CHARACTER NAME ORIGINS
Originally written in March of 2022.
*Note that some precise meanings here may be partially incorrect, did my best to research things and verify with multiple sources.
dalisay capila isip:
kept their birth name probably.
meaning for dalisay: “pure” in tagalog.
meaning for capila: name’s apparently used in the philippines, i have no idea if the etymology is connected but capila is a genus of butterfly.
meaning for isip: “mind” in tagalog.
mazin fakhouri:
naturally mazin is not his birth name, i’m thinking he chose it because it sounds imposing and harsh to most ears…
meaning for mazin: “rain clouds” in arabic, apparently! can’t find a decent source for the etymology, if anything i presume it comes from مطر but i literally have no clue
meaning for fakhouri: from فَخْر (fakr), “to boast, to be proud” in arabic.
somsak khemson:
chose it on a whim, likely cycled through a bunch of random names with variable ‘genders’ whilst lying to people for fun and then realised ohhh wait this means something for me. picking ‘somsak’ as a particular name was probably a decision made when first boarding the train, being the first masculine name he could think of.
meaning for somsak: thai, from สม (som) meaning "suitable" and ศักดิ์ (sak) meaning "energy, power".
meaning for khemson: from thai เข็มสน (khemson) meaning “pine needle”.
demeter delila erős:
birth name is jenő. they and míra had the habit of utilising greek myth names as codenames of sorts and demeter was the one they chose for the train ‘mission’… ended up preferring it over their real name over time. honestly ulises is the only one who knows of this because they never found a point in clarifying things to everyone else. so it’s like whatever. they’re demeter now.
meaning for jenő: name of both an ancient hungarian tribe and its founder, nowadays regarded as a variant of the name eugen, which in turn means “well born”.
meaning for demeter: naturally comes from the greek god. her name means “earth mother”
meaning for delila: from hebrew דְּלִילָה, “she who is weakened” roughly.
meaning for erős: from hungarian erő, meaning “power, force”
ulises garrido ortega:
uses per birth name.
meaning for ulises: usual spanish form of ulysses, latin form of odysseus, which roughly means “i hate”.
meaning for garrido: spanish, meaning “elegant, good-looking”
meaning for ortega: spanish, meaning “stinging nettle”
sabri sievert:
uses its birth name. hieronymus, albeit being a kind of joke-y pseudonym for street art, is a name it likes to be referred to as just as equally as sabri honestly.
meaning for sabri: derived from صبر (sabr) “to have patience” in arabic.
meaning for hieronymus: from ancient greek Ἱερώνυμος, meaning “holy name”.
meaning for sievert: variant of the german name sigurd, in turn from old norse sigurðr, from sigr "victory" and vǫrðr "guard". also named after the radiation unit!
freya okoye:
picked thons name by asking thons parents what they would’ve named thon… because thon was probably super indecisive about a myriad of names initially haha ranging from names related to music thon liked to random obscure media ones and then just ones thon liked the sound of. notable name thon thought of going by was victoria, though it kind of lost to ‘freya’ as a primary name obviously. but thon lets people thon’s very close to refer to thon as such.
meaning for freya: from old norse freyja meaning “lady, mistress”. freyja’s most relevant domain as a goddess, with regards to freya my friend freya, is her role as a psychopomp to those slain in war.
meaning for victoria: means victory in latin.
meaning for okoye: variant of okorie, meaning “born on oye market day”
olzhas karimov:
probably used another name at first but after attempting to explain things to eir parents it went bad and said old name was hugely tarnished in eir eyes ever since. e picked olzhas on a practical whim just to have something else to call emself and ended up really liking it, e was like fully confident with it by the time e entered the train. probably liked it more once isel started calling em olja, a nickname e found quite quaint.
meaning for olzhas: derived from kazakh олжа (olja) “plunder, spoil” and also “trophy” apparently.
meaning for karimov: means “son of karim”
isel vega-kawas:
birth name was marisela but he ended up shortening it to isela and eventually just isel over the years. truncating it to isel in particular was a choice he made more or less when he entered the train, kind of to mark a new era in his life. he doesn’t mind being called marisela but thinks it has ‘less flow’ than just isel and hardly uses the full version himself. among other names; xochitl is the name he used on train interfaces and the name he uses in his public life post-story, has no serious attachment to it and it’s wholly to keep his presence anonymous; dolichonyx was naturally borne whilst on the train and he quite likes the sound of it… though it’s not on the same level as isel, he regards it as a name of his, even post-train.
meaning for marisela: elaboration on marisa, incorporating ‘isel’ from nahuatl, meaning ‘single, alone, unique’ — afaik also spelled icel, ycel, etc. isel intentionally shortened it for this meaning.
meaning for vega: means “meadow, plain” in spanish. also the name of an old north star before polaris, part of the constellation lyra.
meaning for kawas: from persian and arabic قوس, meaning “arch”
meaning for xochitl: flower in nahuatl! also note that its a very generic and common nahua name so its like. kind of an obvious bad pseudonym lol
meaning for dolichonyx: its birds
peixin guan:
uses its birth name.
meaning for peixin: from 培 (pei) “to cultivate, to educate” and 信 (xin) “true, accurate”
meaning for guan: has multiple meanings afaik
beatrix jett hemi:
initially just went by bea or something but the name felt incomplete and so he tacked on the extension and it’s stuck ever since. bea in itself was probably lifted from some 22nd century sci fi media character that he liked lol.
his middle name was also personally picked, entirely for the sound and it sounding cool.
meaning of beatrix: derived from latin viatrix, meaning “traveller” in the female form.
meaning of jett: color!!!!!!!!
meaning of hemi: māori form of james.
marjolaine danquah:
probably a name she picked in her early 20s, at first mostly intended as a stage name to make her stand out in the opera world, but it ended up becoming a preferred name over the years.
meaning of marjolaine: from french, meaning “marjoram” as in the herb.
meaning of danquah: i can’t find a reliable source… U_U
valerie destine:
name she intentionally picked to compliment her descent into a hearts motif, initially wishing to go by valentine but finding it too tacky and clichéd. valerie was the next best thing. she honestly just majorly wanted an excuse to go by val but didn’t want to have such a short name in itself…
meaning of valerie: feminine form of the ancient roman name valerius, from latin valere, “to rule, to be strong”
meaning of destine: originates from french destiné, “destined”
faris lăzărescu:
spent like days and days looking through names trying to find one that ‘clicked’, and faris was basically the only one that did. holds a lot of significance but he himself’s never been able to describe it really…
meaning of faris: from arabic فارس, meaning “knight”
meaning of lăzărescu: romanian, son of lăzăr, further derived from lazarus… whatever
lusine vardanyan:
a name it picked itself… it simply ‘felt right’.
meaning of lusine: from armenian լուսին meaning moon.
meaning of vardanyan: armenian, “son of vardan” with vardan in itself meaning “rose”
casimiro montoya ramadhan:
casimiro was a name she decided on but very intentionally used cas as like… a stage or performance name and was way more used to hearing it than the elongated version. by the time she came to the train she’d grown accustomed to the kind of ‘riddle’ of her name and the whole thing about encouraging people to just guess what cas was short for, only to adopt each guess fully as a name. on a technicality probably goes by a dozen names related to ‘cas’ haha
meaning of casimiro: spanish form of casimir, from polish name kazimierz, in turn composed of slavic elements — kaziti meaning “to destroy”, and miru meaning “peace”.
meaning of montoya: derived from spanish word for “mountain”.
meaning of ramadhan: from ramadan.
thuyết hữu becquerel:
fi came up with fir entire full name and is exceptionally proud of it. complete mix of meaning and sound-based fondness, every inch of it is calculated to be nice to fir…
meaning of thuyết: from 說 meaning doctrine or theory.
meaning of hữu: from 友 meaning friend.
meaning of becquerel: i cannot find shit about the etymology but it is intended to reference henri becquerel and out of the meta this was also fi’s intent.
lanuola gudina laki:
name she picked herself… smile.
meaning of lanuola: samoan, meaning “color of life”
meaning of gudina: oromo, meaning “growth, advancement”
meaning of laki: samoan, meaning “lucky”
omar espinosa tejada:
still figuring it out... probably picked omar himself at the very least.
meaning of omar: unsure if it’s connected to the arabic name? but if it is, عمر is related to “to thrive, to be full of life” things like that.
meaning of espinosa: derived from spanish espinoso, “thorny”
meaning of tejada: meaning “roof” in spanish.
míra conrad erős:
similarly to demeter, was known as persephone to everyone on the train, though she had a lesser technical attachment to the name and had she lived would’ve probably not used it personally. demeter explained the entire codename situation later on and so she’s indeed mostly just known as míra to everyone… demeter was right in the sentiment since to the ghosts, she revealed she went by míra and that persephone was only an investigative alias.
meaning of míra: hungarian form of mira, short for various names
meaning of conrad: german, meaning “brave counsel”
meaning of erős: same as demeter’s. lol