Is Darth Vader’s name a pun?

reno_queen

Darth Vader being Luke’s father was a huge surprise. However, in many languages, words which sound like ‘Vader’ (‘Vater : German’, ‘Vader : Dutch (as @Forral said)’ and many others) mean ‘Father’. Granted, these words and ‘Vader’ have different spellings and pronunciations. Still, Wouldn’t someone who knew any of these languages have thought that Vader was someone’s (not necessarily Luke’s) father?

Originally asked by Avastar on Stack Exchange (movies) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Per this answer at SF&F ... According to George Lucas' Rolling Stone interview in 2005 : How did you get the name Darth Vader? "Darth" is a variation of dark. And "Vader" is a variation of father. So it's basically Dark Father. All the names have history, but sometimes I make mistakes -- Luke was originally going to be called Luke Starkiller, but then I realized that wasn't appropriate for the character. It was appropriate for Anakin, but not his son. I said, "Wait, we can't weigh this down too much -- he's the one that redeems him." Read the rest of the answer for more information which covers the history of the name and possible intentions.

Full answer by Paulie_D: https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/83732 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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