Wrap your noodle around this one: Origin of Anakin's name

[Smaugs Fury]

We all know that Lucas likes to "appropriate" lots of mythos from other stories for his Star Wars saga.

How about this mind bender? What is the source of Anakin's name? Does it actually refer to anything?

I think it does, and the mythology certainly fits:

I was doing a little study/research into some non-traditional mythology areas and discovered a site that talked about fallen angels, nephilim, and their heirarchy. Nephilim were created after the Fall of the Angels (led by Lucifer) and they took women and mated with them in the Book of Genesis. Whether or not these were corporeal matings I don't know.

One of the fallen races of Nephilim was called Anakim. Obviously the letter "m" is replaced with "n" in Star Wars mythos, but that is about it. The intent is clearly there to correlate Anakim with Anakin.

anaqiy; a desc. Of Anak, to choke, necklace [Strong's Reference 6062,'60,59]

Interesting how one of Darth Vader's abilities is the force choke hold.

also referenced at Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anakim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anakim)
original site discovery: www.ryanmcginty.com/fallen (http://www.ryanmcginty.com/fallen)

[achteel]

wwwwwwoooooooooooossssssssh

................(my head)................

SF, that's some deep stuff.

[dstephan]

Good research and makes sense considering Lucas went through many mythologies to create SW. Aren't there other names that are just off by a letter or so from their source?

[jlcmsu]

Very interesting and makes sense to me. Lucas has always been that way from what I do know of SW.

[Gazmog]

Nice write-up, SF.

I saw an interview a while ago...a long time ago...and in it he mentions that the use of the character's name Anakin was inspired by someone he had great respect for in the film industry. The guy's surname was Anakin, but his first name escapes me. Correct me if I'm wrong on this.