The names of the girls

What do you guys think of the names of the girls and what comes to mind when you first think of them?

Henrietta's name is nice and it reminds me of a female version of the name Henry.

Rico's name is more suited for a boy then a girl which is what I think of when I hear it.

Triela's name is nice sounding as is Claes's name but neither name reminds me of anything.

Angelica's name is VERY nice and it reminds me of an angel (though thanks to the tv cartoon
series "Rugrats", this named was tarnished until the arrival of the Gunslinger girl anime/manga)

Elsa's name sounds nice as well but it doesn't remind me of anything.

Beatrice's name is nice sounding but I'm reminded of a brand name of milk whenever I hear it.

Petrushka's name is hard to pronounce and makes me think of Russia whenever I hear it.


How about you guys?

Triela and Claes are nice but highly unusual names. I can't say I've heard of people with Triela's name anywhere outside Gunslinger Girl, really, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard of someone with Claes'. I've heard some people theorizing that Triela's name is an anagram of Rachele's, but it's pure speculation. And believe it or not, folks, the name Claes has its origins in the the male names Claus/Nicholas.

Petrushka's name is indicative of some vague suitability for her - the original Petrushka was a Russian marionette, designed to look like a red-clad jester. Petra's really little more than a marionette with the new form of conditioning that's been slapped onto her, and her red hair color comes readily to mind. You can count her among yet another of the girls slapped with a boy's name.

While we're on the subject of girls with boys' names, here we come to the quintessential example. No matter what they say, I still think that Rico's a sweet name for a girl. And I maintain my theory that Jean named her in part after the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act - a federal law providing for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of a criminal organization, for those who are in the dark. The Agency's principal job is that of combating organized crime and terrorist groups, after all.

The other girls' names are quite common and don't really stand out, but seem to suit their owners very well. I can't imagine Henrietta, Bea, Elsa and Angie with names apart from their own, which really seem to define them. Although it certainly wouldn't hurt for us to someday find out all the girls' true names - the ones they possessed before coming ot the Agency.

Being a man who likes to find out the meanings behind names, I've actually done a little prior looking into this: oddly enough, Henrietta and Rico both boil down to feminizations (or, in Rico's case, pseudo-feminization) of Enrica/Enrico/Henry. Apparently derived from old Germanic 'Heimric', it essentially means 'home ruler.'

Which is true to a degree in 'Etta's case, but in Rico's case convinces me further that Nachtsider generally has the right idea about this sort of thing (and given Jean's personality, that's exactly something he would do. After all, she's his very own pet version of Justice.)

Triela, on the other hand, is a very unique and hard to find name, and leads me to believe that Hillshire picked it out very carefully, as one would expect of ze German. It also fits perfectly, if I'm right about it being a feminine pet form of 'Tyrrell'; in Old French, that meant 'to pull', and referred to a stubborn or difficult individual. XD

Claes, rather ominously, if taken to her form being a feminization of 'Nicholas', means 'victory to the people.' Again, quite fitting, as Claes is the most untrusting of Section Two and its motives, and the girl some folks think is plotting to bring the Agency crashing down.

Angelica, of course, means 'angelic', and she is, adorable and innocent and forgetful, also prone to injury by the hard things of Earth.

Beatrice's name comes from Late Latin 'Viatrix', and means 'voyager' or 'traveller'; this makes me wonder if it's Aida's nod to why she's offscreen so much, or if he has something special planned. Hmm.

Finally, Elsa, whose eminently Swede name comes from Elizabeth, has a name meaning 'my God is an oath.' This is quite chillingly fitting: her God was her oath to Lauro, and when it was broken...well, we all know what happened, don't we?

Glad to know you agree with my theory on Rico, Alpha. I find your observations on the girls' names very astute - especially those for Bea and Claes. 'Bea the Voyager' might just mean that Bea and Bernado spend a lot of time on missions outside of Italy, which could explain why we see so little of them. And now that we take into account that Claes, Rico and Henrietta have feminized versions of male names, I suppose Louis' comment on Sandro's predecessors having their cyborgs named after boys might just be about solved.

Xenomorph Alpha wrote:Finally, Elsa, whose eminently Swede name comes from Elizabeth, has a name meaning 'my God is an oath.' This is quite chillingly fitting: her God was her oath to Lauro, and when it was broken...well, we all know what happened, don't we?

Suddenly, I'm in the mood for some Mercyful Fate - any true metalhead will know what I'm referring to here. What a scary revelation...

I'm repeating this and it's not me who found it but there's also the:

Enrica > Enrico > Rico

Explenation. .... I do like the RICO one though. And it suits Jean perfectly. I can see him struggling hard to supress a smile every time he thinks about it.

*As Rico beats some guys guts out*
Jean: Oh, the sweet irony! God knows I love this job.

My theory regarding Rico's name, I feel, cannot go to waste as a mere forum post - I've therefore turned it into the premise of a fic, which you can read and review here (please leave feedback on the fic page itself, people, and not on this thread). Thanks a lot for inspiring the final scene, Klicks - you've been credited accordingly.

3klicks wrote:I'm repeating this and it's not me who found it but there's also the:

Enrica > Enrico > Rico

That’s the theory I go with – it definitely makes the most sense.

It's probable and all that, to be true, but I dislike how people present it as canon. There's nothing in the canon that explicitly says things unfolded that way.

Nachtsider wrote:It's probable and all that, to be true, but I dislike how people present it as canon. There's nothing in the canon that explicitly says things unfolded that way.

It’s hard not to think of it as canon. I mean, it’s so obvious. But I agree – until Jean specifically states why he named her Rico, it’s just a theory.

Triela's name is music to my ears.

Henrietta's name IS a female version of Henry, and it's very cute.

Angelica, unfortunately is usually refered to bitches, but since my sister's name is Angela i actually don't mind and find it cute. i also call my sis Angie because of her Angelica

I wanna name my daughter Elsa ^_^

Claes is just to blunt to ring a bell for me. all the other people who are named claes are... guys.

Rico and Petrushka are boy names. i call my other sis Petra though, since she's also a balerina and her real name is Natasha, which is also russian.

Angiegarde wrote:What do you guys think of the names of the girls and what comes to mind when you first think of them?

Henrietta's name is nice and it reminds me of a female version of the name Henry.

Rico's name is more suited for a boy then a girl which is what I think of when I hear it.

Remember, these two are English version of same name.
In Spanish, Henry is Enrique, thus Henrietta is Enriqua. Enrique short is either Ricky or Rico. So, both girls have the same name. The Italian version for the name is the same.

Angiegarde wrote:Elsa's name sounds nice as well but it doesn't remind me of anything.

Elsa has to be French/Italian for the Spanish Elsie, which is short for Elisa.

Just wondering. if the girls are going undercover, would it be ok give them their old names. Like if ever Claes is meant to go undercover in a school can her ID read Fleda Johanson?

West Nile wrote:Just wondering. if the girls are going undercover, would it be ok give them their old names. Like if ever Claes is meant to go undercover in a school can her ID read Fleda Johanson?

Well, I guess that depends on how common the name Freda is.

are you saying that they won't worry about the girl feeling uncomfortable with that name since... it was her name?

Hm, good point. Does she even know it's her name in the first place? I'd imagine Triela and Rico wouldn't give a rat's ass about using her real name, but Claes might have a problem with it.

i mean... will they find out. i have the feeling if you shout Fleda at Claes she will just look at you and say Who? then slap you and say "stop shouting"

I don't think Claes even knows that 'Freda' is her real name. The name she probably goes by at present is Claes X (insert Raballo's surname here).

You know I'm left wondering does Claes even have a surname at this point? I see no reason why she would need one. The reason the other girls have them is, because of their handlers, and missions. It would only help to raise questions. So she very well may not at this point.

sorry for derailing the Claes thing... I'm with Wil on that one, though. Claes wouldn't need a surname unless for some type of press event on the SWA's cover story.
...

reading Sasahara's Through the Looking Glass idea got me thinking about Elsa's name again... the one that came to mind was another Lauro=douchebag moment where he simply reorganized her real name: Lisa.

Lauro de Sica, muttering, as he walks through the park with his nameless protege following at his heels:
"Hmmm... Lisa... Lisa... Asil...? Stupid. Alice? Too Lewis Carroll-y. Sila? Sounds like a middle-eastern boy's name... Ilsa? Hm.. crap, I gotta hurry back to work. Ilsa... Elsa!"

Lauro raises his his voice a bit.
"Elsa. Your name is Elsa de Sica."

...moving on...

thinkbabynames.com wrote:The girl's name Elsa \e-lsa, el-sa\ is pronounced EL-sah. It is of German origin. Short form of Elisabeth.
Elsa has 5 variant forms: Else, Elsie, Elsy, Elza and Ilse.

travelling along similar lines of thought to Nachtsider's explaination for Rico (though with a less serious connotation)...
Maybe Elsa was a stutterer before reconstrution
Or maybe Lauro worked up in Germany for these people
Or (and this one might explain a few things)... maybe Lauro was a lawyer
...or (this one isn't an acronym, though) an animal rights activist

West Nile wrote:Just wondering. if the girls are going undercover, would it be ok give them their old names. Like if ever Claes is meant to go undercover in a school can her ID read Fleda Johanson?

I would think that when it comes to the girls who don’t remember their pasts (especially those with traumatic pasts) exposing them to their real names would be a bad idea – it could trigger some very unpleasant memories. Accually, bringing up nice memories could be just as bad.

LoC978 wrote:

Lauro de Sica, muttering, as he walks through the park with his nameless protege following at his heels:
"Hmmm... Lisa... Lisa... Asil...? Stupid. Alice? Too Lewis Carroll-y. Sila? Sounds like a middle-eastern boy's name... Ilsa? Hm.. crap, I gotta hurry back to work. Ilsa... Elsa!"

Lauro raises his his voice a bit.
"Elsa. Your name is Elsa de Sica."

...moving on...

That can't be! Elsa is such a nice name...

Danjo3 wrote:

West Nile wrote:Just wondering. if the girls are going undercover, would it be ok give them their old names. Like if ever Claes is meant to go undercover in a school can her ID read Fleda Johanson?

I would think that when it comes to the girls who don’t remember their pasts (especially those with traumatic pasts) exposing them to their real names would be a bad idea – it could trigger some very unpleasant memories. Accually, bringing up nice memories could be just as bad.

if that's the case... someone give me a nice name that i could rename Claes with. if i pick your given name il use it in my next fanfic ^_^

West Nile wrote:if that's the case... someone give me a nice name that i could rename Claes with. if i pick your given name il use it in my next fanfic ^_^

Freda! *bonks head on cieling*
Owie. Okay, seriously, how anout something like...
ZELDA (luck in yiddish, but she don't seem very lucky),
CALANTHE (bueatiful flower, becuase Claes is bueatiful alone).
GRISELDA (grey then battle... but this makes her sound like a witch doesn't it),
ATHENA (greek goddess of wisdom, since she reads alot),
HELEN (Torch, becuase Claes... nevermind),
PACIFICA (peacemaker, becuase Claes is a pacifist and doesn't like fighting)
BELLATRIX (female warrior... although I think this suits Triela better),
OLIVIA (Olive)

Zelda will only ever remind me of the Game. Link is my hero..

sasahara17 wrote:

West Nile wrote:if that's the case... someone give me a nice name that i could rename Claes with. if i pick your given name il use it in my next fanfic ^_^

Freda! *bonks head on cieling*
Owie. Okay, seriously, how anout something like...
ZELDA (luck in yiddish, but she don't seem very lucky),
CALANTHE (bueatiful flower, becuase Claes is bueatiful alone).
GRISELDA (grey then battle... but this makes her sound like a witch doesn't it),
ATHENA (greek goddess of wisdom, since she reads alot),
HELEN (Torch, becuase Claes... nevermind),
PACIFICA (peacemaker, becuase Claes is a pacifist and doesn't like fighting)
BELLATRIX (female warrior... although I think this suits Triela better),
OLIVIA (Olive)

Alryt we gor "Olivia Calanthe" from Sasahara, any one else?

Rosalia - St. Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, Sicily.

Rosalia sounds nice *noted*. got a family name for her?

We got a Rosalia ??? from Danjo, any one else?

West Nile wrote:Rosalia sounds nice *noted*. got a family name for her?

Rosalia Brancia. There’s no significance to the last name, it just sounded Italian.

West Nile wrote:Just wondering. if the girls are going undercover, would it be ok give them their old names. Like if ever Claes is meant to go undercover in a school can her ID read Fleda Johanson?

The handlers and the girls are fratello, thus they have become 'Brother & Sister'. This has to happen not just on the conditioning level, but also on the paper/identity level. Thus:
Henrietta & Rico become Henrietta & Rico Croche, from their brothers Jean and Jose Croche.
Triela becomes Triela Hartman from Victor Hartman (Hillshire's real name)
Angelica becomes Angelica Tongi from Marco Tongi (seen different spellings of his name).
Elsa di Sica, as I always speculated came from Lauro di Sica.

In following this, Claes would have Rabello's last name, but would have erased it upon her third and final rewrite.

Petrushka would have Alessandro's last name in following this trend.

In the real world, they would have paper identities, and the authroities would act accordingly if they were to ever run into one of them. Besides basic 'school id' (The SWA Academy of Gifted Children), they would have the basic Italian Registry ID (thanks to the SWA), with an emergency contact number (If Lost, please call...)

But thats just me trying to make all this as real as possible.

ElfenMagix wrote:Petrushka would have Alessandro's last name in following this trend.

I'm not too sure about this one, considering they always seem to find themselves making out on missions...

Nachtsider wrote:

ElfenMagix wrote:Petrushka would have Alessandro's last name in following this trend.

I'm not too sure about this one, considering they always seem to find themselves making out on missions...

How was it said on the Rocky Horro Picture Show?
Incest is Best!
*PUKES!*

ElfenMagix wrote:Incest is Best!
*PUKES!*

*completely high on sugar from cookies and doughnuts and not of a right mind* Incest? Petra and 'Sandro? *hic* What are you talking about? I thought they were married! Aren't they on honeymoon right now? *passes out*

Veronica for West.

emperor wrote:Veronica for West.

noted, got a family name?

West Nile wrote:

emperor wrote:Veronica for West.

noted, got a family name?

Nope,I just found this name somewhere.

:bball:

The names peraphs for my search became from:

Marco = Marco Togni= italian name

Jose (Giuse) = Giuseppe or Gioseffo Croce - Sicilian

Jean = Gianni or Giacomo ( like Giacomo Casanova) Croce - Sicilian

Triela = Katriela? (German name) but for italian version of manga Triela became Doriella that is not ad italian name or other countries.

Henrietta = She is a italian (from Rome) but isn't an italian name! This name comes from Enrica and is perhaps "Enrichetta" (little Enrica for italian language) that with translitteration became Henrietta

Rico= this is a strange name because is a male name and perhaps became from Enrico (?)

Angelica- Angelina = Italian name but for many fans Angelina became from Evangeline.

Beatrice = is the name of love of Dante, an italian poet that he has write the "Divine commedy"

Elsa= the surname de Sica became from Vittorio de Sica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_De_Sica) a famous director and actor of italy, famous in ither countries too.

Lauro= like Lauro in italy there are : Achille lauro (famous political and gunner), a transatlantic or in province of Avellino there is a little city. For me lauro became from this.

Bernando: Italian name

Alessandro= Italian name ( perhaps became from Alexander the Great or is a generic search of italian name)

Ferri: italian surname

Gabrielli: italian Surname

Croce: italian surname, from Sicily

the name Henrietta is old German, it is the female form of Henry,i think it means home ruler or something like that !

Oh, Katriela sounds so pretty~

Rico Croce wrote:
Triela = Katriela? (German name) but for italian version of manga Triela became Doriella that is not ad italian name or other countries.

Katriela? That´s a cool name! are you sure that it´s German?

I´ve found that:

Katriela - Hebrew, “brave; honorable”

Still it sounds pretty awesome ^0^

Rico Croce wrote:
Triela = Katriela?

We say "Katharina" in many versions, like Kathrin, Karin or Katja. But Katriela isn't a regular Version of this.
Maybe Triela is a fictional name... cause "Tri" and "la" sounds like Italian.

Rico comes from Enrico, yes, and it's a typical short form in Italy or Spain.
Henrietta = Henriette, also a German name too.

I know a Dutch girl called Triela, who tells me that there are other girls in her country with the name, so there sort of is a real-world basis for it.

I Say Triela's name is an "intalianisation" of the spanish name Trella which means Star.

As a side note : while browsing the databases of new born names looking for it's origin, i found that many babies in 2007 had the name Triela xD.
would you call your kid henrietta or triella? maybe the first for me xp

I heard the name Triela before. Interesting, when it's giving really.

Anyway, my kid get the name Rico. As girl or boy.

No matter what the Italians say, I think Rico is a sweet name for a girl.

Triela, on the other hand, is a very unique and hard to find
name, and leads me to believe that Hillshire picked it out very
carefully, as one would expect of ze German. It also fits perfectly, if
I'm right about it being a feminine pet form of 'Tyrrell'

As in "Tyrell Corporation"?

It would be interesting to compare the girls with the Nexus-6 Replicants.

At least the girls don't dream of electric sheep...

It also fits perfectly, if I'm right about it being a feminine pet form of 'Tyrrell'

Yes it does.

There's an Elvish female name variously spelled as Tyrael or Tiriel, for what it's worth. It's that of a lunar goddess, who's also dubbed 'The Silent Guardian'.

Nachtsider wrote:There's an Elvish female name variously spelled as Tyrael or Tiriel, for what it's worth. It's that of a lunar goddess, who's also dubbed 'The Silent Guardian'.

'Silent Guardian' would be a cool nickname for the SWA.

seems the name is in use in the world !

http://names.whitepages.com/first/Triela

Yup, I noted the whole 'in use' thing earlier in the thread. Personally met someone called Triela, though it wasn't in the States.

ever since GSG ive pretty much decided my first girl will be called Henrietta.

Rico dosnt sound too much like a boys name to me, even though there are a few male rico's where i live