8 Ridiculous Origins To The Names Of Iconic Movie Characters

1. Darth Vader's Names Doesn't Come From "Dark Father"

Darth Vader translates in Dutch to "Dark Father", right? An amazing bit of foreshadowing that pretty much ruined the big twist of The Empire Strikes Back for an entire nation? Well, not really.

This is something George Lucas has really pushed, trying to make it look like it was always his plan for Anakin Skywalker to be the centre of the Star Wars saga, but nothing about the development of the film suggests this was the case.

For starters, that isn't exactly how it translates; Darth is a nonsense word and while Vader does mean "father", it isn't pronounced as it's written. But, beyond that, Vader was originally conceived as a lowly Imperial officer, only getting his Dark Lord title in redrafts of the script. Heck, the character wasn't even Luke's father until the second draft of The Empire Strikes Back, so even if the name was some sort of approximation of words like "Dark" or "Death" and "father", it's a total coincidence that they line up with the story.

No, the true origin of Darth Vader's name is something much less complex: Darth is a portmanteau of Dark Lord of the Sith (a phrase that wasn't used in the movies until Episode I, but existed in Lucas' original drafts from before the character's conception), while Vader is a shortenting of "Invader", which, lest we forget, is how the character is introduced - boarding the captured Rebel cruiser.

As Star Wars progressed the names somehow got even more obvious, with Sidious, Maul and Grievous (were you even trying there?) all trotted out. Although I have no idea where the hell they got Snoke from.

What other character names have bizarre origins? Shout out any more down in the comments.