Character name puns
eytancragg asked: can we get a post on how the names of people are kind of like in-jokes?
This is only a list of the ones I can remember at the moment important ones, not comprehensive.
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Momo - means ‘peach’ in Japanese. Named thus by Aang since he ate one.
Aunt Wu - ‘Wu’ means witch in Chinese
Kuei - Kuei means puppet in Chinese, and the Last Emperor is also known as the ‘Puppet Emperor’
Bumi - Bumi means earth in Indonesian
Ran and Shaw - the dragons are named ’ 燃烧 to combust, Ran - 燃 to burn
Shaw -烧 to roast ’ in Chinese.
Jeong Jeong - jiong jiong - jiong means fire in Chinese
Zhao - Zhao is a common family name in Chinese, it can also mean ‘to set afire’.
(a lot of the FN names can be translated as fire/fire related)
Piandao - 騙到 to trick, dao can also mean knife/sword 刀
edited: Also a kind of sword and the typical Asian kitchen knife.
Tenzin Gyatso - is the name of the current Dalai Lama
Möngke - is the name of a Mongol Khan
Longfeng - long feng means Dragon and Phoenix, Emperor and Empress, royal principle in Chinese
Dai Li - is the name of the KMT head of secret police, it can also mean ‘great strength’
Yue - ‘yue’ means moon in Chinese
Suki - can mean ‘like or love’ in Japanese, but also, if transliterated Tsuki (sounds similar), it means ‘moon’. Sokka just can’t help dating the moon.
Laogai - was the name of real life prison camps in China
