# Why are Gundam Wing characters named for numbers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2002, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311 "2002-05-29T07:00:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/1 "2002-05-29T07:00:48Z")
Une, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Zechs, Septem, Otto and Acht, Noin, Dekem, Treize, Quinze, Sedici, Venti, Noventa, and Milliardo are as many as I can think of right now. But has anyone found an explanation as to what’s with all the numbers? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/2 "2002-05-29T08:17:31Z")
Why are most Dragonball characters named for food? Ditto Sorcerer Hunters. The creators though it’d be neat to have the main characters be numbers 1-6, with 8, 9, 13, another 1, 1000, etc thrown in. Plus the G-Boys are supposed to be anonymous engines of death, and Zechs is hiding his true identity. Having their names be numbers would re-enforces this, even if they’re really names of ‘real’ people (if not always of the current bearer), within the universe. Just my thoughts on the matter, no official answers there. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/3 "2002-05-29T08:20:27Z")
(BTW, you missed Lady Une in your list.) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/4 "2002-05-29T22:39:09Z")
Uh, she was at the very beginning of my list! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/5 "2002-05-29T22:40:33Z")
BTW, I know Heero is usually referred to as 1 for the purposes of fan fic, but does Heero mean 1 in any language that you know of? ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/6 "2002-05-29T23:07:48Z")
I think Heero’s name comes from the Japanese word for one. I used to know what languages all the pilots’ names supposedly came from…but it’s been a while since I was seriously into GW. jessica ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/7 "2002-05-29T23:29:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > \*\*Why are most Dragonball characters named for food? Ditto Sorcerer Hunters. > \*\* In the latter case, most often _desserts_. And in some of the shows they go for categories (e.g. in the above mentioned DB, a set of characters is named after food, another set is named after articles of clothing, and so on) \*\* > [@](#): > > Plus the G-Boys are supposed to be anonymous engines of death, and Zechs is hiding his true identity. Having their names be numbers would re-enforces this, even if they’re really names of ‘real’ people (if not always of the current bearer), within the universe. > > Just my thoughts on the matter, no official answers there. \*\* But it’s a very good hypothesis! Certainly makes more sense than a whole lot of the other patterns… sometimes there is a connection, sometimes you wonder if the writers saw the connection only after their 5th bottle of sake. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/8 "2002-05-29T23:42:12Z")
I thought the Japanese word for “one” was “ichi”, although **Hamish** has found a form “hito”. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/9 "2002-05-29T23:54:07Z")
Well, in Fushigi Yuugi, all of the characters are named after constellations… then again, that was kind of the point… 😉 I just finished writing a short story in which most of the characters were named after Montreal metro stations… of course, when your characters are all French-Canadian, it’s a little bit more subtle 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/10 "2002-05-30T00:12:48Z")
Tsk, tsk. **matt\_mcl** , we’re _roommates_. You could have asked me _first_😃 Anime writers love motifs and themes in character names. Someone mentioned Sorceror Hunters, and you mentioned Fushigi Yuugi. Hideakki Anno, the genius behind Evangelion, was once asked about his characters’ names. He answered that while their given names were drawn from a variety of sources, most took their last names from the brand-names of military-equipment manufacturers. It reinforced the coldness of Anno’s Earth in 2015. In Utena, you have couples of characters with paired names – Anthi (“Flower”) and Utena (“Flower Calyx” – the protective part of the flower), as well as Dios (“God”) and Akio (“Morning Star” – Lucifer). I think **Tengu** ’s right about the anonymous engines-of-death theory, Treize notwithstanding (although he does crave anonymity at one point). Like Eva, the style tends to reinforce a cold, military worldview. ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-gundam-wing-characters-named-for-numbers/111311/11 "2002-05-30T19:47:33Z")
::shrug:: I have one website from a brief search and the scariest GW fangirl I’ve ever met as my sources. I know I’ve read it before, but I don’t have much to back it up with. Sorry. (though the aforementioned fangirl is now giving me a full list of names, numbers, and languages, muttering something about “It’s Yuy, not Heero!” Bad question to ask, I think) jessica, who must now go tell a friend about the Utena names as an extra layer of symbolism