Character Name Origins
When Anno created NGE, he borrowed from everywhere, which is more than evident with the way the characters were named. In the essay section of his personal website, he revealed most of the secrets for us fans with a ravenous thirst for such tidbits. Fortunately for those of us who can't read Japanese, “massangeana” did a rough translation and posted it on the newsgroup Japan.Anime.Evangelion in December of 2000. Presented here is a slightly tweaked version, supplemented by Japanese characters (injected as HTML numbered entities; you just need a suitable CJK font) and some additional information. Notes by massangeana are this color; notes added by me (mostly taken from info provided by MDWigs) are this color. Additions and edits to massangeana's translation are by me (although, be warned, some of the stuff I had to translate completely by myself may not be entirely correct, and some of my edits may be misguided).
Anno's official page: http://www.gainax.co.jp/hills/anno/
Essay page: http://www.gainax.co.jp/hills/anno/essay1.html
2000/11/02 (Entry 1)
Sorry to trouble you with such an old story now, but I'm going to go a little into the creation of the Eva character's names. In the first volume of Sadamoto's manga, I touched a bit upon a few of the Eva character's names and how they take shape according to my so-called rule. A little more about how I created them below.
碇シンジ |
Ikari [anchor] is a component of a ship. It's also borrowed from the name of a friend from my college years. Shinji is also borrowed from a long-time friend [Shinji Higuchi]. Incidentally, since both his wife and daughter's names have been used for anime protagonists, I wanted to do the same for the husband and make them an anime family -- but, that said, my reasoning wasn't too logical. Sorry, Shin-chan.
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綾波レイ |
Ayanami is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Rei is just a pun of rei 零 [zero], but actually named after Rei Hino of Sailor Moon [by Naoko Takeuchi]. At the time, this was a bait to invite Iku-chan (Kunihiko Ikuhara) to the staff, but he ran away. Too bad.
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惣流・アスカ・ラングレー |
Soryu is from a warship of the former Japan navy [different kanji]; Langley is from the US navy warship. Asuka is borrowed from Shinji Wada's manga heroine [Chou-Shoujo Asuka].
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葛城ミサト Misato Katsuragi |
Katsuragi is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Misato is borrowed from a heroine of Minako Narita's manga [Misato Izumi of Aitsu].
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赤木リツコ Ritsuko Akagi |
Akagi is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Ritsuko is borrowed from a friend of mine in middle school. |
加持リョウジ Ryoji Kaji |
Kaji [rudder] is a component of a ship. Ryoji is also from a hero in Minako Narita's manga [Ryoji Sawada of Aitsu].
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2000/11/13 (Entry 4)
碇ゲンドウ |
Ikari is the same as with Shinji. Gendo is borrowed from another anime project before Eva that was aborted. I didn't notice Gendo and Shinji is the same combination as in Ken Ishikawa's manga until one of my friends pointed it out. [I think he means Shin'ichi Kuruma and Genzo Kuruma of Majuu Sensen.] His former name Rokubungi 六文儀 [sextant] is also a component of a ship. Just FYI, Rei Asuka of Raideen is also a coincidence. I didn't do this knowingly, as until Super Robot Taisen was made, I had completely forgotten that Raideen existed. Sad, I know. |
冬月コウゾウ Kozo Fuyutsuki |
Fuyutsuki is from a warship of the former Japan navy. Kozo just has a nice ring to it. |
碇ユイ |
Ikari is the same as before. Yui sounds similar to Rei, and it's also a simple pun on yui 唯 [only one].
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キール・ローレンツ Keel Lorenz |
Keel is also a component of a ship. Lorenz is named after a zoologist or something, but I can't remember clearly. Am I just getting old? Oh, well.
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赤木ナオコ Naoko Akagi |
Akagi is the same as with Ritsuko. Naoko is from a friend of mine when I was in elementary school. |
惣流・キョウコ・ツェッペリン Soryu Kyoko Zeppelin |
Soryu is from the same Japanese warship as Asuka. Kyoko is also from a character in Shinji Wada's manga. Zeppelin is from a warship of the German navy that was envisioned but never made. |
ペンペン Pen² |
Super straightforward naming, but I thought the repetition sounded cute. His name has officially become the 2nd power of Pen [Pen²]. I was reluctant at first, but we thought we needed a mascot character, so we had an animal appear in the show. As it happened, the show is set in Hakone, which one associates with hot springs, which in turn are associated with monkeys. But that is no fun, so we decided to make it a penguin, the animal most unsuited to a hot spring. I'm positive that "hot spring penguin" was Sadamoto's idea.
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2000/11/17 (Entry 6)
[Shiro] Tokita (時田), Manda (万田), and Yasugi (八杉) of episode #07 also come from Murakami's novel. Nozoku Takahashi (高橋覗) of episode #11 comes from the name of a production manager and my friend. It's a staff in-joke. [Takahashi Nozomu of Studio Ghibli. Actually, Ghibli did animation work for this episode.] The names of characters in episode #15, etc., also follow a hidden convention. Guessing the rule might be fun if you have the time.