Name origins notes
Dec. 11th, 2017 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This is mostly just for my reference later. Origins of the Japanese names of monsters in unsaga. Just the ones that are named after other things so I have a list of easy references, not stuff like "Skeleton" lol. The English names seem to either match the Japanese names, or are completely made up (often simplifications or bastardizations of the Japanese names; I'm assuming they didn't get the reference so they just made something up).
ダハナシュ (Dahnesh) : Described in the previous entry, from Qamar al-Zaman https://1000into1night.wordpress.com/8-the-tale-of-kamar-al-zaman/
グッキー (Gookie/Gooky/Guckie) : I have no idea about this, honestly, but I think it's just supposed to be a cute name? It could be a play on "cookie" (cookie with a g lol). Searching for this is overwhelmingly full of results for a song by the same name by pop star BECKY, and in this case, it's a silly portmanteau of the words "Good" and "Lucky". The English name was written as "Guckie," probably to make it not look like "gook."
ブラク (Buraq) : Islamic mythological creature, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq
モルケクス (Morqechs) : Seems to be a made-up name for the game? The Guckie family seems to be this way
ヒドル (Hiddle) : Another Guckie family thing. Again seems to be made up.
トウコツ (Toukotsu) : The Japanese name of Tao-Wu, a Chinese mythological creature: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AA%AE%E3%82%B3%E3%83%84
エウリノーム (Eurynome) : Greek mythological name, seems to be a commonly-used name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurynome weird though because this is a recolor of Buraq
トウテツ (Toutetsu) : The Japanese name of Tao-Tie, another Chinese mythocreature https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A5%95%E9%A4%AE
ペリュトン (Peryton) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peryton
ダハナシュ (Dahnesh) : Character from 1001 Nights https://1000into1night.wordpress.com/8-the-tale-of-kamar-al-zaman/
バルバロイ (Barbaroi) : Japanese spelling of the plural of βάρβαρος (Barbaros)
イブリース (Iblis) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_(Islam)
キャリオン (Carrion) : More just a translation thing, キャリオン most likely refers to "carrion" and not any other words that キャリオン can also represent. Appears in many bug names.
霊樹サエーナ (Spirit Tree Saena) : "Saena" seems to be a common Japanese word to refer to Simurgh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh ; No idea why they named a plant that, though, other than the leaves that form its 'hair' seem to look similar to some other depictions of Simurgh's wings I saw in other games
ダルハーン (Dalham) : http://jinn.wikia.com/wiki/Dalham Actually relevant name since this is an aquan often seen around shipwrecks and coastal areas
アスピドケロン (Aspidochelone) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidochelone
ザランハーン (Zalanhan) : Not really sure about this one?! Considering the amount of middle-eastern influence in the game's names and art direction, the ハーン part could be "Kahn," but I don't know what the Zalan/Zaran part is supposed to refer to. It looks a bit like it could be a reference to 'Salamander,' so it might be something like "Salam Khan". The enemy does look like a Salamander, and it carries a trident, so... IDK lol
アメミット (Ahemait) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammit
ジャムフラシュ (Djamuflash) : !?!?!?
サタナキア (Satanachia) : Apparently not Satan's chia pet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanachia
デュラハン (Dullahan) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dullahan
邪神ターグート (Taghut, God of Evil) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghut
ピー・ナッツ (Pea / Nut) : This is just a cute thing. Pinhut and Titus are called "Pea" and "Nut" in Japanese, and the English name for Pea is "Pinhut" which I'm guessing is supposed to be a dubious spelling of "Peanut" :)
ウルリクムミ (Ullikummi) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullikummi The Ullikummi is a recolor of the Rank 2 Beast, Ram Beast. In English version, Ram Beast was renamed to Ulli and Ullikummi was renamed to Kummi.
ハヌマーン (Hanuman) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman
ルフ (Rukk) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roc_(mythology)
メケセテット・マアネジェット (Semektet, Madjet) : THIS TOOK ME FOREVER TO FIGURE OUT. Searching for either of the names in Japanese returned only results about this game, except for this one random result that was about some weird old DOS game or something in which there was マアネジェット, which was also called a sun boat (lol). And then looking at more resources on this weird game, somewhere else, the sun boat was also called マンジェット, which is closer to "Madjet" than マアネジェット is. But I didn't know what マンジェット was either, so I started searching for that... I found another reference to a sun boat, this time in relation to Egyptian mythology, so I just started looking up stuff about Egyptian sun boats, which I guess were an actual type of boat too or something, but eventually found a description of Ra's boat that explained it went by the names Madjet during its 'waxing' period and Semektet during its 'waning' period of its travels. This was great because these words seemed very SIMILAR to the Japanese names, but... not exactly. So I figured it had SOMETHING to do with this, and was starting to wonder if it was some kind of pun on them, especially since the マアネ at the beginning of Madjet can also mean something like "Oh well" or "whatever", and this same kind of pun is used in a Pokémon name. ANYWAY so trying to search for the two terms together just brought up a bunch more unsaga resources, and no matter what, if I used either of the two names in a search, I would ONLY get references to unsaga and sometimes that weird DOS game. So I tried reading the Japanese Wikipedia article on Ra, but it's not very lengthy, and then I started looking for just Japanese sites on Egyptian mythology in general and FINALLY found one that talked about the boat's names and the names matched the description I found on the English-language site about the same thing. So I'm guessing that the Japanese and English language are both referring to the same word, just using very different phonetic representations. Japanese's probably refers to an older word that was pronounced different, which seems to be the case for a LOT of these mythos things -- they use older words from earlier languages while English tends to refer to things as they are pronounced in the most modern languages that reference them. So even though they sound different, I'm assuming they are the same word, considering they're defined exactly the same way... It's weird how little reference there seems to be (at least easily accessible from a quick web search) on this specific detail of mythos though... Also, interestingly, despite reusing a Demon's sprite, Maane and Malig are considered to be a part of the Birds family, which makes even more sense if they're supposed to be related to Ra and are the carriers of the sun across the sky. YAY RESEARCH.
ダンダーン (Dendan) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandan Another thing from 1001 Nights, I guess!!! ダンダダーン is just a play on the word, I think.
ファスティトカロン (Fastitocalon) : The JRR Tolkien version of Aspidochelone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastitocalon_(poem)
ルナティカン (Lunatican) : The only use of this word I can find is from a 1988 novel by Chohei Kanbayashi, and it seems fairly famous. From reading a short description on the Kindle store, it seems like it's some kind of future/sci-fi story involving androids and living on the moon. There are people who live underground and people who live overground, and the overground people detest the underground people and refer to them with contempt as "Lunaticans," which seems to be a play on the words "Lunatic" and "Basement (tica)." The monster in question is fought in the depths of Two Moons Temple, so that seems fitting.
ネルガル (Nergal) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nergal
カリカンザーロス (Kallikantzaros) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kallikantzaros This one took a while because that isn't the traditional Japanese spelling and everything was just coming up results for unsaga. Searching on yahoo.co.jp yielded good results, though, because its autocorrect thing is pretty good lol.
ウェルギリウス (Vergilius) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil
アガレス (Agares) : http://demons.wikia.com/wiki/Agares
アバドン (Abaddon) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaddon
ドムリアット (Dimiryat) : https://www4.atwiki.jp/gods/pages/22669.html https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97b/part31.html The English version spells this as "Domliat" which isn't helpful because that doesn't seem to be a used spelling for this character at all. Al-Dimiryat is the King of the Djinn and father to Maymunah, the one who spoke to Dahnesh.
Also, this is just for my own reference the values some things have in the database:
11 = unique monster (boss, miniboss, etc)
12 = kurt's gauntlet monsters
13 = final bosses
14 = chaos
ダハナシュ (Dahnesh) : Described in the previous entry, from Qamar al-Zaman https://1000into1night.wordpress.com/8-the-tale-of-kamar-al-zaman/
グッキー (Gookie/Gooky/Guckie) : I have no idea about this, honestly, but I think it's just supposed to be a cute name? It could be a play on "cookie" (cookie with a g lol). Searching for this is overwhelmingly full of results for a song by the same name by pop star BECKY, and in this case, it's a silly portmanteau of the words "Good" and "Lucky". The English name was written as "Guckie," probably to make it not look like "gook."
ブラク (Buraq) : Islamic mythological creature, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq
モルケクス (Morqechs) : Seems to be a made-up name for the game? The Guckie family seems to be this way
ヒドル (Hiddle) : Another Guckie family thing. Again seems to be made up.
トウコツ (Toukotsu) : The Japanese name of Tao-Wu, a Chinese mythological creature: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AA%AE%E3%82%B3%E3%83%84
エウリノーム (Eurynome) : Greek mythological name, seems to be a commonly-used name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurynome weird though because this is a recolor of Buraq
トウテツ (Toutetsu) : The Japanese name of Tao-Tie, another Chinese mythocreature https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A5%95%E9%A4%AE
ペリュトン (Peryton) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peryton
ダハナシュ (Dahnesh) : Character from 1001 Nights https://1000into1night.wordpress.com/8-the-tale-of-kamar-al-zaman/
バルバロイ (Barbaroi) : Japanese spelling of the plural of βάρβαρος (Barbaros)
イブリース (Iblis) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_(Islam)
キャリオン (Carrion) : More just a translation thing, キャリオン most likely refers to "carrion" and not any other words that キャリオン can also represent. Appears in many bug names.
霊樹サエーナ (Spirit Tree Saena) : "Saena" seems to be a common Japanese word to refer to Simurgh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh ; No idea why they named a plant that, though, other than the leaves that form its 'hair' seem to look similar to some other depictions of Simurgh's wings I saw in other games
ダルハーン (Dalham) : http://jinn.wikia.com/wiki/Dalham Actually relevant name since this is an aquan often seen around shipwrecks and coastal areas
アスピドケロン (Aspidochelone) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidochelone
ザランハーン (Zalanhan) : Not really sure about this one?! Considering the amount of middle-eastern influence in the game's names and art direction, the ハーン part could be "Kahn," but I don't know what the Zalan/Zaran part is supposed to refer to. It looks a bit like it could be a reference to 'Salamander,' so it might be something like "Salam Khan". The enemy does look like a Salamander, and it carries a trident, so... IDK lol
アメミット (Ahemait) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammit
ジャムフラシュ (Djamuflash) : !?!?!?
サタナキア (Satanachia) : Apparently not Satan's chia pet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanachia
デュラハン (Dullahan) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dullahan
邪神ターグート (Taghut, God of Evil) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghut
ピー・ナッツ (Pea / Nut) : This is just a cute thing. Pinhut and Titus are called "Pea" and "Nut" in Japanese, and the English name for Pea is "Pinhut" which I'm guessing is supposed to be a dubious spelling of "Peanut" :)
ウルリクムミ (Ullikummi) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullikummi The Ullikummi is a recolor of the Rank 2 Beast, Ram Beast. In English version, Ram Beast was renamed to Ulli and Ullikummi was renamed to Kummi.
ハヌマーン (Hanuman) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman
ルフ (Rukk) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roc_(mythology)
メケセテット・マアネジェット (Semektet, Madjet) : THIS TOOK ME FOREVER TO FIGURE OUT. Searching for either of the names in Japanese returned only results about this game, except for this one random result that was about some weird old DOS game or something in which there was マアネジェット, which was also called a sun boat (lol). And then looking at more resources on this weird game, somewhere else, the sun boat was also called マンジェット, which is closer to "Madjet" than マアネジェット is. But I didn't know what マンジェット was either, so I started searching for that... I found another reference to a sun boat, this time in relation to Egyptian mythology, so I just started looking up stuff about Egyptian sun boats, which I guess were an actual type of boat too or something, but eventually found a description of Ra's boat that explained it went by the names Madjet during its 'waxing' period and Semektet during its 'waning' period of its travels. This was great because these words seemed very SIMILAR to the Japanese names, but... not exactly. So I figured it had SOMETHING to do with this, and was starting to wonder if it was some kind of pun on them, especially since the マアネ at the beginning of Madjet can also mean something like "Oh well" or "whatever", and this same kind of pun is used in a Pokémon name. ANYWAY so trying to search for the two terms together just brought up a bunch more unsaga resources, and no matter what, if I used either of the two names in a search, I would ONLY get references to unsaga and sometimes that weird DOS game. So I tried reading the Japanese Wikipedia article on Ra, but it's not very lengthy, and then I started looking for just Japanese sites on Egyptian mythology in general and FINALLY found one that talked about the boat's names and the names matched the description I found on the English-language site about the same thing. So I'm guessing that the Japanese and English language are both referring to the same word, just using very different phonetic representations. Japanese's probably refers to an older word that was pronounced different, which seems to be the case for a LOT of these mythos things -- they use older words from earlier languages while English tends to refer to things as they are pronounced in the most modern languages that reference them. So even though they sound different, I'm assuming they are the same word, considering they're defined exactly the same way... It's weird how little reference there seems to be (at least easily accessible from a quick web search) on this specific detail of mythos though... Also, interestingly, despite reusing a Demon's sprite, Maane and Malig are considered to be a part of the Birds family, which makes even more sense if they're supposed to be related to Ra and are the carriers of the sun across the sky. YAY RESEARCH.
ダンダーン (Dendan) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandan Another thing from 1001 Nights, I guess!!! ダンダダーン is just a play on the word, I think.
ファスティトカロン (Fastitocalon) : The JRR Tolkien version of Aspidochelone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastitocalon_(poem)
ルナティカン (Lunatican) : The only use of this word I can find is from a 1988 novel by Chohei Kanbayashi, and it seems fairly famous. From reading a short description on the Kindle store, it seems like it's some kind of future/sci-fi story involving androids and living on the moon. There are people who live underground and people who live overground, and the overground people detest the underground people and refer to them with contempt as "Lunaticans," which seems to be a play on the words "Lunatic" and "Basement (tica)." The monster in question is fought in the depths of Two Moons Temple, so that seems fitting.
ネルガル (Nergal) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nergal
カリカンザーロス (Kallikantzaros) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kallikantzaros This one took a while because that isn't the traditional Japanese spelling and everything was just coming up results for unsaga. Searching on yahoo.co.jp yielded good results, though, because its autocorrect thing is pretty good lol.
ウェルギリウス (Vergilius) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil
アガレス (Agares) : http://demons.wikia.com/wiki/Agares
アバドン (Abaddon) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaddon
ドムリアット (Dimiryat) : https://www4.atwiki.jp/gods/pages/22669.html https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97b/part31.html The English version spells this as "Domliat" which isn't helpful because that doesn't seem to be a used spelling for this character at all. Al-Dimiryat is the King of the Djinn and father to Maymunah, the one who spoke to Dahnesh.
Also, this is just for my own reference the values some things have in the database:
11 = unique monster (boss, miniboss, etc)
12 = kurt's gauntlet monsters
13 = final bosses
14 = chaos
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Date: 2017-12-12 02:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-12 06:00 pm (UTC)