Thursday, January 31, 2013

Morpheus

Morpheus was one of the main characters in the Matrix franchise. He was the captain of the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar. Morpheus's goal was to find "The One" who would end the war as foretold by the Oracle. He found Neo and taught him about the Matrix.

Morpheus was an alias of Dream, the protagonist of the D.C. comic The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman.

Morpheus was the title of an episode in the 10th Season of Stargate SG-1, during which the team falls ill with a sleeping sickness.

There were two video games named Morpheus. One was released in 1987 and was a shoot em' up style game. The other was released in 1998, and was a first person adventure game. Mopheus D. Duvall was a character in the video game, Resident Evil: Dead Aim.

Two types of software share the name Morpheus: a file sharing program, and a morphing and digital compositing program.

Morpheus was the god of dreams in Greek mythology. He was a winged daemon, but he could take human form, and appear in dreams. The last time the name appeared in the Social Security name database was in 2000, when it was given to 5 boys.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Cypher

Cypher was a character in the X-Men universe. He was telepathic, and could understand any form of communication, spoken, written, an non-verbal. He was also the a hacker, and was X-Men's computer expert. His real name was Douglas 'Doug' Ramsey.

Richard Cypher aka Richard Rahl was a character in Terry Goodkind's fantasy series The Sword of Truth. He was a woods guide in Westland and spent most of his time in the woods. He guided travelers safely through the Hartland forests. He was very handsome and was in love with Kahlan Amnell. He was a Seeker of Truth and the master of D'Hara.

Cypher was also a character in The Matrix. He became disillusioned with the real world and wanted to return to the Matrix. He betrayed Morpheus and conspired with Agent Smith to capture Morpheus in return for being plugged back into the Matrix. After Morpheus was captured, he returned to the Nebuchadnezzar and killed Dozier and wounded Tank. While speaking with Trinity, he confessed his love for her and he unplugged and killed Apoc and Switch. He was about to kill Neo when Tank managed to regain consciousness and killed him.

Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero was a 1967 science fiction cartoon. He had the ability to travel through space and time to different dimensions.

Cypher was a science-fiction/corporate espionage film released in 2002. It starred Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu.

Cypher is a character from the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

Cypher would work well as a first name.. It's similar to Cyrus, which is poised for a breakthrough now that Claire Danes used it for her son. It is easily shortened to the nickname 'Cy'. In 2011, five boys were named Cypher.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Luna


Luna is most recognizable from the Harry Potter series. Luna's father was the editor of the newspaper The Quibbler, which often espoused conspiracy theories and unconventional ideas. Her mother died when she was 9, while experimenting with spells. Luna was a member of Dumbledore's Army, and she was a Ravenclaw. Luna was as unconventional as her parents, and was described by J.K. Rowling as someone who would 'believe 10 impossible things before breakfast.'

Luna Maximoff was a minor character in the Marvel universe.

Luna was a character in the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony.

Luna Inverse was a character in the manga series Slayers.

Luna was the name of a British children's Sci-Fi television series that ran from 1983-1984. It was also the name of the show's main character.

The Luna programme was a series of unmanned robotic missions untaken by the Soviets from 1959-1976.

Luna is the Latin name for Earth's moon.  Luna reappeared on the Social Security Administration's top 1000 names in 2003 after a long absence at #890. It has steadily climbed the chart since then, and in 2011 it was ranked at #278. 

Monday, January 21, 2013

Aslan

Aslan was a character in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan was the only character to appear in all seven of the Narnia books. He was a wise and magical leader, often considered to represent Christ. In The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan was killed by the White Witch in exchange for Edmund's life. After he was killed, his body disappeared, and soon after he reappeared, alive. He explains that it was because he offered his life in return for Edmund's, invoking a deeper magic.

The Aslan were a feline alien race in a science fiction role playing game called Traveller.

Aslan was a warhorse in the Red River manga series. 

Aslan is a real name of Turkish origin. The meaning of the name is 'lion'. In 2011, the name was given to 41 boys and 7 girls. 

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Éowyn


Éowyn was the niece of King Théoden of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings. She fell in love with Aragorn, but he did not return her affection. She disguised herself as a man so that she could fight in the Rohirrim army. She killed the Witch-King of Angmar with the help of the Hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck. She was gravely wounded, but recovered in the Houses of Healing. While she was there, she met Faramir, a Steward of Gondor, whom she later married.

Éowyn was invented by J.R.R. Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings. It is based on the Old English for 'Horse Joy'. Eowyn was given to 50 girls in 2011, and the alternate spelling Aeowyn was given to 5 girls the same year.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Pandora


Pandora was the homeworld of the Na'vi in the movie Avatar. Pandora was a moon, with a low gravity that allowed animals to grow large by Earth standards. Much of the plant life on Pandora had bioluminescent properties. Eywa was the deity of Pandora, and was manifest in a biological neural network throughout all life on the planet.

Pandora Pann was also a character in the D.C. Comics universe. 

One of Saturn's moons is named Pandora. A rather large asteroid in the asteroid belt is named 55 Pandora.

Pandora is best known as the first woman in Greek Mythology. The only time Pandora ranked in the top 1000 names was in 1952, when it ranked at #784. In 2011, 52 girls were named Pandora.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Names from around the Web

Here's a roundup of some geeky names from around the web.


Bewitching Names has a great post about Ender, from the novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and Rue, from the Hunger Games.

Mer de Noms talks about Sheldon and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory, profiles a few names from The Periodic Table, and sheds some light on Pi.

Baby Name Pondering ponders Narnia and Phoenix, which is the alter ego of Jean Grey in X-Men. Phoenix is also the name of Zefram Cochrane's first warp drive ship in Star Trek: First Contact.
  
The Name Station defends Ryker