The Xenosaga Headcanon Experiment: Missing First/Last Names

Margulis, Pellegri, Helmer, Tony, Hammer, and many other characters in XS seem to be missing their first or last name. Do any of you have a headcanon first/last name for anyone in the game that seems to be missing one? Share them (or the headcanons of others') here!

(I tend to go with Jason for Margulis, but I've also heard Isaac, which seems a little silly with ES Issachar parked in Pellegri's parking spot. Then again, it is a bit of an allusion to Isaac Stein from Xenogears, who Margulis' design and hair color seems closely related to.)

katimus_prime wrote:Then again, it is a bit of an allusion to Isaac Stein from Xenogears, who Margulis' design and hair color seems closely related to.

I think I've pointed this out before, but Xenogears' Stein does not have purple hair. He's just wearing one of those typical bishop hats. v

Spoiler:

If you look closely at Stein's character portrait, it's quite obvious, really. His actual hair color seems to be grey-ish.

As for the topic at hand, I never quite realized that so many characters are missing a first or last name. Funny how I didn't pay much attention to that. o_O

Are Margulis and Pellegri supposed to be their last names? I always assumed those are their first names for some reason...
I don't really come up with first/last names for existing characters myself. I guess some people might want to do so for fanfics and stuff?

Yeah, that's one of those unfortunate genre conventions JRPG characters get on the wrong end of.

[please excuse terrible, terrible punctuation below this point]

My head is usually more preoccupied with questions like "wouldn't mass transfer technology allow things like those teleporting bombs in FTL?" (of course it would! what's the purpose of having your characters duke it out in space sci-fi setting if you don't use the opportunity to make things interesting?), "how could one fit all these yummy weapon systems on KOS-MOS with self-imposed limitations on hyperspace arsenal and instantaneous reconstructions by nanomachines the story is supposed to work with?" (get her wrecked and rebuilt enough times to spread out the available screentime for all gadgets evenly), "should Ziggy have access to that Predator-like stealth system for more than that single cutscene?" (why is it even a question?!) and the like, I do believe I have an idea or two.

XXX

Tony obviously should be Antony Redgrave - apparently Dante's name during the time the first DMC was developed as a Resident Evil game. Previous experience in detective work and a pair of spiffy handguns optional.

Hammer is a handle the dude got christened with when he literally took a hammer to a piece of hardware he was hacking into with a direct physical connection during the heist that got him arrested.

This triggered the alarms, put the whole operation in full retreat before any actual goods could be stolen and ultimately got him caught, but if not for his decisive action other members of the crew would've walked into a lethal security measure the planning stage didn't account for, so Hammer earned himself a reputation of being able to pull through under pressure when the lives of the team were on the line regardless of his usual flighty nature and a nickname to go with it.

The actual name? Hmm... Jeffrey Denton leaps to mind. I wouldn't be able to explain why though.

Margulis is a last name? If you wanna go with a jewish theme, than something like Moisha (that's a male name, right?) is always an option.

Helmer always reminded me of Samuel Jackson, so that would be my first choice.

Pellegri? For some unknown reason she made me think of Alexina.

I think I'll need to write down the whole list somewhere if I were to tackle this. I can't actually remember them all.

Xernova wrote:

katimus_prime wrote:Then again, it is a bit of an allusion to Isaac Stein from Xenogears, who Margulis' design and hair color seems closely related to.

I think I've pointed this out before, but Xenogears' Stein does not have purple hair. He's just wearing one of those typical bishop hats. v

Spoiler:

If you look closely at Stein's character portrait, it's quite obvious, really. His actual hair color seems to be grey-ish.

As for the topic at hand, I never quite realized that so many characters are missing a first or last name. Funny how I didn't pay much attention to that. o_O

Are Margulis and Pellegri supposed to be their last names? I always assumed those are their first names for some reason...
I don't really come up with first/last names for existing characters myself. I guess some people might want to do so for fanfics and stuff?

Super-derp.  I totally remember that exact misconception coming up and I keep tripping over it.  I think it's because it's been so long since I've played XG, coupled with my will to misremember + the resemblance to Helmholz that keeps throwing me off.  It's still a similar silhouette.  orz

I know Margulis is the name of a famous scientist, Lynn Margulis, who is in the field of biology.  Pellegri seems to be a pre-existing Italian surname, according to House of Names.  I'd never given much thought to Margulis or Pellegri as first names.  I did talk to someone IRL who misremembered Margulis as Marcus, and I supposed Pellegri can be smudged into Penelope.  I actually do think that Pellegri would make a nice first name, but it sounds a little strong of a name to be a first name, I suppose?  

Tony obviously should be Antony Redgrave - apparently Dante's name during the time the first DMC was developed as a Resident Evil game. Previous experience in detective work and a pair of spiffy handguns optional.

Hammer is a handle the dude got christened with when he literally took a hammer to a piece of hardware he was hacking into with a direct physical connection during the heist that got him arrested.

This triggered the alarms, put the whole operation in full retreat before any actual goods could be stolen and ultimately got him caught, but if not for his decisive action other members of the crew would've walked into a lethal security measure the planning stage didn't account for, so Hammer earned himself a reputation of being able to pull through under pressure when the lives of the team were on the line regardless of his usual flighty nature and a nickname to go with it.

The actual name? Hmm... Jeffrey Denton leaps to mind. I wouldn't be able to explain why though.

Margulis is a last name? If you wanna go with a jewish theme, than something like Moisha (that's a male name, right?) is always an option.

Helmer always reminded me of Samuel Jackson, so that would be my first choice.

Pellegri? For some unknown reason she made me think of Alexina.

I think I'll need to write down the whole list somewhere if I were to tackle this. I can't actually remember them all. :D

I knew you'd bring some interesting answers to this thread, Yikari!  :D
Though I've never heard the name Moisha before (my brain sidled into Moesha, which was the name of a sitcom starring a lady named Moesha, which was on in the mid-90's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moesha

yikari wrote:
Though I've never heard the name Moisha before (my brain sidled into Moesha, which was the name of a sitcom starring a lady named Moesha, which was on in the mid-90's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moesha

Well, I'm not too sure how it is properly romanized, so it might be Moesha after all. I've just typed out how we russian people usually pronounce that jewish name, so chances are it is horribly maimed anyway. (The reason it came to mind was because you've started with Isaac and added alliterate appeal respectively.)

EDIT:

Our own wikipedia insists that correct variants of this name would be Moisha and/or Moishe, but that's again only how it is written in cyrillic alphabet.

For the purposes of Xenosaga where a good deal of things from Earth got lost or hopelessly mixed up between each other, IMHO, that would be enough though.

(You know that retro-street Gaignun supported the construction of on the Kukai Foundation space station? When I first seen it in Ep.I the textures made it look like the street got mistakenly paved with wooden parquet and the sidewalks with cobblestone to my eye. Ep.II adjusted the textures to make it look more natural so I guess that wasn't their intention, but I found it hilarious and it firmly got into my headcanon.)

Loving this thread. I remember once mentioning on tense the fact that pretty much none of the villains in the series seemed to have last names, maybe with the exception of Albedo and even his last name is a source of mystery. (Piasora, Piazolla - where did that come from?).

So, I've mentioned in other places that I have ideas for a Xenosaga-based adaptation. Here are some of the names I'd use:

Wilhelm Van Woland
Edward or Edwin "Ed" Sellers
Vlad Margulis
Pellegri Margulis
John Matthews
Katerina Dmitrievna Ruryk (Citrine's Official Name)

Don't think I ever bothered to do that for Tony or Hammer.

I've never had any particular headcanons on characters' first/last names, but these are really really interesting!

On a side note, I thought it was cool and/or significant that the name Pellegri apparently comes from the word for pilgrim. I mean, it'd make sense with Ormus's's' old-school space Catholicism thingy. (For some reason I always think of Pellegrino mineral water.) ... And now I'm imagining her having some kind of religious-sounding first name like Elizabeth or Christine or Mary-something (there's too many Marys in Xenosaga already, though). :B

I headcanoned Pellegri with the last name "Rosenthal"!
I usually don't end up with name headcanons, but I needed one for a fic I wrote a while back, and went on a mission to make her one.
I think the reason it stuck with me was because of her rose-themed attacks, and the Jewish/German origins made sense to me on the Ormus-level. -w-

Sometimes, I forget it's not canon....eheheh

Something tells me Citrine did not exactly have a public name and identity she went with on a constant basis like both Rubedo and Nigredo did. If she did though, she would take me as a Claudia. Or maybe Lilian. My surname of choice would be Lawrence - I simply like the sound of that. :D

Albedo... would likely not see a reason to disguise himself. (Even though the database maintains he has a surname. Somehow.) I find the idea of him going by 'Rupert' amusing though.

Sellers seems like a Michael to me.

Togashi? Is that a name or a surname? Context would suggest that it is in fact a name, but you never know with these things. Now where did I put the anime names repository... Would Nakayama Togashi work?

Captain Matthews? Apparently a surname, if my dictionary is to be believed. And it even provides a mention of at least two famous people that were named Stanley Matthews too. I am inlcined to think that it would not be a bad choice for him.

EDIT:

Apparently Togashi got a surname come Ep.III database. He is listed as Yukihira Togashi in there. Ooops...

^ Yeah, Matthews sounds more like a surname to me (if it were a given name it'd be more likely to be a variation of Matthew, without the s).

I always wondered how and why Albedo got his surname.  I know there's a composer named Astor Piazzolla (my brother played us some recordings once, and my mom said, "This music makes me feel like I'm going crazy!" so I guess it's a good choice for him, haha).  Maybe he took it on ironically or something, like just as a dramatic flourish.

Yeah, the Astor Piazzolla explanation sounds appropriate, thought it was originally "Piasora" in the first game? An incorrect transliteration maybe?

Also, I noticed nobody comes up with a last name for Wilhelm.

How come? I always thought it was weird that people in the game used his first name to address him.

Neosmith wrote:
Also, I noticed nobody comes up with a last name for Wilhelm.

How come? I always thought it was weird that people in the game used his first name to address him.

Yes, extremely strange - especially given how he was supposedly a head honcho in their parliament equivalent under the same alias. But I'm having trouble with coming up with something for him.

My dictionary mentions someone named Wilhelm Hoyt; can't think of anything else at this time.

I'm thinking Wilhelm must have a germanic surname. Which is why to me he'll always be Wilhelm Van Woland the Fifth.

Wilhelm is also Friedrich Nietzsche's middle name, so there's that too. X3