Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Civilian names in the Legion

Unlike most other superheroes that have pretty normal names, the Legion can get really wild.
If you get down to it, some of the alien names are pretty weird.

Like "Ranzz": do you even pronounce the second z ?
For whatever reason I've always been fond of the name "Tinya Wazzo"; considering her planet's name has no vowels you'd expect Bgztlians to have far weirder names.

I've never liked the name "Querl Dox", no wonder he barely ever uses it. I can't put my finger on why, but "Vril Dox" worked in a way that Querl doesn't.

There few civilian names that I don't like. "Val Armorr", for example... no objection on Val, but what kind of last name is Armorr? Especially weird if you consider his origin. I also never liked "Condo Arlik".

Speaking of the human names, some are unusual by 20th century standard.
Lyle Norg? I can't even find an origin for the last name "Norg".
Dirk Morgna? Speaking as an Italian, "Morgna" is a plausible Italian surname but it would have a weird pronunciation even in Italy (one that I'm 100% sure no English-speaking person could get right).

Mon-El is the only one with a perfectly fine civilian name but who has a codename that, when you get down to it, really doesn't make any sense. Once he gets his memory back, the only reason why he doesn't simply go back to use "Lar Gand" all the time is that Mon-El sounds much better.

Interesting that, with so many aliens, there are only two unpronounceable ones: Quislet and Gates. Unless you consider "Ti'julk Mr'asz" to be pronounceable.

Other considerations on the civilian names?

Oh I forgot: I didn't call them "secret identities" or we would only talk about the real names of the Kryptonians, Sensor Girl, Sir Prize and Miss Terious :-)

Or "Ayla" for that matter?


I think its an interesting combination of approaches - some names are 'just a little off' from a "normal" Earth name, i.e., Imra, Salu, Tinya. A lot of Sci-fi does that to have names sound recognizable but different enough without having the author inventing a new language. Morgna, I just figured was a deliberate misspelling of "Morgan".

Querl I've always liked as its a letter away from query, which seems apt for Brainy.

It's hard out here for a philologist.

I have to think carefully before I respond because I don?t want to insult anyone. I admit that the names are a little funny, they are meant to be, but I don?t find anything inherently wrong with any of them. I grew up on Legion, my literal bed time stories was my dad reading the old 60?s comics to me, so I was learning Legionnaire names before I was learning a lot of English/Acadian/French names.

To answer your first question I believe Ranzz in pronounced Ran-(like ran to the store.)-zz-(z pronounced z in zebra).

I am the opposite to you, I think Querl Dox is a really cool name and they just call him Brainy 90% of the time because it?s his nickname, I am called my nickname far more than my full first name.

For Val I think his last name was just a pun on Armour because he is a fighter.

Believe it or not Lyle (translates to ?an island?) was actually a common American first name for boys born around 1890-1940 and some famous people in that time had that name, which might be where he got his name from. So his isn?t even made up.

Condo Arlik is a weird name though.

In summary I think most legion names are pretty good, if not just a little goofy, and I would totally name a child Imra, or Lyle, or Mekt, or Ayla

Apparently "Morgna" is the accusative form of the Icelandic word for "morning", which kind of fits, but is probably unintentional.

My guess is that it's mixed up spelling of "Morgan".

I always assumed that the double "z" in "Ranzz" was pronounced like the double "s" in English words--like a single letter.

However, it's fun to speculate on variations. I don't know Italian, but I recall that the name Panozzo (belonging to two members of the group Styx) is pronounced something like "Pa-not-zo." Perhaps "Ranzz" can be pronounced "Rantz."

I never minded "Querl," though it's not as exciting or masculine sounding as "Vril" (which resembles "virile"). I like Gaseous Lad's association of the name with "query." To me, it always looked like "quarrel" (which is also appropriate).

As for the other names, they were an attempt to futurize common English/American names, I think. So Morgna is a "future" version of Morgan (probably because people don't spell check in the future), and "Norg" could be Swedish (Borg, Goteborg). If so, perhaps it's pronounced "nor-ye."

The changes in spelling could also be an evolution of real changes that are going on in our culture. Many of my African American students sport names with variant spellings such as Lakesha, Lakeshia, and Lekesha. I have one student whose name begins with "Tk." She spells it with an apostrophe, but the apostrophe doesn't show up in our learning management system. Perhaps alternate spellings will catch on among people of all backgrounds and cultures. If so, the name "Ti'julk Mr'asz" doesn't seem so unpronounceable. My guess would be "ti joolk mruh-az."