If that is your real name.....

[on:]

Who do you think should change their name on the show? Leela? Fry? Bender? Hermes? Zoidberg?
 

[Reply #1 on:]

I'ld say Bender, because there are so many bending units, I'm sure that name isn't exactly individual.

[Reply #2 on:]

I really think Yancy.
It is an odd name, but but wait!
It's original. Um.. i can't change my vote but i'll change my opinion.
Amy. They should give her a name that is Chinese-ish in a way. Maybe MayLing or something!Hears Boo-ing.Hey I try!

[Reply #3 on:]

I voted Bender from what Cass said.

[Reply #4 on:]

 

Originally posted by spacemonkey:
Amy. They should give her a name that is Chinese-ish in a way. Maybe MayLing or something!

I think that you mean Mei Ling, and no they shouldn't.

The reason that Amy doesn't have a Chinese given name is that she's not from China.  She's Chinese-American.*  You know how immigrants usually give their kids American-sounding names?  Well, this is a thousand years of cultural assimilation later.  I mean, her parents are named Leo and Inez.  It really wouldn't make sense for her to have a Chinese given name.

* Or Chinese-Earthican, or Chinese-Martian.  Whatever.

[Reply #5 on:]

 

Originally posted by killbot4000:
I voted Bender from what Cass said.

Wow, somebody shares my opinion 

[Reply #6 on:]

 

Originally posted by Cass:
 Wow, somebody shares my opinion   

someone else does too!

[Reply #7 on:]

i'm kinda surprised no one in Leela's life ever called her Tori. It would make sense. Tori short for Turanga which for the first 28 years of her life she thought was her first name.

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Originally posted by David A:
 I think that you mean Mei Ling, and no they shouldn't.

The reason that Amy doesn't have a Chinese given name is that she's not from China.  She's Chinese-American.*  You know how immigrants usually give their kids American-sounding names?  Well, this is a thousand years of cultural assimilation later.  I mean, her parents are named Leo and Inez.  It really wouldn't make sense for her to have a Chinese given name.

* Or Chinese-Earthican, or Chinese-Martian.  Whatever.

I agree, maybe they're Jewish/Chinese/Martian and the first name honors another part of their heritage.
As for Mr. Rodriguez, I'm not sure of how many Benders there are out there. We have seen tons of robots on the show and haven't seen another Bender. Besides, the next bending unit off the line was named Flexo, so maybe the names  are unique. Besides even if there are more Benders, there's only one Bender Bending Rodriguez!

[Reply #9 on:]

Probably Bender because that can just sound wrong if you put it in the wrong place in a sentence.

[Reply #10 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
i'm kinda surprised no one in Leela's life ever called her Tori. It would make sense. Tori short for Turanga which for the first 28 years of her life she thought was her first name.

But who would have called her that?  She didn't really have any friends until she met Fry.  She just went by what she thought was her surname at work, and by the time she did make friends that was what she was used to being called anyway.

 

Originally posted by Harry Sach:
I agree, maybe they're Jewish/Chinese/Martian and the first name honors another part of their heritage.

Jewish?  None of them have Jewish names.  Anyway, you're missing the point.  I don't think that their given names honor any part of their heritage.  A thousand years from now, being Chinese won't be any different from being German-American, or Polish-American, or whatever.  They may be ethnically Chinese, but cuturally they're no different from Fry.

[Reply #11 on:]

Then why do her parents have bad Cantonese-American accents?

[Reply #12 on:]

Because it's funny?

[Reply #13 on:]

You have a point, but I believe you've deviated from your original line of reasoning there.

[Reply #14 on:]

Okay, so maybe they aren't 100% cuturally assimilated, but I still don't think that their given names reflect anything about their heritage.  I mean, Inez is a Spanish name, isn't it?

Anyway, her parents may have accents, but Amy doesn't.  She talks like a typical American girl.  Hermes has a Jamaican accent, but no one seems to think that he needs a Jamaican name.

[Reply #15 on:]

Did Leela think Turanga was her given name, and Leela her surname, before she met her parents?  I'm not so sure.  Although we didn't see any way Morris and Munda could have specified that "Turanga" was her family name, I think they must have communicated it somehow, because she went by Leela in the orphanarium, whereas the other kids go/went by their first (given) names. Surely the other orphans wouldn't have missed the opportunity to make fun of her goofy first name if they'd had it....

[Reply #16 on:]

that's what's rather confusing. She was abandoned with a letter no one could translate, a bracelet that (i assume) no one could translate and a name sticker that gave no indication that Turanga was a surname. Yet she for whatever reason went by Leela.

[Reply #17 on:]

I thought of one way - Mr. Vogel or some helpful clerical assistant realized that "Leela" was a better name to be known by on Earth than "Turanga."  He/she recorded her name as "Leela Turanga" and as such she was known until she left the orphanarium.  Then she saw the records pertaining to her admittance and realized it was actually Turanga Leela.  Still, she'd been using "Leela" as a given name all her life and kept doing so.

[Reply #18 on:]

 

Originally posted by Shiny:
Surely the other orphans wouldn't have missed the opportunity to make fun of her goofy first name if they'd had it....

I think that they were to busy making fun of her eye to make fun of her name.

[Reply #19 on:]

Bullies are never too busy to expand their repertoire.

Trust me on this.

[Reply #20 on:]

I think legally she is still known as Turanga Leela since as we saw on the foot of her bed in CHR the doctors had her admitted as Leela, T. So i doubt the orphanarium directors switched her name around since i doubt Leela would have gone through the trouble of having it legally changed back. Cause that costs money and stuff.

[Reply #21 on:]

 

Originally posted by Shiny:
I thought of one way - Mr. Vogel or some helpful clerical assistant realized that "Leela" was a better name to be known by on Earth than "Turanga."  He/she recorded her name as "Leela Turanga" and as such she was known until she left the orphanarium.  Then she saw the records pertaining to her admittance and realized it was actually Turanga Leela.

Maybe he didn't actually change her name, but he just always called her Leela, so everyone else did too.  She might not have even known what her full name was until she left.

[Reply #22 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
I think legally she is still known as Turanga Leela.... So i doubt the orphanarium directors switched her name around since i doubt Leela would have gone through the trouble of having it legally changed back. Cause that costs money and stuff.

It might not be hard or cost much in the future.  And anyway, maybe legally it was always Turanga Leela, but in the orphanarium's records, it was Leela Turanga.

*Shiny thinks her theory is just...shiny!* 

[Reply #23 on:]

It's true most Chinese who are born or has resided in Western Countries pretty much all have western first names. Actually even people who live in say Hong Kong Taiwan...etc have Western Names, its called westernisation.

However they also have Chinese names too. But it's put on the second place. For example Vivian chow Wai-Man. Vivian is the Western Name, Chow; the surname remains Chinese just in Roman letters version for the west to be able to read the name, then after the Chinese Name. But very often she is just referred as Vivian Chow in western version of her name and so are other Chinese people.

Amy and her parents may have Chinese name attached to them, but probably they never show it, anyway the Amy character is not very elaborated before they ended the show so…

[Reply #24 on:]

Okay.....So I was wrong about the Amy one.
Bender, I think Bender.
He should have been named.....
Something else......
But not Bender.
Maybe they should have done something a little more DARK. He is kinda evil. Something like. EvilBot!!!!
Evilbot will rule you!

[Reply #25 on:]

Evilbot?  That's a stupid name.  You're stupid.

 

Originally posted by mint:
Amy and her parents may have Chinese name attached to them, but probably they never show it, anyway the Amy character is not very elaborated before they ended the show so…

Yeah, I suppose it's possible they have other names.  It's needlessly complicated, and it would probably never actually come up on the show, but it's possible.

Or maybe their names are just what they said they were.   

[Reply #26 on:]

When she says they might have chinese names attached to them i think what she means is middle names. When most people introduce themselves they don't usually mention their middle names but that doesn't mean they don't have them. I don't introduce myself as Venus Ann *last name deleted for security purposes*.

[Reply #27 on:]

 

Originally posted by David A:
 Jewish?  None of them have Jewish names.  Anyway, you're missing the point.  I don't think that their given names honor any part of their heritage.  A thousand years from now, being Chinese won't be any different from being German-American, or Polish-American, or whatever.  They may be ethnically Chinese, but cuturally they're no different from Fry.

Oh yes, most probably, except I don´t think that in year 3000, overall culture will be so similer to the Fry´s America.


As for the Leela thing- even in "Brannigan begin again" she is reffered as "captain Leela", so it was belived to be her surname. 

[Reply #28 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
When she says they might have chinese names attached to them i think what she means is middle names. When most people introduce themselves they don't usually mention their middle names but that doesn't mean they don't have them. I don't introduce myself as Venus Ann *last name deleted for security purposes*.

Yeah, I'm sure that if they were real people they'd have middle names; but I doubt that the writers bothered to give them middle names.  Fry doesn't even have a middle name, just an initial.

 

Originally posted by Rhodan:
 Oh yes, most probably, except I don´t think that in year 3000, overall culture will be so similer to the Fry´s America.

In real life it won't be, but on Futurama it is.

[Reply #29 on:]

Even if the writers havn't given them middle names yet it isn't like it would be that hard for them to do it if they wanted to. Seymore wasn't planned from the begining they conjuered him up when they decided it would be a good idea. Same with middle names. If they wanted to do it they could easily do it.

[Reply #30 on:]

Sure, if they wanted to give them middle names, they could.  I just can't imagine why they'd bother.

Also, if we ever did find out what Amy's parents' middle names were, I'm guessing that the one thing that they wouldn't be is Chinese.

[Reply #31 on:]

I vote BENDER!

[Reply #32 on:]

Yancy I get confused between him and his dad. It's not a great name anyway.

[Reply #33 on:]

I think the only name I have a problem with is Kroker... No idea why.

Bender's name isn't Bonder... It's Bender!

[Reply #34 on:]

hey! that's almost my name. and also my real name! if anyone needs me, i'll be in the angry dome.

hey... i'm a bending unit. that means i can leave the angry dome. *swish*

[Reply #35 on:]

about them having a middle name, no one says they have to have one. my great-grandparents had nine children and only one had a middle name. i have two so there doesn't seem to be any rules.

[Reply #36 on:]

I don't know why I absolutely love Kif's last name of "Kroker," but I do.  It just sounded so perfectly right for him that I didn't even get the frog-related pun ("croaker" ) till I'd seen the Kif eps like three times....

[Reply #37 on:]

zoidberg has a jewish name... just thought i'd throw that out there...

[Reply #38 on:]

 

Originally posted by boiler:
about them having a middle name, no one says they have to have one. my great-grandparents had nine children and only one had a middle name. i have two so there doesn't seem to be any rules.

yeah my dad doesn't have a middle name