*How did Vader get his name?*

[TheProphet]

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]

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/StarWars/images/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-content/uploads/2008/06/ralph-mcquarrie-stormtrooper-concept-art-star-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/visualdevelopmentofdarthvader.html

[purifier]

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/visualdevelopmentofdarthvader.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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[PatPal]

I happen to know that Lucas went to Downey High School and so did my brother and I---- Our last name is Vader and George named his characters after people he knew. Ztalker you are correct, Gary Vader went to high school with him.

[john74]

I read that it's only a personal interpretation so hence it remains a comment - is that "Darth Vader" was originally just a proper name; first name "Darth", surname "Vader". This seems supported by Ben's "only a master of evil, Darth" answer, although one could argue that Ben may have been addressing him by a title (which - to me - seems odd for a Jedi to do to a Sith). – Jimmy Shelter Dec 18 '12 at 9:06

There are persistent rumors that Vader was from "invader".