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The Etymology of Matoran Names


Sir Keksalot

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Inspired by this thread, specifically this post:

It was said, most likely somewhere in the OGD, that most of the Matoran names in MNOG2 were actually real names taken from relatively lesser-known languages/cultures. I know Hungarian isn't exactly obscure, but it's not something English speakers are generally familiar with, especially in the US. The thinking was that, since they were already real names, they were less likely to run into legal trouble with trademarks, any more than they were likely to get sued for naming a Matoran "John." Now that I think about it, that was a really dumb idea, since that was basically what got them in such hot water in the first place.

 

It's hard to imagine that the Bohrok were not inspired by the destroyer droids from Phantom Menace.

 

I have always felt that the original defining elements of BIONICLE, specifically the color/element/type system and the collectible mask system, were always a direct response to the Pokemon craze in that era, as many, many toys and TV shows of the time were. Granted, Bionicle was like the third iteration of that response, after Throwbots and Robo-riders. Frankly, I'm surprised that I never hear people discuss this, because I have always considered it to be plainly true. What do you all think?

...I've decided to compile a list of all the origins of the names of the Matoran from early G1, as a lot of them seem to be derived from real words and names. I can't figure out all of them, so I figured we might be able to build this together. Bear in mind that I'll have to work with all characters' original names where possible, and I only intend to list the most likely etymological sources. I'll also include all Toa and Turaga.

 

Ta-Matoran

  • Aft: Albanian; "warmth from a fire."
  • Agni: Sanskrit; "fire," also the name of the Hindu god of fire.
  • Aodhan: Gaelic; "little fire," or a diminutive of the name of the Irish cthonic god Aed.
  • Brander: English; denotes a person who brands something, or marks it with a branding iron.
  • Jala: Rotuman; "to burn."
  • Kapura: Maori; "fire."
  • Kalama: Hawaiian; "the torch."
  • Keahi: Hawaiian; "the fire."
  • Maglya: Hungarian; "pyre."
  • Nuri: Hebrew; "my fire."
  • Tahu: Maori; "to set on fire."
  • Takua (who wasn't initially an Av-Matoran): Maori; "ship." Might also be Swahili for "piety" or "devoutness."
  • Tiribomba: Romanian; "firecracker."
  • Vakama: Fijian; "to burn."
  • Vohon: Ukrainian; "fire."
Ga-Matoran
  • Amaya: Japanese; "night rain."
  • Gali: Gamilaraay or Indonesian; "water."
  • Hali: Finnish; "hug." 'Cuz she's wholesome...?
  • Kai: Hawaiian; "sea." Japanese; "ocean." Estonian or Basque; "pier."
  • Kailani: Hawaiian; "heavenly sea" or "sea and sky."
  • Maku: Maori; "moist" or "moisture." dontmakeajokedontmakeajokedontmakeajoke
  • Marka: Finnish; "wet."
  • Nireta: Greek; "from the sea."
  • Nixie: English; a treacherous water-spirit derived from European folklore.
  • Nokama: ?
  • Okoth: Luo (or some western African language); "born while it is raining."
  • Orkan: Various languages; "whirlwind" or "hurricane."
  • Pelagia: Greek; "of the sea."
  • Shasa: Unknown African language; "precious water."
  • Vhisola: Unknown African language; derived from "Visola," meaning "longings are waterfalls." 
Le-Matoran
  • Boreas: Greek; the name of the god of the north wind.
  • Kongu: Maori; "overcast."
  • Kumo: Japanese; "cloud."
  • Lewa: Hawaiian; "sky" or "air."
  • Makani: Hawaiian; "wind" or "to blow."
  • Matau: Maori; "fishhook," "knowledge," or the Uncinia genus of sedge. Can also mean "right," which Lego may have referenced in LoMN.
  • Sanso: Undertale; a fat skeleton with an added "o." Nah, just kidding, it's Japanese for "oxygen."
  • Shu: Egyptian; the name of the god of air.
  • Taiki: Maori; "wicker basket" or "atmosphere." (He's from the Metru Nui arc, but there seems to be some reasoning behind the name nonetheless.
  • Tamaru: "overcast."
  • Tuuli: Finnish; "wind."
  • Vira: Swedish; "to wind." Possibly a pun on Lego's part.
Po-Matoran
  • Ahkmou: ?
  • Ally: Unknown Celtic language; "stone."
  • Bour: Unknown African language; "rock."
  • Epena: Hawaiian; "stone."
  • Gadjati: Serbo-Croatian; "to shoot" or "to aim for."
  • Golyo: Hungarian; "ball."
  • Hafu: Rotuman; "stone, "brick," or "rocky cape."
  • Huki: Maori or Rapa Nui language; "to strike" or "digging stick," respectively.
  • Kamenrider: Serbo-Croatian; "stone."
  • Kivi: Estonian; "rock."
  • Onewa: Maori; term for a stone adze. Can also refer to basalt.
  • Pekka: Finnish; given name equivalent to "Peter," which is derived from the Greek word "petros," or "stone."
  • Piatra: Romanian; "stone."
  • Podu: Romanian; "bridge."
  • Pohatu: Maori; "stone."
Ko-Matoran
  • Arktinen: Finnish; "Arctic."
  • Ehrye: ?
  • Jaa: Estonian; "ice."
  • Jaatikko: Finnish; "glacier."
  • Kantaicollection: Japanese; "frigid zone."
  • Kokkan: Japanese; "severe cold."
  • Kopaka: Maori; "ice."
  • Kopeke: Maori; "cold" or "coldness."
  • Kylma: Finnish; "cold."
  • Lumi: Estonian; "snow."
  • Matoro: Maori; "to investigate."
  • Nuju: Finnish; derived from "nujuta," or "to play." Possibly a reference to Bionicle as a toy or a nod to Lego's name, which is a Danish portmanteau meaning "play well."
  • Pakastaa: Finnish; "to freeze."
  • Talvi: Finnish; "winter."
  • Toudo: Japanese; "frozen soil."
Onu-Matoran
  • Aiyetoro: Nigerian; "peace on Earth," most likely a pun.
  • Akamu: Hawaiian; a surname.
  • Azibo: Egyptian; "earth."
  • Damek: Czech; a diminutive of "Adam."
  • Dosne: Unknown Celtic language; "from the sand hill."
  • Gar: ok this is from '07 but THEY LITERALLY NAMED HIM AFTER A FISH AOIDNEOWHEFSDFISEFUB
  • Kaj: Swedish; "quay," which is apparently a word. Also a Danish derivative of the Latin name "Gaius," which is taken from "Gaia," the Greek personification of the Earth.
  • Mamru: Japanese; alternate spelling of "Mamoru," or "earth."
  • Midak: possibly a misspelling of the Greek name "Midas," linking gold to his use of lightstones. Note that this name was only retroactively assigned to this character in '08.
  • Nuparu: ?
  • Onepu: Maori; "sandy" or "sand."
  • Onua: Unknown African language; "earth and strength."
  • Haf--er, Taipu: Maori; "dune."
  • Tehutti: Egyptian; derived from "Tehuti," an alternate name for the god Thoth. Some baby name sites misattribute him as a god of the Earth, sky, and sea.
  • Whenua: Maori; "ground."
  • Zemya: Serbo-Croatian; "Earth," referring to the planet.
Other/Non-Matoran
  • Graalok: ?
  • Puku: Maori; "stomach." Could be a nod to the fact that crabs are commonly eaten as seafood.
  • Akamai: Hawaiian; "clever." Ironically, this makes more sense for Wairuha, who embodied wisdom where Akamai is valor.
  • Wairuha: Derived from the Maori word "wairua," or "soul."
  • Makuta: Javanese; "crown," referencing his megalomania.
  • Umbra: Latin; "shadow." Probably a joke by Lego. (Yes, he's from '06, but it's too conspicuous not to mention.)
  • Wairuha: ?
Should I make these threads for places and Rahi, too? Let me know if you'd like to see that or if you know where any of these names really come from. Edited by Black Six
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Hahli didn’t exist, to my knowledge, when they named Jala.

 

Edit: I tried translating “matau” from Maori using Google Translate and got “right.” Remember what Turaga Matau said about going left?

Edited by Cheesy Mac n Cheese
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I'm curious that you didn't include Takua on the list. Apparently, his name means 'ship' in Maori (at least according to Google translate, which I... don't always trust), and can mean piety or devoutness in Swahili... though I'm not exactly seeing the connection in either of those cases. Maybe it has more meanings in other languages, but I didn't check further.

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This is a great list man! It's really interesting to see the wide breadth of the cultural influences. I'm kinda thinking that they used a large pool of Maori words for obvious reasons and filled out the rest with random words from the native languages of Lego's foreign employees who were in on the project. I'll try to find out the meanings of some of the unknown names.

 

Cheers for putting this together!

 

:kakama:

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:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

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I never realized how much they drew from Japanese for the Le-Matoran. Kumo is Japanese for "cloud," Sanso means "oxygen," and Taiki means "atmosphere," although "wicker basket" is not inappropriate either.

 

Same for the Ko-Matoran. Kokkan means "severe cold," and Toudo means "frozen soil."

 

Mamru was also spelled as Mamoru, which means "protect."

 

Hafu surely comes from an unrelated Maori word, not Japanese.

 

Agni always reminded me of Agunimon, who was a fire character from Digimon.

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I also don’t think LEGO had anything to do with MNOLGII Matoran names except for A) returning Matoran and B) Matoran that were getting names the next year (though Tehutti is rendered as “Tehuti,” Nuhrii as “Nuri” and Orkahm as “Orkan” in the game, suggesting Templar either made errors or got preliminary names for them).

Edited by Cheesy Mac n Cheese

My friend went to Po-Wahi and all I got was this lousy rock.

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Blue sea...a Ruki leaps...the sound of water

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Hahli didn’t exist, to my knowledge, when they named Jala.

 

Edit: I tried translating “matau” from Maori using Google Translate and got “right.” Remember what Turaga Matau said about going left?

 

 

I'm curious that you didn't include Takua on the list. Apparently, his name means 'ship' in Maori (at least according to Google translate, which I... don't always trust), and can mean piety or devoutness in Swahili... though I'm not exactly seeing the connection in either of those cases. Maybe it has more meanings in other languages, but I didn't check further.

 

 

I never realized how much they drew from Japanese for the Le-Matoran. Kumo is Japanese for "cloud," Sanso means "oxygen," and Taiki means "atmosphere," although "wicker basket" is not inappropriate either.

 

Same for the Ko-Matoran. Kokkan means "severe cold," and Toudo means "frozen soil."

 

Mamru was also spelled as Mamoru, which means "protect."

 

Hafu surely comes from an unrelated Maori word, not Japanese.

 

Agni always reminded me of Agunimon, who was a fire character from Digimon.

Thanks for the input, guys. I'll update the list with this stuff. Glad you found this interesting, because I stayed up way too late researching this.

 

Regarding Hafu's name, I think it's totally original. As in, his very name is another Hafu original. Now, if you excuse me, I need to recover from the physical pain that realization has caused me.

Edited by Sir Keksalot
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Rule #1: Always listen to Kek.

Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't.

Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER"

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I feel I should mention that "Midak" was the name of the Phantoka Toa's light blasters first, and Greg later on retroactively named that particular Onu-Matoran that. The Midas reference still works, though, just in regard to the light blasts of the weapons as opposed to the lightstones way back when.

 

Great work compiling this, though! I distinctly remember a lot of the Matoran names in MNOGII behind words from other languages, and it's nice to have that exact information all in one place. Neither one is a Matoran, obviously, but I recall the names "Puku" (before it was changed to Pewku for the legal renaming thing) and "Makuta" also have Maori roots, though I can't recall what exactly those roots are.

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I feel I should mention that "Midak" was the name of the Phantoka Toa's light blasters first, and Greg later on retroactively named that particular Onu-Matoran that. The Midas reference still works, though, just in regard to the light blasts of the weapons as opposed to the lightstones way back when.

 

Great work compiling this, though! I distinctly remember a lot of the Matoran names in MNOGII behind words from other languages, and it's nice to have that exact information all in one place. Neither one is a Matoran, obviously, but I recall the names "Puku" (before it was changed to Pewku for the legal renaming thing) and "Makuta" also have Maori roots, though I can't recall what exactly those roots are.

Thanks, didn't know that. I'll update the OP with the relevant bit about Midak.

 

I would like to visit the names of other characters, things, and places in early G1 sometime in the future; I just figured the subject was best split up by subject type.

Rule #1: Always listen to Kek.

Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't.

Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER"

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Edit: I tried translating “matau” from Maori using Google Translate and got “right.” Remember what Turaga Matau said about going left?

Did he say that in the first few years? For that to have been the cause of Matau's name, it would have to have been thought up back at Bionicle's start as Matau was a 2001 character. Maybe it's just a big coincidence?

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I'm curious that you didn't include Takua on the list. Apparently, his name means 'ship' in Maori (at least according to Google translate, which I... don't always trust), and can mean piety or devoutness in Swahili... though I'm not exactly seeing the connection in either of those cases. Maybe it has more meanings in other languages, but I didn't check further.

This is just a guess, but the word "ship" in Maori could have connotations of exploration or travel, which would fit Takua well.

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I think there are some Polynesian names that you're missing: Pohatu is stone/rocky in Maori, for example. 

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Wants: 2003 Jaller (from Jaller and Gukko), Exo-Toa, Turaga Nuju, Turaga Vakama, Shadow Kraata, Axonn, Brutaka, Vezon & Fenrakk, Nocturn, ORANGE FIKOU.

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Edit: I tried translating “matau” from Maori using Google Translate and got “right.” Remember what Turaga Matau said about going left?

Did he say that in the first few years? For that to have been the cause of Matau's name, it would have to have been thought up back at Bionicle's start as Matau was a 2001 character. Maybe it's just a big coincidence?

I just thought it was funny, so I pointed it out. It’s probably an inaccurate translation, but who knows? Maybe Greg noticed it and threw in the “right” thing as a pun or something.

My friend went to Po-Wahi and all I got was this lousy rock.

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I'm curious that you didn't include Takua on the list. Apparently, his name means 'ship' in Maori (at least according to Google translate, which I... don't always trust), and can mean piety or devoutness in Swahili... though I'm not exactly seeing the connection in either of those cases. Maybe it has more meanings in other languages, but I didn't check further.

This is just a guess, but the word "ship" in Maori could have connotations of exploration or travel, which would fit Takua well.

 

For me, Google Translate gives 'ship' as 'kaipuke' in Maori.

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 It might also be worth noting that Umbras name from 2006 is Latin for shadow which kind of makes no sense

If I recall correctly that is a deliberate choice in universe to mess with those who entered combat with him by hiding his actual powers.

Edited by Toa Jaxus
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Shu can also mean "tree" in Chinese, although I think the Egyptian god interpretation is more likely since all the others are air-themed.

 

I'm finding a lot of the missing ones just by Googling "X name meaning."

 

A quick Google search shows that Aodhan is a Celtic/Gaelic/Irish name meaning "fire" or "little fire." It's the diminutive form of Aodh, the Celtic sun god, and also the origin of the name Aidan. Lots more information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidan_(name)

 

Tiribomba (tiribombă) appears to be a Romanian word which usually refers to carnival rides but can also translate to "firecracker." I don't know Romanian, but online dictionaries tell me that "tir" means "fire, shooting," and "bomba" obviously is "bomb."

 

The Ukrainian word vohon' (вогонь) means "fire."

 

Nuri is a name from Hebrew meaning "my fire." According to Wikipedia it means "my light" in Arabic and is a common name in Turkey.

 

Okoth is an African name meaning "born while it was raining." The baby name dictionaries are frustratingly nonspecific about the language it comes from, but they say it's Ugandan (which is a country, not a language). One source says it's from the Luo dialect.

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For me, Google Translate gives 'ship' as 'kaipuke' in Maori.

 

I did it the other way around... put 'Takua' in, told google that it was (possibly) Maori, and it returned 'ship'. But, like I said, I don't always trust Google translate, so I can't guarantee it's correct.

Edited by Darth Jaller

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I'm growing more convinced that the MNOG2 devs just looked up a bunch of names in an off-the-shelf baby name dictionary.

 

One book says that Shasa is an African name meaning "precious water," Nixie is German and means "water sprite," and Visola is African and means "longings are waterfalls." Pretty obvious that Vhisola comes from Visola (even though Visola was not used in the game).

 

The same book lists Anakin as an "American" name meaning "warrior"... wow...

 

Apparently Kailani in Hawaiian means "sea and sky."

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For me, Google Translate gives 'ship' as 'kaipuke' in Maori.

 

I did it the other way around... put 'Takua' in, told google that it was (possibly) Maori, and it returned 'ship'. But, like I said, I don't always trust Google translate, so I can't guarantee it's correct.

 

Oddly, 'Takua' (not just 'takua') does produce 'Ship', but then 'ship' and 'Ship' into Maori both produce 'kaipuke' and 'Tuhinga', then maoridictionary.co.nz doesn't return anything for 'takua' and gives 'ship' as 'kaipuke'. So I'm fairly sure 'takua' doesn't have a clear or exact Maori meaning.

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Takua's name was introduced post-Maori intervention, so it's super unlikely they were drawing from Maori or any other language for him. Templar's stuff in mnogII aside, Lego totally ceased with cribbing names from real-world cultures from mid 2001 onward. I'd assume they settled on Takua just because it sounded similar enough to the words they were using for other characters' names - same way "Bohrok" or "Matoran" presumably came about. Same goes for Podu, Nuparu, Hahli - and any words/characters 2002 onward outside of mnogii.

 

There's a good Excel sheet that covers a lot of word origins for Bionicle - names for characters as well as locations, creatures, masks, etc. It was done by either Aanchir or Lyichir, or maybe both, I'm afraid I don't remember! Either way, here it is.

 

It resolves a few questions in this thread:

 

- Hafu (along with several of the original names) is from Rotuman, not Maori. Means "rock, stone, brick, iron, jewel"

- Jala is Rotuman, "to burn, set fire to; to flare up"

 

- Amaya is Japanese, "night rain"

- Ally is Celtic, "stone"

- Bour is "rock" in an unspecified African language

 

Among a handful of other things. It's kind of ridiculous Templar was not only allowed by Lego to pull the same stunt Lego got in trouble for in 2001 again in 2003, but that Lego went ahead and used a couple of the names for the 04 Matoran (even if they were made legally distinct through adjustments to the spelling.) Of course I love Templar's work, but this really is not their best look. 

Edited by Peri
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Takua's name was introduced post-Maori intervention, so it's super unlikely they were drawing from Maori or any other language for him.

Are you sure it was? The name appears in MNOLG's last cutscene, and I think Greg said the character and him becoming a Toa was planned from the start.

 

It's kind of ridiculous Templar was not only allowed by Lego to pull the same stunt Lego got in trouble for in 2001 again in 2003, but that Lego went ahead and used a couple of the names for the 04 Matoran (even if they were made legally distinct through adjustments to the spelling.)

I don't think it was quite the same, as the MNOLG 2 names didn't appear outside the game (which only Bionicle fans knew about), whereas the 2001 words were used on physical products and paperwork.

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A few things in that spreadsheet are dubious... I can't find any evidence that Tiribomba is Spanish, for example. I wasn't sure about Amaya meaning night rain at first, but it turns out that it is in fact a female given name in Japanese, and its kanji do mean "rain night."

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Among a handful of other things. It's kind of ridiculous Templar was not only allowed by Lego to pull the same stunt Lego got in trouble for in 2001 again in 2003, but that Lego went ahead and used a couple of the names for the 04 Matoran (even if they were made legally distinct through adjustments to the spelling.) Of course I love Templar's work, but this really is not their best look.

 

I don't know... writers often tend to use foreign names for characters, don't they? I haven't seen anyone get in trouble for it in other contexts, so I'm not really sure I can see the harm in Templar doing that thing too; especially when it seems like they put a lot of research into the meanings. I thought it only caused major offence with Maori because Lego inadvertently used words that had culturally special or religious significance?

 

I didn't know Takua's name wasn't settled on until after that, though; that's interesting! I knew it wasn't mentioned until right at the very end of MNOG, but I assumed Lego had had it in mind at all times. Then again, I do remember the rumour that he was named 'George' for most of his life up to that point, so I guess it does make sense ^^

Edited by Darth Jaller

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Takua's name was introduced post-Maori intervention, so it's super unlikely they were drawing from Maori or any other language for him.

Are you sure it was? The name appears in MNOLG's last cutscene, and I think Greg said the character and him becoming a Toa was planned from the start.

Takua is first named in Quest for the Toa, which came out on October 3rd. Maui Solomon contacted Lego sometime before June.

 

The tricky part is that QftT does indeed use a few Maori, Fijian, and other cultures' words that hadn't cropped up in any media before. They might have been grandfathered in, since the game's development had already been rolling with them. But weirdly, we already see in the July version of the Legend of Mata Nui that they were actively scrubbing that game of appropriated words (only references to "villagers," Tamariki becomes Nobua). In any case, it's clear that from June onward, Lego was not taking new words from any cultures (again, MNOGII aside).

 

So it's a question of at what point and by whom "Takua" was conceived - and by extension, whether he was one of the grandfathered-in words. Which we don't have a concrete answer for. BUT: while MNOG had its protagonist from January, Templar internally called him George for what seems to have been most of development. This also appears to have been the case with Quest for the Toa, which has a cheat code (evilgeorge) that makes the player character all dark blue. Based on that, I would argue the name "Takua" (if not his role as a character, which is a whole matter of its own) was almost certainly coined after the Maori intervention. In which case, it would have been an original word created at Lego, even though it accompanies some appropriated words in the game it debuts.

 

And I also kind of think this just because we haven't found a convincing source for the name. But that could change! 

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Good job, guys, I've combined some of these findings with my own research to fill out the list. Keep in mind that even if a source seems dubious (like a lot of the baby name sites I found), it still explains where Lego got the idea, since they may not have necessarily been checking the veracity of their sources, since that's not too important for them. We're almost there, boys!

 

Among a handful of other things. It's kind of ridiculous Templar was not only allowed by Lego to pull the same stunt Lego got in trouble for in 2001 again in 2003, but that Lego went ahead and used a couple of the names for the 04 Matoran (even if they were made legally distinct through adjustments to the spelling.) Of course I love Templar's work, but this really is not their best look. 

I mean, there was nothing wrong with Lego doing that in the first place. If anything, it's the folks who sued Lego who are in the wrong here and not Templar, since they're kind of hypocritical for going after Lego but not Templar when both parties committed the same "offense" of cultural appropriation.

Edited by Sir Keksalot

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Takua's name was introduced post-Maori intervention, so it's super unlikely they were drawing from Maori or any other language for him.

Are you sure it was? The name appears in MNOLG's last cutscene, and I think Greg said the character and him becoming a Toa was planned from the start.

 

Takua is first named in Quest for the Toa, which came out on October 3rd. Maui Solomon contacted Lego sometime before June.

 

The tricky part is that QftT does indeed use a few Maori, Fijian, and other cultures' words that hadn't cropped up in any media before. They might have been grandfathered in, since the game's development had already been rolling with them. But weirdly, we already see in the July version of the Legend of Mata Nui that they were actively scrubbing that game of appropriated words (only references to "villagers," Tamariki becomes Nobua). In any case, it's clear that from June onward, Lego was not taking new words from any cultures (again, MNOGII aside).

 

So it's a question of at what point and by whom "Takua" was conceived - and by extension, whether he was one of the grandfathered-in words. Which we don't have a concrete answer for. BUT: while MNOG had its protagonist from January, Templar internally called him George for what seems to have been most of development. This also appears to have been the case with Quest for the Toa, which has a cheat code (evilgeorge) that makes the player character all dark blue. Based on that, I would argue the name "Takua" (if not his role as a character, which is a whole matter of its own) was almost certainly coined after the Maori intervention. In which case, it would have been an original word created at Lego, even though it accompanies some appropriated words in the game it debuts.

 

And I also kind of think this just because we haven't found a convincing source for the name. But that could change!

 

You're probably right, like I said above, 'Takua' really doesn't seem to be a Maori word. Lego probably came up with it themselves.

 

If anything, it's the folks who sued Lego who are in the wrong here and not Templar, since they're kind of hypocritical for going after Lego but not Templar when both parties committed the same "offense" of cultural appropriation.

As I said before, the MNOLG 2 names weren't used to the same extent that the first Bionicle ones were (so I doubt anyone actually noticed the second time), plus it was just one or two names from a whole load of different languages rather than lots from just one, so there wasn't one group of people to get angry about it. That might've been intentional by Templar to avoid repeating what happened the first time.

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To be honest, I find the whole Maori name thing to be rather ridiculous. Fiction uses foreign words for names all the time. Why is one language more sacred than all the others? The only thing that was insensitive at any level was “Tohunga” which has multiple meanings, all of them used in high regard (“priest,” “expert,” “professional” etc.), and LEGO used it for the helpless villagers (who, I’d like to point out, weren’t actually so helpless after all). And notice that’s the first name they pulled and replaced. The individual Matoran names were used through the entirety of 2002 and to the end of the Bohrok-Kal saga, if I remember correctly.

 

And as this list points out, many were never phased out at all. Terms like “Mata Nui” were used all the way until the serials stopped in 2011, and terms like “Toa” were used as recently as 2016, and no one seems to have batted an eye.

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To be honest, I find the whole Maori name thing to be rather ridiculous. Fiction uses foreign words for names all the time. Why is one language more sacred than all the others?

Well, I think Lego should at least have checked whether it was okay to use other people's words before they actually did.

 

And as this list points out, many were never phased out at all. Terms like “Mata Nui” were used all the way until the serials stopped in 2011, and terms like “Toa” were used as recently as 2016, and no one seems to have batted an eye.

I guess the terms were too established to be changed, apart from 'Tohunga', and the agreement with the Maori was probably that Lego wouldn't use more of their words in future.

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Well, I think Lego should at least have checked whether it was okay to use other people's words before they actually did.

Why? A language is public domain. Names are constantly borrowed and nobody cared until this happened.

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To be honest, I find the whole Maori name thing to be rather ridiculous. Fiction uses foreign words for names all the time. Why is one language more sacred than all the others?

Well, I think Lego should at least have checked whether it was okay to use other people's words before they actually did.

 

Nobody owns culture, though. Nobody owns language unless it's copyrighted. It's "ok" for Lego to use words from other languages; what wouldn't be ok is if they did that and made the Matoran into skirt-wearing savages with broken speech or what have you. They didn't, though. They just took inspiration from another culture--something it's very hard not to do when creating worlds. If anything, it's good to expose kids to facets of other cultures to get them interested.

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Nobody owns culture, though. Nobody owns language unless it's copyrighted. It's "ok" for Lego to use words from other languages; what wouldn't be ok is if they did that and made the Matoran into skirt-wearing savages with broken speech or what have you. They didn't, though. They just took inspiration from another culture--something it's very hard not to do when creating worlds. If anything, it's good to expose kids to facets of other cultures to get them interested.

This reminds me: it’s not like they kept the inspiration secret, either. Lego.com (not bionicle.com) circa 2001 had a “behind the scenes of BIONICLE” section where they showed pictures of prototypes and stuff, like those unused mask designs and that one googly-eyed monstrosity. They also talked about how real-world culture served as inspiration and mentioned Pacific island culture (I specifically remember Easter Island mentioned, which apparently has ancent ties to the Maori people).

 

I wonder if it’s on the Wayback Machine...

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Why? A language is public domain.

Nobody owns culture, though. Nobody owns language unless it's copyrighted.

The Maori language may not be owned in the strict sense of copyright, but the Maoris own it in as much as they (or their ancestors) created it and it isn't spoken or used by any other bunch of people. And they were clearly bothered that their language (a big part of their cultural heritage) was being taken by a toy company for their plastic building products without any consultation.

 

what wouldn't be ok is if they did that and made the Matoran into skirt-wearing savages with broken speech or what have you. They didn't, though.

Well it would be okay actually, as Lego created and own the Matoran, and the Matoran aren't real beings, so Lego can portray them however they like.

 

They just took inspiration from another culture--something it's very hard not to do when creating worlds.

There's a difference between taking inspiration to create something clearly different, and taking something without changing it at all.

 

Lego probably took inspiration from the Aliens xenomorphs and facehuggers for the 2002 enemies, but they didn't actually call the 2002 enemies 'xenomorphs' and 'facehuggers', they called them 'Bohrok' and 'Krana'. They made them clearly different from the source of inspiration. That wasn't done with the 2001 names, Lego just took and used the Maori words exactly as they were.

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Why? A language is public domain.

Nobody owns culture, though. Nobody owns language unless it's copyrighted.

The Maori language may not be owned in the strict sense of copyright, but the Maoris own it in as much as they (or their ancestors) created it and it isn't spoken or used by any other bunch of people. And they were clearly bothered that their language (a big part of their cultural heritage) was being taken by a toy company for their plastic building products without any consultation.

 

There's probably hundreds of works of fiction that lift names, ideas, and even specific folkloric/religious characters straight from other cultures, and yet those cultures don't bat an eye. There is nothing wrong with this. When you write fiction, you base it on what you know or what exists unless you're actively trying to make something hard to relate to. Tolkien ripped off Norse mythology openly and deliberately. There's countless books, movies, games, and comic book characters that outright re-purpose the religious and folkloric history of various cultures (often more than one at once) unabashedly. Artistic and linguistic conventions get ripped off for media all the time. Lots of stories take place in foreign cultural settings.

 

And yet nobody bats an eye save for a vocal minority in most cases. The most notable instance of a culture getting mad over cultural appropriation I can remember from recent years is a vocal minority of Hindus demanding that Hi-Rez take Hindu gods and demons out of Smite, a MOBA based on world mythology. The result: Kali wore more clothes. That's it. Most of the Hindu community apparently didn't care, and there's even a few practitioners of the religion who play the game. Mind you, this is the only recent occurrence I know of where the culture itself got mad. Nowadays, you see a lot of salty Americans on social media get mad when actual members of the culture aren't bothered at all.

 

It's easy to understand why there's so little opposition to this kind of thing when you ask one question: what is the consequence of cultural appropriation? What actually happens as a result, provided it's not done in a way that promotes bigotry or ethnocentrism? Lego and Templar either couldn't come up with really good names or they wanted to have names with meaning, so they turned to existing languages as a result. This is something writers do all the time. How did this really affect the Maori? The result was just that kids were exposed to foreign languages, and now us fans can, as adults, look into and appreciate the etymology of these names and terms. How horrible.

 

You might argue that they were exploited, but they really weren't. If the roles were switched and a company in New Zealand decided to use English words for its IP (which wouldn't make sense because the country's most-spoken language is English, but whatever), how does this affect people who speak English? What do we lose? What happens to us? The answer: nothing, save for the fact that some kids in other countries might learn a few English words and go "huh, neat."

 

what wouldn't be ok is if they did that and made the Matoran into skirt-wearing savages with broken speech or what have you. They didn't, though.

Well it would be okay actually, as Lego created and own the Matoran, and the Matoran aren't real beings, so Lego can portray them however they like.

 

​My point is that then they'd be a possible racist caricature, which is bad because it encourages ethnocentrism. It's the kind of portrayal of other cultures you see a lot in the early days of American animation, especially when trying to paint other countries as the bad guy.

 

They just took inspiration from another culture--something it's very hard not to do when creating worlds.

There's a difference between taking inspiration to create something clearly different, and taking something without changing it at all.

 

Lego probably took inspiration from the Aliens xenomorphs and facehuggers for the 2002 enemies, but they didn't actually call the 2002 enemies 'xenomorphs' and 'facehuggers', they called them 'Bohrok' and 'Krana'. They made them clearly different from the source of inspiration. That wasn't done with the 2001 names, Lego just took and used the Maori words exactly as they were.

 

Except Xenomorphs were created on purpose as art by a person for entertainment. They aren't a centuries- or even millennia-old cultural construct used for everyday matters that was not only created by people long dead, but which has changed so much over time that it's not even the original thing anymore. Xenomorphs are owned. The words "puku" and "kopaka" are not. Again, this is just a practice writers use all the time. I use it, though I haven't really published anything yet.

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There's probably hundreds of works of fiction that lift names, ideas, and even specific folkloric/religious characters straight from other cultures, and yet those cultures don't bat an eye. There is nothing wrong with this. When you write fiction, you base it on what you know or what exists unless you're actively trying to make something hard to relate to. Tolkien ripped off Norse mythology openly and deliberately.

There's nothing wrong with basing a work on something already there, the problems start when you take things exactly as they are, as Lego did with the Maori words. Yes, Tolkien based things on real world mythology, but he didn't actually call his characters 'Odin' or 'Loki', did he?

 

t's easy to understand why there's so little opposition to this kind of thing when you ask one question: what is the consequence of cultural appropriation? What actually happens as a result, provided it's not done in a way that promotes bigotry or ethnocentrism? Lego and Templar either couldn't come up with really good names or they wanted to have names with meaning, so they turned to existing languages as a result. This is something writers do all the time.

I'm not saying it was wrong for Lego to refer to the Maori language at all, obviously you have to start somewhere when coming up with fictional names. I just think that, if they wanted to use the words exactly as they were, they should've (at least) spoken to the Maori about it first to see how they felt about it.

 

How did this really affect the Maori? The result was just that kids were exposed to foreign languages, and now us fans can, as adults, look into and appreciate the etymology of these names and terms. How horrible.

The problem is kids don't know the words are from a real language, they just think of 'Toa', 'Tohunga', 'Kanohi', 'Whenua' etc. as entirely Bionicle words and nothing else. This is what I think the Maori were angry about: their words being rebooted as the words of a fictional people/world for a company's commercial interests without any consideration for how they felt about it.

 

My point is that then they'd be a possible racist caricature, which is bad because it encourages ethnocentrism. It's the kind of portrayal of other cultures you see a lot in the early days of American animation, especially when trying to paint other countries as the bad guy.

But it can't be racist if the group of people portrayed are fictional (and not even human in this case).

 

Except Xenomorphs were created on purpose as art by a person for entertainment. They aren't a centuries- or even millennia-old cultural construct used for everyday matters that was not only created by people long dead, but which has changed so much over time that it's not even the original thing anymore.

The difference doesn't really matter, I was just using this to show the difference between 'taking inspiration from' and 'taking and using it exactly as it is' (as Lego did with the Maori words).

 

Xenomorphs are owned. The words "puku" and "kopaka" are not.

Not legally, but they are owned by the Maori in the cultural sense.

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Here's some I found back in the day when I was researching this stuff:

  • Vākamā (with accent marks) is Fijian for "to burn"
  • Orkahm's original name Orkan (from MNOGII) means hurricane or whirlwind in a whole bunch of languages (Croatian, Danish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, etc).
  • Pekka in Finnish is used as a male given name equivalent which is a cognate of the English name "Peter", which of course ultimately comes from the Greek petros (stone/rock), same as Piatra's Romanian origin.
  • Gar's name in 2007 makes me wonder whether other 2007 Matoran names might be from types of fish — a "Sarda" connection to "sardine" is pretty easy to make, but I haven't found anything else to support this on a wider level.
  • Kaj is a Danish given name ultimately derived from the Latin "Caius/Gaius", which is in turn from "Gaia" (earth)

In general I think a lot of the weirder definitions probably are not puns but rather an indication that whoever was coming up with the names for these characters was not really paying attention to contextual meanings and just looking for words or given names that had some meaning related to their elements.

 

I have a spreadsheet from a long time ago with a lot of definitions I found for not only characters and Rahi, but also place names and other stuff from the Bionicle lexicon ("Ignalu" is a fun one, being a compound of Latin "Ignis", fire, and Hawaiian "nalu", surf). I didn't document sources well or verify whether the definitions I found on baby name sites were genuine… after all, the fact that seemingly compatible definitions appeared on such sites seemed like a "good enough" indication that whatever source LEGO pulled the names from might have just as easily associated those languages and definitions with those words, whether correctly or incorrectly.

 

Anyway, here's a link, do with it what you will: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XQyvQV-ke1roImxn9dcE8ZFy30Y6LlDwXG1HwW1F5e8/edit?usp=sharing

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