This reminds me of Arthur C Clarke saying it was only a coincidence that the homicidal super computer was named HAL.
What do I mean, you ask? If you shift one letter forward from “HAL” in the alphabet the result is…
IBM
I was looking at used cars, some with right-hand drive (Japanese or British) and I was SO tempted by this! But realized it’d be common nerdism over common sense…
There was a Phantom Zone villain called “Kru-El,” but that was deliberate.
Offtopic, but I met Buz at a Clarion when he was just starting to write professionally. (He has previously been a big-name fan.)
He refused to tell anyone what his initials stood for, so somebody posted a Guess the Name sheet on a wall. Entries started with Ferdinand Magellan and Frequency Modulation but quickly got wildly obscene.
I had to wait for Wikipedia to find out that F. M. was for Francis Marion. The Swamp Fox if you remember your old Disney shows.
When I was very young the Ford Prefect was a very common make of car in the UK. The name was chosen for its mundane nature. Few have survived, because they were rust buckets.
I never knew what his names were (and never had the chance to meet him) (but I do vaguely remember Swamp Fox). Always liked Buz’s stories though.
As I understand it, they were perfectly aware of the metal when they chose Mon-El’s name. But awareness and intent was not part of my criteria. I’m sure Burroughs had heard of the gas “helium”.
True, but that’s not a disqualifier
Depends what you mean.
It’s quite likely that among a set of transliterations of words, at least a few will match English words (in pronunciation, if not spelling).
However, I would say the chance of any particular word matching would be very low.
e.g. the vast majority of multi-syllabic Chinese words don’t sound like any English word. And that’s still a language constructed from the human speech system and human neurology.
Hitchhikers Guide To The Universe.
"It is a curious fact, and one to which no-one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonyx, or gee-N’N-T’N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand variations on this phonetic theme.
So how about Prell on 3rd Rock From the Sun?
Another Tolkien example, which fits the OP’s question a bit better.
In The Silmarillion, there are several mentions of “Túna,” a high green hill in Aman (the land of the west), upon which the elven city of Tirion was built.
The name, of course, in English also refers to a group of fish species (though without the accent mark).
Not to mention how the Elvish word for “friend” sounds suspiciously like a cantaloupe.
The Buck Rogers comic strip had a villain named Nova Kane. I haven’t read them since I was a kid, but I’m confident I remember a reveal that his brother, Killer Kane’s given name was really Coe.
Conrad aka “Coe” aka “Killer” Kane was the evil twin. Nova Kane was the good twin.