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Choices of the character names as having meaning


Firstly, I've never read anything where this was discussed so it is just a hypothesis.

Ash - the name can conjure up the saying 'Ashes to ashes' ie death.
Ripley - Ripley's Believe It Or Not. As in not only believe it or not that a woman would be the sole survivor ( although it was actually already a fashion eg Halloween) but believe it or not that ANYONE could escape that thing.
Kane - I shudder to think of the thinking here. Citizen Kane - the bloody birth of the alien being his 'Rosebud'?

I know, perhaps I stretch too far. But is 'Dallas' a name symbolic of male cowboy heroics? Seems unlikely for that down to earth captain. So is it reminiscent of where JFK was shot?

Any other connotations that could stand out to you from their names? Or in any other film in the series?

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Good associations.

Ash - as you said, death/disorder, but also, he ends up literally burnt and "ashey".

Dallas - down-home, American connotation, sportsman/sportsmanship ("Cowboys").

Lambert - not meek, but similar to the stereotypical lamb's recessiveness and timidity - not happy to find herself/crew awoken far from home, and way off the "standard operating procedure" checklist.

Bishop, at least in Catholic terms, is supposed to be "good", self-sustaining, non-social (isolated, celibate), responsible, and to be a shepherd (which by the film's end, Bishop becomes, in spades). Bishop is the film's "bishop".

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Burke - I'm not sure how well Cameron was up on his Cockney rhyming slang, but Berkley Hunt/cûnt

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The Bible seems important to many Alien 3 names, fitting the theme of redemption or hope, however cruelly dashed:

Dillon - MEANING: From dealan “a flash of lightning”” or it may come from an Irish word for “faithful, loyal". Dillon is both the most dynamic prisoner and the most faithful to the cause.

Clemens - Clemens is both a Late Latin masculine given name and a surname meaning "merciful". ie source of the word 'clemency'- a word often used in connection with people being tried to mean mercy, lenience.

Golic- is Bosnian / Serbian as a surname. The Bosnian war started in 1992, the year that Alien 3 came out.

Andrews- St Andrew, an apostle of Jesus Christ, later became patron saint of Scotland. Andrews has a kind of resurrection as he's lifted through a ceiling panel - I know, these are just grasping at one of very many- or no- meanings (a scene I always found too convenient, too slapstick, not horrifying).

Aaron - In Hebrew the meaning of the name Aaron is: Lofty; exalted; high mountain. Biblically, Aaron was Moses' older brother (and keeper by God's command). He was first high priest of the Israelites, remembered for the miraculous blossoming of his staff or rod. How this relates to his character, if at all, is a matter of opinion but he is a guard rather than a prisoner so he is exalted in that sense.

Morse- an alphabet or code in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short light or sound signals. Inspector Morse- detective. The character does have a highly wired sense of communicating in ways that perhaps not everyone can, or wants to, understand.

Rains - rather than 'reigns', rain is, for many people, deemed a negative weather condition. If rain doesn't occur in the film then there are probably condensation related atmosphere setting scenes in the tunnels. The xenomorph often drools like rain. Our first encounter with a fully grown one in 1979's Alien was preceded by water falling on to Brett, which I always imagine to contain imperceptible small traces of alien drool.

Junior - low or lower in rank or status or a person who is a specified number of years younger than someone else.

Bishop II - a meaning of a bishop has already been given.

Murphy- Anglicized version of two Irish surnames meaning "sea-warrior" or "sea-battler". Murphy certainly has a trace of a sea dog look to him.

Jude - In Hebrew the meaning of the name Jude is: Praise. The praised one. Appropriately, he acts as bait for the alien, giving cause for praise.

David - David was the second and greatest of the kings of Israel, ruling in the 10th century BC. Several stories about him are told in the Old Testament, including his defeat of Goliath, a giant Philistine. What greater giant could there be than the alien?
















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I don't know about your hypothesis; But I do know that the character names and Ripley being male in Dan O'Bannon's original screenplay were changed by Gordon Carroll, Walter Hill and David Giler. O'Bannon said he had no particular reason for the character names he used.

Guess she didn't like the cornbread either.

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Kane = Cain

First murder.

Punished by God.

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Yes, that came to mind earlier today but I'm not so sure as Kane was a most placid of people and deserved no punishment unless, that is, by association with Eve being tempted by the serpent to gain knowledge of something she and he were not put on earth to tangle with, Prometheus, of course, having a snake like alien.

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I remember seeing an interview with Giler/Hill, where they told where some of the names came from. Brett was after George Brett, Parker was after Dave Parker, and Lambert was in honor of Jack Lambert...

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