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The mega name-meaning and reference thread

Medici - not much to add, we all know why Alex chose this name, but there are some cute-but-kinda-offtopic facts:
They were actually bourgeoises and buyed the royal name.
They're seen in a good light in Italy.
The word medici is the plural of medico which means doctor.

Contiello is an actual used surname. There are no important italian figures named Contiello. The origin of the name is not clear neither, it's a rare name.

Sienna comes from Siena, a city known for its enormous medieval patrimony, situated in the Tuscan region, where Florence is the capital.

Also Leviathan traslates to Leviatano.
"Squiggly leviathan" would be Leviatano svolazzante.
Actually I got some fun facts! about Leviathan's name. Leviathan is generally used for 'large things' and I think it was Hebrew for 'whale'
But if you shorten Leviathan to Levi, it means 'coiled' a perfect complement to Squigly.

EDIT: I just found some more lovely information, Levi might also mean 'attached' or 'pledged'
MORE REALLY BEFITTING LANGUAGE.
 
Medici - not much to add, we all know why Alex chose this name, but there are some cute-but-kinda-offtopic facts:
They were actually bourgeoises and buyed the royal name.
They're seen in a good light in Italy.
The word medici is the plural of medico which means doctor.

Contiello is an actual used surname. There are no important italian figures named Contiello. The origin of the name is not clear neither, it's a rare name.

Sienna comes from Siena, a city known for its enormous medieval patrimony, situated in the Tuscan region, where Florence is the capital.

Also Leviathan traslates to Leviatano.
"Squiggly leviathan" would be Leviatano svolazzante.

Actually I mentioned this earlier but Contiello comes from the root word of Conte. Conte means friend or servant of the King, fitting for people who used to be friends with the "ruling" family of the Medici.
 
Those you're talking about are Cortigiani, and they were intellectuals (politicians, writers and artists) who had no noble titles.
Conte is count, a noble title of medium importance.
I thought that Contiello may origin from this word, but I couldn't say it for sure because many italian names come directly from other languages. (Sienna/Siena comes from Saina, an Etruscan royal family)
 
Just got the Ann Druyan/Carl Sagan reference, and immediately searched for a thread like this to confirm it! :D

About Big Band: I have doubts that he's named after Weather Report's Birdland. First thing that comes to mind is the jazz standard 'Lullaby of Birdland'. The genre seems more fitting for him than fusion. It might also be a reference to how he was "put to sleep" after his run-in with the Medicis.


Another possible reference is to Charlie Parker, also known as 'Bird', one of the greatest jazz saxophonists in history (like how Louis Armstrong, who is referenced multiple times, is also 'Satchmo'). This one's a stretch though.

Edit: Turns out the song is named after the jazzclub which is named after Charlie Parker.
 
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Goddamnit just when I realized his grab puts you "to sleep" and his air grab is "lazy bird".

FUCKING LULLABY OF BIRDLAND GODDAMNIT RAVENMAEL

Once again ninja'ed.

Surprised there's no Anita Ward "Ring my bell" reference.
 
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'Lazy Bird' is a Coltrane composition.

IDK if "name-meaning" includes move names, but as long as we're here.. 'Giant Step(s)', 'Take the A Train', 'Take Five' are all names of jazz compositions. So are his quotes ''Deed I Do' and 'Salt Peanuts'.
 
I thought Lazy Bird was just a double meaning.
One for Coltraine and the other for Birdland.
I thought the "Take the A Train" was also a double meaning.
One for his composition and the other for how the A section of a lot of his compositions are considered weird in some way.
 
I honestly tought Salt Peanuts was a reference to the poor Umbrella!
 
Ay, I just thought of something.
Venus's last name is Lovelace, does that mean that Aeon and The Mother share that name as well?
Or is it just an arbitrary thing thought up by Alex Ahad to give her some more character?
 
The other day, a little bird (And by "a little bird," I mean a fortune cookie) told me that "Wind" in Chinese is "Fēng." Maybe a bit too obvious, and perhaps not the intention, but that doesn't change the fact that the character with the wind motif is literally named Wind.
 
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The other day, a little bird (And by "a little bird," I mean a fortune cookie) told me that "Wind" in Chinese is "Fēng." Maybe a bit too obvious, and perhaps not the intention, but that doesn't change the fact that the character with the wind motif is literally named Wind.
What wind motif? She's an acrobat, yeah but it's more likely, given recent times that 'Feng Shui' is more relevent and/or the other meaning to it, Phoenix.
 
The other day, a little bird (And by "a little bird," I mean a fortune cookie) told me that "Wind" in Chinese is "Fēng." Maybe a bit too obvious, and perhaps not the intention, but that doesn't change the fact that the character with the wind motif is literally named Wind.

What wind motif? She's an acrobat, yeah but it's more likely, given recent times that 'Feng Shui' is more relevent and/or the other meaning to it, Phoenix.

I don't know anything about Feng, her lore/motif/naming reference, but the 'Feng' in 'Feng Shui' is the same character as the one that means wind (Feng Shui is literally wind-water).
 
I don't know anything about Feng, her lore/motif/naming reference, but the 'Feng' in 'Feng Shui' is the same character as the one that means wind (Feng Shui is literally wind-water).
Huh, I didn't know that.
It was just Phoenix is the more common meaning of Feng, so I thought.

YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY.
 
This may be irrelevant now that the game has been out for so long but I just got into it, and have some things to add to the Double-Macbeth reference. In Act 4 Scene 1 of Macbeth the three witches indeed say "Double, double toil and trouble" in between other 'verses' to their chant. The whole character of double seems to be a reference to this scene, or at least has many loose connections. First of all their is an achievement or trophy named "Toil and trouble" which is an obvious and direct link to the scene. In the 'verses' that the witches chant in Macbeth, they talk about all the things that they are putting into their cauldron. The ingredients include entrails, different animals and poisons, eye of newt, part of a still-born child born from a prostitute and liver from a blaspheming Jew. It seems plausible that all of these things (I didn't name them all, just the ones I found most interesting) add up to the amalgamation that Double is. Double has different looking entrails and eyes and different strange parts to her, all of which are bubbling and boiling as if they had just come out of a cauldron. Her animations and art resemble the sum of lots of the stuff that the witches talked about in Macbeth. This also works with the way that the character fights, she changes shape into many of the other Skullgirls characters when fighting which creates a good parallel with the ingredients of the cauldron. Many seemingly unrelated parts coming together to form this strange creature or concoction. I know that in the lore there is a fair chance that Double was 'created' which further supports my claims, but I don't know a whole lot about the lore of this game yet so there may be conflicting or even further supporting information.

I don't think that I've ever heard of a Jewish nun, so that might not connect to the character in Skullgirls exactly, but you could argue that the liver of the blaspheming Jew might contribute to her obviously evil transformation. There is another famous line from the witches in Macbeth that is in Act 1 Scene 1 "Fair is foul and foul is fair" which I think also links to this 'theory' (for lack of a better word). That line may relate to the two sides of Double's character. The "fair" side of her being the Nun that she transforms into as a disguise, and the foul side obviously being her true form, the creature that she is. The fact that Double transforms into an innocent nun to disguise herself also fits into the idea that things are not always what they seem, which is one of the main themes of Macbeth as a whole. An example of that theme in Macbeth (for all who care) is Macbeth being seen as this heroic, loyal trustworthy soldier when really he plans to Kill the king and take over the throne.

I know I may be overthinking this... a lot. But even if none of this was by design, there is an obvious link to the play in this character, and it is interesting and fun (for me at least) to go through all of the possible connections especially since I am currently studying Macbeth. If anyone has anything to add to this or anything to argue please make an account and let me know because again, it's very interesting!

EDIT: I just realized that this is almost exactly 1 year since the last post on this thread.
 
Speaking about reference I think we should include the victory/defeat lines, some of them make some clear reference
Last week I was playing Double story mode ( I never use it but I was playong all the story modes) and then realizes that she had two lines that make reference to the talk beetwen Dracula and Richard Beltmont in Castlevania SOTN prologue
"what is a man?" and "A miserable little pile of secrets" and don't pay much attention to what the characters said but those one caught my attention.
 
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Well, it's one of the more well-known dialogues in the Castlevania.

Also, interesting tidbit on Painwheel: Warp Spasm and Gae Bolga come from the same mythological reference. Cu Chulainn wielded the spear Gae Bolga. He was also known for going into ríastrad (which is often translated as Warp Spasm), a type of berserker state where he attacks friend and foe alike.
 
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So Painwheel's Gae Bolga was named after an ancient spear and related to mythology n" stuff.
...How did I find this thread just now? Brb, reading through the thread.
 
yeah, chuchuchillen had to throw it with his feet or else he'd get super impaled all over like the people it hits.

It also might be worth discussing the similarity of the Gae Bolga drive and Guts' berserker armor from Berserk. In that, the armor jams spikes into the user's body to hold broken bones and stuff in place so the user can keep fighting. Also theres something about making you stronger and being angry I think.

Given the number of PW moves that involve limbs moving in directions they're probably not supposed to, I feel the gae bolga synthetic parasite thing functions in a similar fashion, without cool armor or neat white hair streak.

It does make me wonder if Hatred Guard comes from the gae bolga, the mental programming, the buer drive, or all/none of the above.

Its also interesting how a portion of her move names involve flowers, like rachet poppy and cruel lily, to emphasize that carol is still there inside painwheel.