Colonial names?
 

I've been searching for info on Colonial names or how the Colonials come up with their names (Starbuck, Serina, Bojay, Giles, Bree, Apollo, etc..). So far, I've come up with nothing. Has Larsen ever explained this and why there seem to be no surnames among the 12 tribes?

You need to find out what the writers were drinking and smoking while writing.

As one story goes they were trying to find a name for the nomen one evening over drinks. Some one tried to say "They aren't men" but slured his words (a good brandy will do that) and it came out sounding like nomen. Glen liked it, (I am supprise he could remember it the next day).

So buy a good bottle of your favorit adult beverage, imbibe a fair amount and watch the show, it will all make sence. :devil:

on names and nomenclature
 

I have come to believe that there was in fact a good deal of thought put into most (although certainly not all) of the nomenclature and names used in the series.

The name discussion has been treated to a certain extent in some of the existing literature on the series, and has certainly been discussed ad nauseam on the various groups and boards over the years. Nomenclature however, has not been treated to that extent (at least not to my knowledge).

There are two possibilities for the etymology of the word “Nomen” for instance.
The first is the Middle English nomen as the past participle of nimen, meaning “to take”, but also leading to the term “numb” as in “devoid of emotion”. Both of these fit the nature of the Nomen.

The other possibility is the Latin nomen: which means “name”. Perhaps they use it just as the Native Americans take tribal names that mean simply “people”.

JJR

I alwasy thought Starbuck kinda seemed oddball amoung the BG names. Most were derived from mythology. But Starbuck?

:D

Starbuck
 

I always felt Starbuck was an attempt to draw in the Star Wars Fan (Skywalker Solo, etc.)

It also has a sci-fi ring to it (stars afterall)

However, since all the names also had other meanings here on earth (Boomer, Jolly, Apollo) I thought it kind of cool that Herman Melville made his way into BSG

Interesting thoughts. With names like Apollo, Athena, and Cassiopeia one assume the Colonials would use names linked with Earth's ancient Greek mythology. Aside from the Starbuck character in Moby Dick, names like Boomer, Greenbean, Bojay and Jolly sound like they were made up by a group of guys getting drunk at a pub.

I found it interesting that the name Starbuck seems to be an actual English surname of Norse origin:

http://www.s-starbuck.com/0rigin.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb..../starbuck.html

I thought the story was that Terry or Jim said snowmen (slurring something like it's no man) and Don pulled nomen out of that.

Apollon:
Most of the names have to do with names in mythology, astrology, the Bible or the Book of Mormon. Starbuck is Herman Melville though. ;)

You could be right, my memory aint what it used to be. But i do remember it had do do with drinking.

We hans spend far more time on these things than the writers do. In most cases they only have a week to slap something together. Thats why somany of the TOS episodes were so poorly written.

What I never understood was why Adama's wife wasn't called Eve (or a variation on that name)

Then it could have been said the patriarch of the fleet and his late wife name's came from Adam & Eve, as I had always assumed Adama had been named after Adam ?

One of the reasons I was so suprised at what appears to be some genuine creative thought behind much of the terminology and names. Someone on the writing staff must have had well-worn Latin- and Greek-English dictionaries.

And even more suprised to find that once one accepts an assumption or two about the nature of the Galactica universe, just how well the bad science begins to hold together and not look so bad...

You bring up a good point. Like the technology, little is said of where the names came from or how they are used. This is in fact much closer to reality than most critics will admit. Glen Larson took a page from Gene Roddenberry's book on Science fiction writing. Quite simply, a solder in a foxhole does not stop to tell his buddy how his gun works before shooting it. He simply aims and fires. The world will see what happens when he does this.

Despite Gene's best efforts Star Trek has suffered considerable criticism for the "Techno-babble" used to explain how things work. TNG is famous for this. In the Galactica universe Adama simply says "Flank Speed!" And we see the Galactica head out! When Adama says "Light Speed!" We find out that means the Galactica going to go all out and get there in one hell of a hurry. No techno-babble, just action.

The same with the names, different regions use different names. Again in real life no one stops to analysis a person's name, except perhaps when parents are tying to pick a name for a new born. I have a cousin who's last name is Sawyer. Every on thought this was an old surname from somewhere in Europe. Surprise-surprise, on his deathbed old great grandpa Sawyer admitted he had changed his name when moving west. Seems he was a horse thief in Texas and had chosen his new name from the only book he ever owned, Tom Sawyer. :salute:

moby dick
 

The names Starbuck, Jolly and Boomer are all 18th century British surnames. There are characters with all three of those names in Moby Dick.
I believe Serina is an old English name too.
I've suspected that one of the Galactica writers must have been fond of 18th and 19th century novels; hence the appearance of those names.
The name Brie was actually prophetic. In 1978, it was only a name for a type of cheese. But in the late 80s I started seeing birth announcements with that name for girls.


Mary