Comments | terrylj: Through a Glass, Darkly

terrylj

Through a Glass, Darkly

Mar 31, 2007 10:43

I've been doing some more thinking on the names of male characters in Torchwood. As I mentioned in my first name-pondering post here, the names of all the major male characters (bar one), including guest stars, are basically the same name. Jack, Ianto, Owen, Eugene--they're all variations of the name "John" (which was the name of the man on "Out ( Read more... )

over-thinky, torchwood

Comments 5

mark_landon April 1 2007, 00:23:13 UTC

1. You need more to do. You could be serving at a soup kitchen, or taking walks, or something. I say this because this is a fandom I'm not in, therefore it is worthless time to me.

2. Jack, Owen, Ianto and Eugene are variations of "John?"

terrylj April 1 2007, 02:21:49 UTC

1. Shut up. This is what I think about when I'm at work. Because anything is better than thinking about work.

2. Well, surely you knew about "Jack"? It's the traditional nickname for John. Ianto is the Welsh version of "Johnny", like "Ian" is "John". I was surprised by Eugene and Owen, but I did know John has a zillion regional variations. For instance, there's Evan, Ivan, Sean, Hans, Giovanni, and, believe it or not, Yanni. And that's just the ones I know.

mark_landon April 1 2007, 20:44:37 UTC

1. You can't make me

2. I always thought that there is no real variation on a name. A name is given to you and isn't supposed to change. Like if I go to France, I don't have to use the French version of Mark. Or if Pierre comes to the states, we wouldn't call him Peter. So how did names ever get mutated across regions which purported to be the same name? Years and years of different dialects attempting to pronounce one common, original name, perhaps?

terrylj April 1 2007, 22:20:20 UTC

1. Don't make me come over there.

2. Probably. Oh, speaking of French, I forgot "Jean". Like "Jean-Luc".

rustydog April 7 2007, 06:45:15 UTC

(Whee, all past Torchwood commentary is safe for me now.)

This is a really intriguing idea and you've developed it well. The one that stands out to me most clearly is Eugene. I suppose when you've got an episode and character like Eugene's, where he doesn't have to develop independently or for very long, you (being the writers) can really mold him to the image (reflection) you want. But the others make a lot of sense too.

It makes me feel better about the close-fistedness with Jack's background. I was hoping we'd learn more, too.