*How did Vader get his name?*

[hatae55]

Originally Posted by DarthDingDong

This is like asking how America became America...

Or how Britain became Britain...

Just sounds cool!

Britain is named for the tribes(Britons)at the time of the Romans

America was named for the explorer who originaly thought America was not Asia (Amerigo Vespucci). A map maker who believed Amerigo was so impressed, he wrote the name on his map.

[NL_Sudentor]

Originally Posted by Darth Moeller

Well I don't know the official reason for how Palpatine came up with it (if there is one) but I know in, I believe, Dutch, Vader means father. So that's how they got the name.

That is absolutly correct.
I'm dutch, but it certainly doesnt have to do anything with his name.
Not one dutchy worked on the starwars series so it would be weird if it has anything to do with that. (unfortunatly)

But I think that the emperor just thought a moment and then quickly concluded that he wants him to be named as vader.
So he doesn't really takes a while to think about it.
But i must admit i dit relate his name with the dutch word vader. I was 8 years old but it maked sense for me back then that they had it the whole time about darth vader, that actually was the father of luke.

Is vader a word with a certain meaning in english???

Originally Posted by PoiuyWired

So, Darth Vader could be translated as "Black Daddy" ??

Hehe yes indeed

Originally Posted by Darth Badguy

I don't tink it has anything to do with Dutch. I would like it if he was really called after a Dutch word (I'm Dutch ) but it doesn't make any sense... why would George Lucas read the dictionary of one of the smallest countrys in the world with a Prime-Minister of which George Bush can't even remember his name (Jan Peter Balkenende)? It's more like (In)vader, attacker, leader of the invasion...

I was thinking of my earlier post, Lucas is a backname in dutch!!!
Maybe his ancesters where dutch, maybe he related the fact that darth vader was the father of luke (don't forget that the movies need to be correct against the original trilogy)
Maybe it thought 'vader' sounded good in English

[Kurgan]

It comes from Gary Vader, a jock who may have picked on the young Lucas in high school.

Don't believe me?

http://www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com (in the pdf book, page 468)

The "Dark Father" thing is just a coincidence, as the character was not turned into anyone's daddy until he began Empire Strikes Back. Originally it was just the name of various characters, not a "Sith Title" (as it became when he was writing Episode I, nearly 20 years later).


In-universe, how did Palpatine come up with the name? Your guess is as good as mine! I don't believe there is an official explanation...

[adamqd]

Good find on the Gary Vader Kurgan!

Agreed, people think that every detail, character, name etc has been fleshed out since 77'. Hell, Darth Vader (David Prowse) didn't know he was Luke's father till opening night lol!

My guess is that in-universe he was named Vader by Palpatine in reference to a Sith word or name, although it could be a play on 'Invader'.

[*Don*]

I believe that the "dark father" theory is the correct reason.

[Rev7]

Originally Posted by Kurgan

It comes from Gary Vader, a jock who may have picked on the young Lucas in high school.

Don't believe me?

http://www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com (in the pdf book, page 468)

The "Dark Father" thing is just a coincidence, as the character was not turned into anyone's daddy until he began Empire Strikes Back. Originally it was just the name of various characters, not a "Sith Title" (as it became when he was writing Episode I, nearly 20 years later).


In-universe, how did Palpatine come up with the name? Your guess is as good as mine! I don't believe there is an official explanation...

Wow... I never knew that...

[DeadYorick]

Originally Posted by Rev7

Wow... I never knew that...

Why am I not surprised? George Lucas the person who started a series that jeeks everywhere can devote their life to, based the main antagonist off someone who bullied him.

[Doc Valentine]

It's very interesting to see where people get their ideas for certain aspects of their stories. It also kind of gives you that creative power. It would make sense for Lucas to write his main villain after someone who bullied him. After all, many writers create their worlds based mildly off events that have happened in their own lives.

[PoiuyWired]

Well, put it this way, as least its not his mean ex girlfriend or something. And thank the force that the old bully have a decent name and not something like Bubba Thomson. Cause Darth Tom is not really a cool name for some arch villian.

[eugenesheremet]

Guys, all of you are wrong. Darth Vader comes from Darr Veter, the name of the hero from Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale.
And it is not because of assonance of the names, but because Andromeda is one of the greatest sci-fi novels in history, that influenced greatly on many succeeding authors.

[Doc Valentine]

Originally Posted by eugenesheremet

Guys, all of you are wrong. Darth Vader comes from Darr Veter, the name of the hero from Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale.
And it is not because of assonance of the names, but because Andromeda is one of the greatest sci-fi novels in history, that influenced greatly on many succeeding authors.

Do you have any cited resources that support that theory though?

[Anakin4ever]

He didn't make it upp i had a long time to choos.

[>General Havok<]

Who cares where it came from. Its a sweet name.

[Rabish Bini]

Originally Posted by eugenesheremet

Guys, all of you are wrong. Darth Vader comes from Darr Veter, the name of the hero from Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale.
And it is not because of assonance of the names, but because Andromeda is one of the greatest sci-fi novels in history, that influenced greatly on many succeeding authors.

So, sign up to post once on something which you probably don't have any resources on.

And I reckon George Lucas just thought it sounded cool.

[no_name]

has anyone else come across the fact that 'vader' also means 'brother' in Africaans? perhaps it's that Sidious wanted Anakin to trust him as his brother, although he is obviously his master.
Probably another coincedence, along with the Dutch meaning, but it sounds cool and is LOADED with talking points!

[Kurgan]

Those are all fun and interesting, but let's face it, Lucas probably had no idea of that and it's just a lucky coincidence.

In the early scripts the Vader character was simply a "grim looking general" in the early scripts. He wasn't a Sith Lord nor did he have the Force and he wasn't the father of the good guy protagonist. It was instead Prince Valorum who had the dark side.

Again it was the name of a high school jock that was the original inspiration.

Considering all the explanations that it came from "Dark Father" and so forth come out after Star Wars became popular, I think those aren't the real reason. Trust me, I'd want it to be true so I could say how visionary Lucas was. But it's not, just like the "Hebrew prophecy on Vader's chestplate" rumor isn't true nor is the "Sun of the Sons in ROTJ SE" rumor.

It's interesting to note that one of the first things that Lucas came up with when creating Star Wars was to generate random names... first names, last names, titles, etc. He mixed them around and matched them for how he thought they sounded. You can see going through the early scripts that he will put a name on a character and then later put it on a totally different character. We only think the name is meaningful now because we've associated it with the black mask, cape and breathing for so long (incidentally, the idea of putting Vader into a breathing mask wasn't even Lucas' idea, it was something artist Ralph McQuarrie came up with after Lucas gave him the task of making some paintings to sell the idea to the studios based on his early script). Since the scene has the Vader character and his goons going through a pocket of vacuum to get to the Rebel ship, he put them all in space helmets. You may remember this painting:

http://www.df.lth.se/~ola/Starwars/S.../starwars2.jpg (click, BIG!)

Notice the hero has a breath mask as well, and Vader has a gun! In the early concepts everybody had a saber. So a lot of concepts changed over the years and it wasn't all due to some grand story that Vader had in the back of his mind, he had a lot of inspirations and lucky things enter the story as it developed.

Let's not forget this one either:
http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-...ar-wars-fr.jpg (click, big!)

The original Star Wars was less inspired by mythology than by popular entertainment Lucas loved in his younger days, which was mostly westerns, re-runs of adventure serials, pulp sci fi and space operas, comics, samurai and WWII pictures. The whole "mythology influence" thing came later, and you could say it had an influence on Empire Strikes Back, but the idea that it underpins all of the series is mostly hype.

I mean, every kid knows who "King Arthur" is (and the same was true back in the '70s), even if they've never read the actual legends.

This is a cool site... much of the character of Vader is based on his visual development and Kaminski does it again with a nice thorough article on the subject, with great pictures:

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/v...arthvader.html

[purifier]

Originally Posted by Kurgan

This is a cool site... much of the character of Vader is based on his visual development and Kaminski does it again with a nice thorough article on the subject, with great pictures:

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/v...arthvader.html

This is great info Kurgan, thanks for offering the link to those of us who didn't know. I really appreciate this one myself, I learned something knew from this link.

I always suspected Doctor Doom had some influence on the development of Sith Lords like Vader, now I know. And at times, from reading the "The Fantastic Four" comics and seeing the movies, I would swear Doctor Doom was really a Sith Lord. Yep, it all makes sense.

Lol! Doctor Doom would make a hellva Sith Lord too, btw.

[noizer]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Well I don't know the official reason for how Palpatine came up with it (if there is one) but I know in, I believe, Dutch, Vader means father. So that's how they got the name.

correct. vader is father in dutch

dont know if the dutch meaning has something to do with darth Vaders name tho. maybe they chose it because it sounds cool ?

[Ztalker]

Originally Posted by noizer

correct. vader is father in dutch

dont know if the dutch meaning has something to do with darth Vaders name tho. maybe they chose it because it sounds cool ?

Vader is not father in Dutch. You pronounce Vader as 'VÉY-DÈR' right? Dutch for father is VAAH-DÈR. It only works written down.
Anyhow...brilliant site Kurgan...reading everything at the moment.

I still think every 'Sith' name like Vader has something to do with a menacing word. Pleigus - Plague , Sidious- Insidious , Maul (speaks for itself), Tyrannus - Tyrant. Etc etc.

[noizer]

Originally Posted by Ztalker

Vader is not father in Dutch. You pronounce Vader as 'VÉY-DÈR' right? Dutch for father is VAAH-DÈR. It only works written down.
Anyhow...brilliant site Kurgan...reading everything at the moment.

I still think every 'Sith' name like Vader has something to do with a menacing word. Pleigus - Plague , Sidious- Insidious , Maul (speaks for itself), Tyrannus - Tyrant. Etc etc.

yes thats true. it only works written down.

[truJedi]

Darth VADER ..... INVADER ..palpatine gave him this name because he invaded the jedi
temple, thats what i read somewhere

[Kurgan]

Yep, as cool as all those theories are, it's quite simply Gary Vader, a real human being from Lucas' youth, not "INvader," or Dark Father, etc. Even the "Son of the Suns" and Hebrew words on Vader's chest plate turn out not to be all that on further examination. But we fans like to follow those rabbit trails, don't we?

Those are simply happy coincidences after the fact. I bet if Lucas had used one of the other randomly generated names for the character, we'd likely be sitting here repeating alternate lore about its significance and foretelling of future events in the saga. It's just that "mythical quality" given to the franchise (for better or for worse) and massive popularity that fuels such things.

[Ztalker]

Originally Posted by Kurgan

Yep, as cool as all those theories are, it's quite simply Gary Vader, a real human being from Lucas' youth, not "INvader," or Dark Father, etc. Even the "Son of the Suns" and Hebrew words on Vader's chest plate turn out not to be all that on further examination. But we fans like to follow those rabbit trails, don't we?

Those are simply happy coincidences after the fact. I bet if Lucas had used one of the other randomly generated names for the character, we'd likely be sitting here repeating alternate lore about its significance and foretelling of future events in the saga. It's just that "mythical quality" given to the franchise (for better or for worse) and massive popularity that fuels such things.

You're right...it seems so...strange to see some epic pop-culture being named after an actual person without further meaning.
It's not unheard of though...Harry Potter was named after a colleague of the writer. Very un-epic