8 Ridiculous Origins To The Names Of Iconic Movie Characters

3. Dom Cobb In Inception Is A Christopher Nolan Throwback

Christopher Nolan doesn't always get the double-meaning of names right; Interstellar boasted a character named Dr. Mann who served as a metaphor for humanity and another called Murphy who, in her first scene no less, brought up Murphy's Law. But there's something pretty intriguing about Cobb, the surname of Leonardo DiCaprio's dream extractor from Inception.

Not because there's a smart double meaning a la Voldemort. In fact, there's no clear indication what the motivation behind the name is - Cobb typically means large, although as a derivation of Jacob could also mean "supplanting", which is kinda what the character does with ideas, but it doesn't really add much. No, he's intriguing because, like the theme of professional men tortured by the loss of a female loved one, Nolan had used it before; the main character of his debut feature Following (which, incidentally, also featured a non-chronological narrative and a reference to Batman) was also named Cobb.

As Dom is a character utterly haunted by his past, having him literally be named after something Nolan's already done makes for a nice metatextual commentary (and also lends credence to the theory that Inception is really all about the filmmaking process).