Say My Name #1 (Behind the character names) (Patreon)

Okay... I'm planning to push the trivia section a bit in the next weeks, so I thought it might be interesting to start with this.

You know... I have a faible for aptronyms. It started with my discovery of the Ace Attorney franchise which contains a lot of characters with funny names. Nearly every character is called by a name that is also an aptronym. Since the stories of all games actually take place in Japan all the names were initially japanese containing Kanjis which also have a deeper meaning suited to the individual owner. The international localization changed all the names into more western-like names while also trying to adapt the initial meaning as good as possible. In my opinion the localization team always does a great and creative job when it comes to the names. I guess that the names were one of several reasons why that franchise became so popular. I mean... the protagonist Phoenix Wright himself is the best example.

That being said I thought it might be interesting to explain how I came up with some of my character's names. In fact, there is always a meaning and history behind every name in my manga. Let's start with my first four examples.

Winrow Astarov

The name "Winrow" underwent a lot of iterations. It originally refers to the idiom "to win in a rout". I wanted a name for the protagonist which sounds attractive but also quirky and mysterious at the same time.

"Astarov" on the other hand leads back to the name Astaroth, the Great Duke of Hell. Since I can remember I was always fascinated by the concept of demonology and the particular demons of the Ars Goetia revolving around the Solomon mythology were my special interest. The Malevolus clan has different branch families, each of them owns a surname which is related to a certain degree to a demon of that mythology.

Chaudine Oucaubaque

She got her first name pretty early (even before I stuck with Winrow's final name) and I thought a french-like one would suit her character. "Chaudine" refers to word "chaud" which means "warm" in french. Like Winrow's last name hers is related to a demon of the christian demonology. "Oucaubaque" refers to the fire demon Ukobak/Ukobach. I also changed the spelling of the demon's name to let it sound more french like her first name.

Taya

Simple and short: In the german version of The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask Link's new fairy companion Tatl is called Taya and since I like the gentle ring I named my character after her. Also I really like Tatl's characterization despite her rudeness and her straight-forward nature and that was certainly the main reason why Winrow's pointy-eared girlfriend developed a similar attitude.

Tsulin Hoo-Lee Jing

Tsulin was also one of the earliest characters which already got their name from the moment of their creation. But it took me a while to came up with a suitable surname. Back then when I decided to draw her eyes as slits I also thought about giving her a fox leitmotif regarding her nickname and family crest. Her last name refers to the nine-tailed fox spirit  Huli jing from chinese mythology. I took many liberties to the pronunciation and spelling which looks like it was written in chinese way but it's actually garbage I made up.