistant. Revan turned his back on the Jedi Council when he ignored their warning. He went to war anyway.

Darth Malak - meaning as the Dark ANGEL - MALAK = meaning angel

Darth Sidious - meaning as Dark INSIDIOUS

Darth Maul - meaning as Dark KILLER or DESTROYER - MAUL = meaning to tear up

Darth Tyrannus - meaning as Dark TYRANT

Darth Vader - meaning as Dark FATHER or some people have referred to Vader as Dark INVADER

 

Darth's not Latin, it's Lucasspeak. His revisionist explanation is that it means "Shadow Warrior" and sith take it as a title in honor of Darth Bane, the founder of the modern sith order who used it as his first name and also to remind them that since their numbers never increase from two, they need to work from the shadows to defeat the jedi.

 

So, for instance, Darth Malak would mean Shadowy Archangel. Basically all the others would just be replacing 'dark' with 'shadow' or 'shadowy'

[bob_the_kitty_hunter]

Actually, the Darth was taken in order to honor one of the first Sith, I believe, whose name was simply Darth. Bane took up the Darth name as did other Sith that followed.

[Lifthransir Bane]

Actually, the Darth was taken in order to honor one of the first Sith, I believe, whose name was simply Darth. Bane took up the Darth name as did other Sith that followed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks for seconding that, that's something I posted about in the other Darth thread that's going around right now.

[Lifthransir Bane]

A guy whose name is just Darth, that's actually really funny.

 

"Jesus Darth, get this blood off of me."

 

"What up Darth, you wanna go down to the tashi station and pick up some power converters?"

 

I'm going to pick a friend and just start calling him Darth.

[DarthLightsaber]

The Star Wars universe has traditionally had some painfully blatant references in the bad guys' names. I was trying to figure out what all the "Darth" titles meant and came up with a few but some are still elusive. (I'm sure most of these have already been discussed somewhere, anyone have a link?)

 

 

 

Darth Nihilus: Okay this is easy, nihilism, the void, hunger

 

Darth Traya: Sounds sort of like "betrayal" as we know.

 

Visas Marr (bonus non-Darth name): Presumably this is something about marring vision, which makes sense because she is physically blind.

 

Darth Vader: "Father" since he's revealed to be Luke's father, but if you know your German (or Indo-European) you might have had a hint in the original movie

 

Darh Sidious: An insidious threat, of course.

 

Darth Maul: Violent guy who mauls things.

 

Darth Revan: A revenant, someone who returns from the dead (or at least a mental death in KOTOR1).

 

Darth Malak: I'm assuming this is just a generic reference to malice?

 

Darth Bandon: Remember him from KOTOR1? I don't remember him having a personality other than "end boss" so I can't figure out what thisis supposed to mean. Maybe when he was a child he was abandoned by his parents at the daycare.

 

Darth Sion: I'm stuck here: how is this supposed to be a reference to pain or shattering?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wasn't Sion a biblical city or something like that?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No that was Zion.