Where did Berserk names originate??

SexyCharlotte

All those who wander are not always lost
Some of those names in Berserk are pretty unusual...I wonder what inspired Miura to use them. Griffith I can see ( Griffin the mythological figure), Gatsu ( Guts) but the other names...Corkus? Caska? Farnese? Very unusual.

LG
 

incognitoX

you fail me
Lady Griffith said:
Some of those names in Berserk are pretty unusual...I wonder what inspired Miura to use them. Griffith I can see ( Griffin the mythological figure), Gatsu ( Guts) but the other names...Corkus? Caska? Farnese? Very unusual.

LG

I know that there was a character named pippin in Lord of the Rings.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Collected from pretty much everyone's posts in this thread:

Guts: He's got em... :guts:

Casca: Possibly based on the character who took place in the assassination of Julius Caeser in Shakespeare's play. Also possibly from the novel series Casca, regarding the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's side.

Griffith: Well,... It's a very Anglo-Saxon sounding name?

Femto: A prefix for a measurement used in very small distances in space (I.E. across a Void =)

Void: Possibly a Science Fiction Author: John Boyd

Conrad: Off a Science Fiction character of the same name

Ubik: Off a Science Fiction Novel of the same name. Short for "ubiquitous".

Slan: Off a Science Fiction novel of the same name.

Gaiseric: The Vandal King who captured Carthage and sacked Rome between 439 and 450 A.D. .

Mule: Possibly from the character from Asimov's Foundation series.

Adon and Samson: Are actually a pair of homoerotic characters in Japanese culture to orient boys to homosexuality. They're always depicted as muscular men in thongs. Surely you've seen them, they even have their own video game shooter. I've played it... it's disturbing.

Godo: Most likely from Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot.

Idea: This one is cheating, since it's referring to a philosophical concept developed by Plato and Aristotle.

Serpico: An Italian name, and a 70's movie with Al Pacino.

Farnese: Possibly from a french swordsman named Farnese. It's also a popular brand of wine.

Zepec: A city in Bosnia/Herzegovina and a Bosnian/Croatian name.

Isidro: Mizar: "Ishi" means 'stone', and "dorobou" means 'thief'. Isidro is well known as a stone throwing thief. Also, possibly from a short sci/fi story by Ursula Le Guin A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. The lead female character is named Isidri.
 

puella

Berserk forever
Walter said:
Casca: A character who took place in the assassination of Julius Caeser in Shakespeare's play.

I'm not 100% sure but I heard some male character called "Kyasuka" in the anime "Spirited away" produced by Miyajaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli.
I mean it could come from some Japanese name.

Godo: Most likely from Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot.

I think it could also come from English "God" . God is pronounced "Godo" in Japanese. Godo is excellent creator in berserk so ...maybe.

Serpico: 70's movie with Al Pacino. Coincidence? A strange one if it is...


199708.jpg

It's Italian name

Farnese: I think Puella knows more details (i think it was puella...). A french swordsman named Farnese existed... I cant remember anymore details.

Haha. it's Roberto, not me. I just posted about Farnese wine.
Anyway Farnese is also Italian name.

Read this in Roberto's recent post

Did Miura make those names, Serpico and Farnese, considering they are half brother and sister? ::)
I think so.
 

Roll

Dreamer
Walter said:
Adon and Samson: Are actually a pair of homoerotic characters in Japanese culture to orient boys to homosexuality. They're always depicted as muscular men in thongs. Surely you've seen them, they even have their own video game shooter. I've played it... it's disturbing.
aichoani.gif
 

SexyCharlotte

All those who wander are not always lost
THANKS very much Walter!! I really appreciate it. I just thought it was an interesting selection of name choices.Can't imagine the characters with any other names though as that is what partly made Berserk unique.

LG
 
S

SoulCrasher

Guest
Walter said:
Zepec: Hmmm, I thought it was based off a Science Fiction character of the same name, however . . . I did some research and turned up with nothing . . . Anyone else have any luck?

Zepec is a town in Bosnia/Herzegovina and a Bosnian/Croatian name.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Since we're into preciseness, Ubik isn't the name of a character but of some force (from the novel Ubik, by P.K. Dick), the name directly comes from Ubiquity, which means "to be everywhere, at different places at the same time".
 
S

SoulCrasher

Guest
Aazealh said:
Since we're into preciseness, Ubik isn't the name of a character but of some force (from the novel Ubik, by P.K. Dick), the name directly comes from Ubiquity, which means "to be everywhere, at different places at the same time".

Also, Slan is a race of genetically bred superhuman people created to assist humanity from the novel, not a particular character.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Aazealh said:
Since we're into preciseness, Ubik isn't the name of a character but of some force (from the novel Ubik, by P.K. Dick), the name directly comes from Ubiquity, which means "to be everywhere, at different places at the same time".
Oh wow! Awesome find, Aazealh.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I knew that for quite a long time, was just waiting for an opportunity to bring it up (lazy).

Also, SoulCrasher is right about Slan, it comes from a famous novel by A. E. Van Vogt, the title of which is Slan. It's the name of a race of enhanced humans who are hated and hunted down by humanity, just because they're different. They have the power to read others' minds, superhuman strengh and superior intelligence. The novel's main theme is racism and the hero is a child whose parents have been murdered when he was young. One of the characteristics of the slans (that can be used to identify them) is that they sport tentacles on their heads.

About Adon and Samson, even if it's more likely Miura was inspired by the gay japanese duo, I think it's interesting to note that they both exist in mythology: Samson is a biblical hero (similar to Heracles in the Greek mythology) whose weak point is his hair. Adon is a war god in some norse mythology, also the god of wine.

I just noticed a mistake: Femto isn't a prefix for large but for short distances (milli, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto, etc), it's 10^(-15).
 

Mizar

Œ©‰Ž•·‚©‰ŽŒ¾‚퉎
About Ishidoro:
"Ishi" means 'stone', and "dorobou" means 'thief'. Ishidoro is well known as a stone throwing thief. Well, could that be it or is it just a coincidence?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Mizar said:
About Isidro:
"Ishi" means 'stone', and "dorobou" means 'thief'. Isidro is well known as a stone throwing thief. Well, could that be it or is it just a coincidence?

Seems to be an intentional pun to me, would be a bit much for a coincidence IMHO.
 

Lliugusamui

around the corner
Mizar said:
About Ishidoro:
"Ishi" means 'stone', and "dorobou" means 'thief'. Ishidoro is well known as a stone throwing thief. Well, could that be it or is it just a coincidence?
'didnt know. I think thats quite possible.
Also I've read Slan by Van Vogt (humm the french title was 'à la poursuite des slans' I believe ) and the slan girl was very different from Slann-booty. I belive she was even timid, perhaps Slann was acting this way before being a God Hand member ...
Guil
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
Walter: You came pretty close to the meaning of Griffith!!

Griffith stems from a Welsh origin. It actually means "Powerful Lord" that and "Red-Hair". Not only that, but it's also a variation of the name Gryffyn, which is Welsh for the mythological beast, Griffin. It's old Celtic that I know, because I live really close to Wales ^^ A bit too close for my liking :-\
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, and the griffin was pretty close to the hawk in those mythologies, I think there's even a race of hawks named after it.
 

Lliugusamui

around the corner
Furthermore, there was a Arthur knight who is called Gawain(eng)=Gauvain(fr)=Gwalchmei(wales) and gwalch means hawk and mei is may or sthg like a 'plaine'(not sure of the last thing) and he had 'powers', being almost invulnerable and all.
Guil
 

ZKK

Sentient Entropy.
While it’s probably been brought up before in numerous Skull Knight discussions, it hasn't been mentioned here yet, so here goes.

Gaiseric; more commonly known as Genseric
King of the group of Germanic people known as the Vandals from 428 to 477. Under his rule, the Vandal's invaded Africa in 429, captured Carthage and made it their capital in 439, and sacked Rome in 455. And due to their actions, or at least the common perception of their actions, since then the word 'vandal' has been synonymous with wilful or malicious destruction or desecration.


I don't know too much about it, but I'm a bit of a fan of German history around that time frame, so I'll definitely be looking into it further. And anyway, my grandfather, sorry mein Großvater loves to discuss these kinds of things, and is very knowledgeable on the topic to boot... plus it'll feel more authentic when spoken with a German accent, in half-English half-German than reading it from a book ;D.
 

lyrker

What fools these mortals be!
puella said:
I'm not 100% sure but I heard some male character called "Kyasuka" in the anime "Spirited away" produced by Miyajaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli.
I mean it could come from some Japanese name.

Yanno. It always sounded to me like Ricket was calling her 'Kyaska' to me. I only really heard this from him so I thought I was just hearing things till I saw this post. Now I don't feel so peculiar. About that matter anyway. :D
 
Isidro: Similar to the name of the Shogun's favourite horse in the manga The Legend of Kamui. It's leg gets cut off by a fisherman and used as a fish lure.
 

Wereallmad

I love YaBB 1 Gold!
I always thought Casca came from the novel series "Casca". It's about the roman soldier who peirced the side of christ. In it he was named Casca Longinus.
 

BlackSwordsman

I MUST BREAK YOU!
That thing about Gaiseric is pretty cool. He's German... I remember in the interview with Miura on volume 4 of the DVDs Miura talks about the strange coincidence between Guts and a German knight name Goetz (Guts is not based on him in anyway though Miura says.) He had an iron arm too.
 

IsolatioN

Last Soldier Standing
Why Femto?

Hey everyone. Well, I was in science class the other day and we were looking at different mathematical and scientific prefix's. One of the ones we came across was Femto. It sort of surprised me, since I never really thought of Femto in a numerical way, haha. Anyways, from what I gathered a Femto is a prefix in the SI System, standing for a factor of 10−15. Taking a quick swing by Wikipedia, I also gathered that it stands for ten-thousand-billionths, or 0.000 000 000 000 001.

Now, I really don't get how this relates to the character at all. What does such a tiny number have to do with the newest member of the Godhand?

Of course, maybe I'm just looking into this too much, and Miura just picked the name because it sounded right. What do you think?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Re: Why Femto?

Grunbeld said:
Femto could mean something in japanese. Or maybe even another language.
That would make sense... if it were written in hiragana or Kanji.  But, it was written in katakana: FEMTO. And since there's an existing word already, we can assume it's what Miura meant.

As IsolatioN was hitting on, Femto is a prefix for extremely short measurements (a quadrillionth, or 10^ -15).  For instance, the average lifespan of gutstonium is 30 femtoseconds.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/m/metricTABLE.asp

As to why Miura chose Femto as the name well... I don't have any real answers for you.  But, I've personally always thought it interesting that a femtometer is used to measure across impossibly small VOIDS in space  :void:
 

IsolatioN

Last Soldier Standing
Re: Why Femto?

For instance, the average lifespan of gutstonium is 30 femtoseconds.

that, along with the Void coment, got me thinking: gutstonium? hmmm.. I'm just trying to piece it together. How does 10^-15 tie in with Berserk? I guess at this point only Miura could answer this, if it did actually mean anything at all :)
 
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