History MeaningfulName / VideoGames

* The SeriesMascot of ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'' is a red bird aptly named "Red". And the black bird is named "Bomb". [[ActionBomb Guess what his special ability is.]]

*** Soren might be a meaningful name: It's a corruption of the Italian name Severino, which is the diminutive form of Severo, which means grouchy. (See Snape from Harry Potter, above.) Soren is, indeed, both small and grouchy. Soren's original Japanese name was Senerio. Which is part meaningful, part pun. (A tactician named Scenario? Really?) Interestingly enough, in Japanese, Soren means "Russia".

*** Aerith Gainsborough's first name is a derivative of Tiferet, also spelled Tifereth or Tiphereth (the other being Tifa), representing the sixth Sefira in the Tree of Life and its symbolic association with light, love, beauty, spirituality, miracles and compassion, acting as a balance between kindness and strength. Aerith personifies these traits so well through her deeds, abilities, and relationships with the other party members (particularly Cloud), as well as her opposition to Shinra and Sephiroth. The ''Remake'' trilogy makes it even more obvious after she [[spoiler:awakens to a higher state of power at the end of ''Rebirth'', becoming a force of good that directly opposes Sephiroth, who represents Belphegor, a demon that seduces with shortcuts to riches and is not connected to the Malkhut (an attribute not created by God but its creations). Aerith's strong spiritual connection with Cloud enables him to keep mustering the strength to defy Sephiroth's will in his critical hour of need]].

*** Aerith Gainsborough's first name is a derivative of Tiferet, also spelled Tifereth or Tiphereth (the other being Tifa), representing the sixth Sefira in the Tree of Life and its symbolic association with light, love, beauty, spirituality, miracles and compassion, acting as a balance between kindness and strength. Aerith personifies these traits so well through her deeds, abilities, and relationships with the other party members (particularly Cloud), as well as her opposition to Shinra and Sephiroth, even more so after she [[spoiler:awakens to a higher state of power at the end of ''Rebirth'', becoming a force of good that directly opposes Sephiroth, who represents Belphegor, a demon that seduces with shortcuts to riches and is not connected to the Malkhut (an attribute not created by God but its creations). Aerith's strong spiritual connection with Cloud enables him to keep mustering the strength to defy Sephiroth's will in his critical hour of need]].

*** Aerith Gainsborough's first name is a derivative of Tiferet, also spelled Tifereth or Tiphereth (the other being Tifa), representing the sixth Sefira in the Tree of Life and its symbolic association with light, love, beauty, spirituality, miracles and compassion, acting as a balance between kindness and strength. Aerith personifies these traits so well through her deeds, abilities, and relationships with the other party members (particularly Cloud), as well as her opposition to Shinra and Sephiroth. The ''Remake'' trilogy makes this even more obvious after she [[spoiler:awakens to a higher state of power at the end of ''Rebirth'', becoming a force of good that directly opposes Sephiroth, who represents Belphegor, a demon that seduces with shortcuts to riches and is not connected to the Malkhut (an attribute not created by God but its creations). Aerith's strong spiritual connection with Cloud enables him to keep mustering the strength to defy Sephiroth's will in his critical hour of need]].

*** Tifa Lockhart's first name is another derivative of Tiferet (the other being Aerith), the sixth sefira in the kabbalistic Tree of Life. This sefira is associated with light, beauty, love, and compassion whose effect is to balance kindness and strength. It is opposed to Belphegor, a demon that seduces with shortcuts to riches and is not connected to the Malkhut (an attribute not created by God but its creations). All of these are exemplified by Tifa's relationships within the party, Shinra and Sephiroth. Her last name, Lockhart, alludes to her tendency to bottle up her feelings and refusing to divulge certain knowledge of out of fear. This includes a crucial part of Cloud's backstory that ends up being key to solving his memory issues.

*** It doesn't take a lot of trouble to work out the significance of the self-confused hero Cloud Strife or the [[GodhoodSeeker god-wannabe]] Sephiroth (who is derived from the 10 manifestations of God in UsefulNotes/{{Kabbalah}}, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephirot]]), but then there's Tifa Lockheart, whose name is derived from the Kabbalist concept of the Tifaret, the symbol of love; freedom fighter Barret [[Film/{{Braveheart}} Wallace]] and the multiple Myth/NorseMythology references, such as Nibelheim (Niflheim), Midgar(d) and the Midgar Zolom, which is a bad romanization of "Midgardsormr" (World Serpent), another name for the Norse monster Jörmungandr. Aerith sounds phonetically close and is nearly an anagram to "Earth". This also gives some additional meaning to Cloud's name considering their romance from when they meet in Midgar up to [[spoiler:Aerith's death.]] (i.e. Cloud and Earth)

*** Cloud has a few nice connotations to his name. It's mostly a reference to his murky mental state, but clouds in nature drift around with none of their own force, alluding to his susceptibility to MindControl. It also sets him opposite to Aerith (Cloud and '[[SignificantAnagram Earth]]'). He's also haughty, prone to 'looking down' on other people and acting like he's 'above it all'. And on a very superficial level, it fits his stormy, gloomy, [[SugarAndIcePersonality rapidly-shifting personality]] as well as anything. (He even starts the game with Ice and Lightning magic.) "Strife" has an obvious literal meaning, but is also the Norse word for blackthorn, a resilient and spiky plant associated in Norse folklore with the power to slay evil, along with "fate, resentment, confusion, refusing to see the truth" and the [[AnimalMotif Wolf]]. It was also said that to pick a blackthorn's flowers would start a storm, which perhaps also works with Aerith's association with flowers.

*** Tifa Lockhart [[CanNotSpitItOut spends most of the game keeping a tender secret from Cloud]]. Her feelings end up being key to solving the mystery.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'': Noah is named after the [[Literature/TheBible biblical figure.]] In The Bible, Noah was the one to save some of the animals as well as a couple of people during a disaster and guide them to a new beginning. That is essentially what Noah does in this game, as he is the one to lead the people into a new world after a disaster.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' had the Four Fiends of the Elements, who were all named after demons in Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' (Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante). Oh, and its traitorous AntiHero, contrasted with his benevolent counterpart, was named ''[[NameOfCain Kain]]''. BigBad Golbez was named after Golubaeser, a type of black fly named for the Serbian town Golubac. According to folk legends, these venomous flies were born from a dragon's corpse. [[spoiler:This fits with the fact that Theodor Harvey became Golbez shortly after the double whammy of losing both of his parents. Compare that to Cecil who in Mysidia's legend was known as the one "birthed from womb of dragon's maw". In fact Zemus is the one who renames Theodor, directly comparing him to the Golubaeser folklore.]] It also happens to be a name of a demon in a book called "Devils" by J. Charles Wall.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' had its AffablyEvil [[TheDragon Dragon]], Gilgamesh, named after the legendary Sumerian hero; BigBad Exdeath/X-Death/Ex-Death seems a lot less cheesy given his name was probably meant to be ''"Exodus"''.

*** Tina Branford (known outside Japan as Terra Branford) derives from "Christiana", the latin feminine form of "Christian", and was derived from a saint who was tormented by her father, which itself mirrors how Tina/Terra was tormented by the Empire for most of her life, including being [[HypnoTrinket brainwashed]].

*** Edgar is an English name that means "great spearman". Edgar [[InfinityPlusOneSword best weapon]] is The Longinus in the GBA, IOS, Android and PC ports, which is a Spear.

*** It doesn't take a lot of trouble to work out the significance of the self-confused hero Cloud Strife or the [[GodhoodSeeker god-wannabe]] Sephiroth (who is derived from the 10 manifestations of God, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephirot]]), but then there's Tifa Lockheart, whose name is derived from the Kabbalist concept of the Tifaret, the symbol of love; freedom fighter Barret [[Film/{{Braveheart}} Wallace]] and the multiple Norse Mythology references, such as Nibelheim (Niflheim), Midgar(d) and the Midgar Zolom, which is a [[GratuitousEnglish bad romanization]] of the Norse word for "midgard serpent". Aerith sounds phonetically close and is nearly an anagram to "Earth". This also gives some additional meaning to Cloud's name considering their romance from when they meet in Midgar up to [[spoiler:Aerith's death.]] (i.e. Cloud and Earth)

** ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' has revealed that cheerful hero Zack's last name is ''Fair'', as in weather, to contrast with broody ''Cloud Strife''. There is also the Angeal, a thinly veiled angelic figure [[spoiler:complete with white wing]] and Genesis, the first [[spoiler:of a line of experiments similar to the one that created Sephiroth]]. A slightly subtler example in ''Crisis Core'' is Lazard Deusericus. His last name is "Silken God" in Latin which doesn't seem meaningful until you realize [[spoiler:that Shinra can mean the same thing. It's implied that Lazard came up with the name himself as a reference to the fact that he is the bastard son of President Shinra.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' Wall Market is said to be so named because the government decided to just wall it in rather than try to deal with the lawlessness there -- out of sight, out of mind.

** From the sequel ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'', Lulu and Wakka name their child Vidina, ''Al Bhed'' for future, symbolizing Spira's future. Also some FridgeBrilliance to show that Wakka no longer hated the Al Bhed.
** The games' creators have even lampshaded their love of weather-based names for protagonists (Cloud, Squall, Kaze (wind) in FFU, Sora (sky), Lightning in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''), in a throwaway line by Zidane in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'':
--->'''Zidane:''' No cloud, no squall shall hinder us!
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', the fal'cie Orphan's name is possibly a reference to the Ophan, a high-ranking class of angel who were described as fiery wheels with many eyes lining their rims. Orphan's design is certainly wheel-like, with those many faces on his rims possibly representing the eyes. Also, during [[spoiler:the final battle with Orphan, he will take on an a very angel-like form when he is staggered.]]
** Every second name in the ''FF'' series are based off of something or other. A full list can be found [[http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/names.shtml here]].
** Hope, who has this explicitly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when Lightning tells him to "Find the ''hope'' you were named for." His name also becomes subject to many {{pun|nyName}}s.
*** Invoked in-universe during the same cutscene: Lightning actually outright explains the symbolism in her alias:

*** Lightning also gets the line, "Lightning never strikes twice. It doesn't have to."
** The name of the series itself was a reference to the fact that the very first game in the series was created by Squaresoft as a last ditch effort to save Squaresoft from becoming bankrupt.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' Hraesvelgr in the Heavensward expansion, doubling as a case of ShownTheirWork. Hraesvelgr means "corpse swallower" in Old Norse. While his depicion (as a dragon) is different from his namesake in Norse mythology (an eagle), the name is VERY meaningful. You eventually learn his backstory. He fell in love with Shiva (an Elezan). At the end of their time together, since she knew her lifespan was tiny compared to his, she begged him to eat her so that their souls could be together forever. He did so and the act inspired the first alliance between man and dragon.

** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Tidus and Yuna]] are named after the sun and moon respectably and also reflects their personalities. Tidus is sunny and optimistic, compared to Yuna who is gentle and quiet. As if the game wanted to make the point a little clearer, you need the Sun Crest and Sigil to activate Tidus' ultimate weapon, and the Moon Crest and Sigil for Yuna's.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5: Royal'' has the new Phantom Thief, Kasumi Yoshizawa, who takes the codename of "Violet" in the Metaverse. [[spoiler:This hints at her true identity: that she is ''NOT'' Kasumi Yoshizawa, but her surviving twin sister Sumire Yoshizawa -- "Sumire" being the Japanese word for ''Viola mandshurica'', a type of violet flower.]]

* The German soccer management game ''[[VideoGame/Anstoss Anstoß]] 3'' (earlier installments had been translated to English as ''On the Ball'') allows you to send your team to a Chinese training camp led by one Dr. Do Ping, who puts special ingredients into the food served...

* ''Agent Intercept'' has three:

* The German soccer management game ''Anstoß 3'' (earlier installments had been translated to English as ''On the Ball'') allows you to send your team to a Chinese training camp led by one Dr. Do Ping, who puts special ingredients into the food served...

* In ''Chef Solitaire USA'', Kurt Snark, the vitriolic host of ''Restaurant Boot Camp''.

** Lum says in his speech for the 8th Vertumnalia Festival that Vertumna is named after Vertumnus, the Roman god of cultivation, which is why he plans to clear its land for farming.

*** "Basorexia" means "a compulsive desire to kiss". Rex is ''all about'' physical affection, is a flirt towards the protagonist, and [[CuddleBug enjoys big hugs from them.]] His nickname is also a StockAnimalName for dogs and his BioAugmentation makes him a LittleBitBeastly dog.

* ''Agent Intercept has three:

** Sonia in "VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom" is a very wise queen who used to be a priestess. Sonia means "wisdom".

** Sonia in "VideoGame/TearsOfTheKingdom" is a very wise queen who used to be a priestess. Sonia means "wisdom".

** Angès Oblige's first name is derived from the Greek word for "Pure" or "Holy", fitting her IncorruptiblePurePureness and role as the Wind Vestal, while her last name means to be morally bound to an action or course, fitting her being the instigator of the pilgrimage to awaken the crystals.