#spark bit

There’s a few where it doesn’t quite work (Shadow X and Fleta Z only have the adjective, with a letter following it. It could likely be a alternative naming convention, though less common than the one I’m figuring out.) (Muscle Hyde has the roles of the prefix and suffix swapped.) (Black Hook is an exception, as I saw somewhere that there was a miscommunication during his design process and he was originally supposed to be primarily black. We can simply say that he was originally black but then changed his paint job to the blue we see in the show later in life.) (Tigun and Gigantrex have their prefixes and suffixes mashed together, though that seems to be the only complication, as the names still hold meaning.) (Mega Ambler and Mega Trucker both have subjective descriptors for their prefix, so I assume its possible to have others with adjectives dependant on their roles.) (Tachi and Tachyon both have singular words, though the definitions of those words are still very fitting for their characters.) (Cielo is the most interesting complication to this, as in Spanish the name translates to sky or heaven. I personally like to think that this was a name given to her by the native tribe of porcaca, and she decided to keep it out of respect for them, or another similar reason. (From what I can tell porcaca’s indigenous tribe seems to be inspired by the Aztecs, though it’s entirely possible I’m wrong on this! Please let me know if you have a better idea for their inspiration, as I’d be very interested in it.)

A lot of the words have to be dug into a little for the names to make sense, but I feel like that makes things more fun, because of course they’re allowed to be creative with their own names!

And finally, the list of all the characters' names, where I found their meanings, and the actual meanings of them :

(Also known as me (a non-professional) attempting to stay professional, and failing miserably)

Season One Cast:

Blue Cop:

Blue- He's very blue :)

Cop- He's a cop. Cop also has a secondary meaning besides policeman, which is to catch or grab something. This is mainly used in UK slang (for example to 'cop a gander' is to take a look). Very interesting that it also covers his present role of helping Jun capture other cardbots. (Thank you @/limeconvoy for telling me about the deeper definition to the word 'cop'! I'm glad I learned something new with this!)

Honestly the least creative name if I'm honest. If I combine this with the headcanon that cardbots choose their own names shortly after they're forged, then this could be a look into how Blue Cop seems to be very focused on his role as a Star Guardian, and struggles to admit there's other things he cares about other than his duties.

With the updated definition, it still doesn't change how Blue Cop seems to only define himself by his duty, and nothing more.

Mega Ambler:

(Dude come back, we miss you. Also don't die. If you die I will be crying (Yes I know he's safe now but that can easily change again with the next couple of episodes.).)

Mega- Taking what I stated earlier into account about dependent adjectives, this can be interpreted to mean he's great at what he does, or well known for it.

Ambler- To amble is to walk in an easy pace, in a leisurely manor. In Latin the prefix 'amb' means to travel, or walk, this is where the term ambulate comes from, and following that ambulance (they were originally buildings that were easy to disassemble so they could travel to different areas).

While Mega Ambler doesn't necessarily take things slow, and tends to be a bit headstrong, this title does describe his role as a medic and compliments his abilities in that role.

Mega Trucker:

Mega- The same as Mega Ambler, though I do find it funny they share a prefix. In terms of theorized culture, it could be a fairly common prefix, in the same way 'Bob' or 'Andy' are very common names in the United States. In reality it's probably because the designers didn't know what to name him, or didn't even know about Mega Ambler until after the character was already finished.

Trucker- To transport goods in a tractor trailer/Semi-truck. Usually stops are long distances away from eachother.

Now this one's a bit weird speaking he never actually trucks anything anywhere, even if his alt-mode is a dump truck. More often he shields his teammates from any dangerous attacks he fears they won't withstand. It is possible that before Machina exploded he was a trucker there. Speaking it's a job that is often underappreciated, it's possible he just never thought to mention that part of his past.

Phoenix Fire:

Phoenix- A mythical bird which bursts into flames and then rebirths itself from it's own ashes. Likely a play on his determination when he received the name, and then it became almost literal when he crashed onto Earth.

Fire- His job is to put out fires, so I guess this works as a suffix.

So determined firefighter. It is very ironic that his name became literal later in his life (Yes I know it's likely because the designers named him after his incident, but I'm trying to keep this realistic for in universe.).

Shadow X:

Shadow- Likely in reference to he stealth abilities, and how he can seem to 'blend into the shadows' in metaphor.

X- Like I said before the letter could just be an alternative naming convention, possibly more popular with younger generations. Though, for Shadow X it could be interpreted to mean his helicopter blades.

Again very basic and fitting for his abilities. I'm not left with anything of interest to talk about.

Fleta Z:

Fleta- To be fleet is to be swift. It's possible that he only took the prefix of the word, and changed the rest to be unique.

Z- Same as Shadow X, though I didn't think Felta Z was that close to Shadow X in age. Perhaps he was one of the few that started the trend?

He is very quick in his movements. Again, I'm left with little to discuss other than the interpreted age difference between Shadow X and Fleta Z somewhat working against my theory for the alternative naming style.

Dexter:

Dexter- A very human name honestly. Almost suspiciously so. However it could be in reference to his good dexterity underground due to his heightened hearing/tremor sensors (It's never really stated whether it was sound or vibrations he was using to track the others with in that episode, but either would help in dark environments.)

I would like to say that he also took on a more human name, but I can't. Especially given his disdain for humans in the first episodes he's introduced in. So likely just means his dexterity underground. Though it is odd he doesn't have a suffix. Maybe it was a name that was given to him, and he simply didn't like the role he had in his past, so he let that piece fade away.

Wild Guardy:

(I completely forgot him in my original notes. I'm so sorry dude I swear you were one of my favorites while watching season one! I don't know how I keep forgeting you!)

Wild- Unpredictable, or unruly in nature. I lean more towards the unpredictable meaning for him.

Guardy- To protect or defend. He's very protective of those he's loyal to.

His loyalties can be unpredictable is what I'm gaining from my breakdown of his name. It's possible there's another way of interpreting this that I'm not seeing, so give me your ideas if you want!

Heavy Iron:

(Dude I actually love how complex he's gotten as a character. Like easily top 3 for favorites. Ignore this, this is literally just me gushing about how much I love his character (at least how I understand it))

Heavy- Heavy means to bear great weight, or significance.

Iron- A word often used in reference to someone's will.

I'm interpreting it to mean stubborn or strong-willed, mainly because it fits him. and because it's a lot nicer than flat out calling someone heavy (though it's possible that in their society that's something to be proud of)

Black Hook:

Black- Like I said before I'm going with the belief he was forged with the color black, and later changed it to blue some time after choosing/receiving a name.

Hook- Often used as an idiom for catching someone's attention. Also an object used in fishing to catch fish (obviously. why am i explaining fishing?). Likely a reference to both, how he tends to capture people's attention with his boisterous attitude, and his tendency to try and take objects of high value.

Not many have a name where both ways the verb is interpreted can apply to the bot. Very fitting name in my opinion.

Buffalo Crush:

Buffalo- A very strong animal on earth, who will often charge headfirst into any danger that threatens them. Very fitting as he does tend to be a bit headstrong in the sense he doesn't often think before taking action.

Crush- He does in fact crush people/things. That's a thing he does. Good job yayyy. (I can feel my brain wearing down as I continue to write, but we push on! FOR SCIENCE!)

He is in fact someone who is headstrong and crushes things. :thumbs up:

Buster Gallon:

Buster- Most likely meaning someone who breaks.

Gallon- There could be two meanings here, either in reference to a large quantity of something (I feel like a gallon of something is usually considered a lot, but that could just be me.) or in reference to measurements in general. I'm going with the second one because the combined meaning is a lot nicer than if I used the first.

Taking my prefered interpretation of the name, it means someone who breaks measurements or expectations. Much nicer than the other interpretation, which is litterally 'someone who breaks a lot'. Like calm down dude I'm sure he couldn't have broken that much.

Season Two Cast:

Red Blitz:

Red- He is in fact very red.

Blitz- A swift attack. Which is what he does.

Red, fast, fighter. That is accurate. (I'm so good at my not-job)

Cielo:

Cielo- In Spanish this means sky or alternatively, heaven (please let me know if this is incorrect in any way. The only language I know is English, and I don't want to mistranslate something accidently.)

Like I said earlier I'm going with the headcanon that the indigenous people of porcaca gave her this name, and she kept it as a sign of respect.

Musclehyde:

(honestly can't remember if his name was one of the ones that was mushed together or not, but realistically it doesn't make much difference either way.)

Muscle- Yeah. He strong.

Hyde- Probably in reference to his plating (I came to the horrible realization while originally writing this in my phone notes that this name could actually be a reference to Jekyll and Hyde. Don't get me wrong I love the original story, but only because that was a depiction of alcohol or drug addiction, and how that can make one's personality completely different compared to when they are sober. I hate most other interpretations of that piece because they make an extremely inaccurate assumption that it's about Plurality, and feed into the idea that those who experience plurality are hiding someone evil inside themselves, which is just outright wrong and horrible to say about someone who experienced severe trauma to even get to that point.)

Literally means someone with strong plating. Honestly I love this guy, we need more screentime with him.

Gigantrex:

(damn it another person who wants to be weird and smash their name together /j)

Gigant- Part of gigantic, which means very large. Which he is.

Rex- Alright so either they're calling him a dinosaur...Or they wanted what 'rex' means in Latin. Which is king or leader.

Realistically, his name means giant leader. Fun-wise though his name means giant old man, which is fucking hilarious.

Rock Crush:

Rock- Sturdy/durable. Probably in reference to their physical durability, as emotionally they're very open.

Crush- I assume their job on Machina might've been very similar to Dexter's as they're both construction vehicles.

They are unfortunately named very literally, with them being a drill and all. But I'm doing my best to work past that and give their same some kind of meaning! It'd just feel wrong for it not to.

Glober:

Glober- A globe is a replica of a planet, so this is likely a reference to his explorative nature.

Very fitting, though he doesn't have a prefix for his name. But I could see him saying something along the lines of 'I can't be defined by a single word!' and simply deciding to not have a prefix.

Deep Bite:

(hell yeah love this shark guy. Also why is he the only one to get an actual beast form for an alt-mode? Like there's literally no one else, even in the forged wild cardbots.)

Deep- Could be in reference to his emotions, and how he used to hide them from others around him.

Bite- He does bite. Quite a lot actually. (Oh my god he's the only one out of them all to have an actual mouth.)

So someone who hides their emotions, and bites because of it. Ironically fitting. I do actually love that aspect of his character, like you will start acting like what everyone wants/expects you to be, because you get tired of arguing against it.

Blastrain:

(I completely forgot about him up until now, and I honestly blame season 3 for that. Where is he and why is he doing little to nothing to help with Tyrant Zero? Bring him back he's fun.) (Also, oooo fancy we got rid of a 't' /s /j)

Blast- Explosive. Which, I guess?? Maybe he's dealt with that processor glitch since he was forged and it was just normal for him? Honestly don't know. It could also be interpreted to be related to speed, which is much more fitting (Thank you @/friesdoesstuff for giving me this interpretation of blast! It's helped a lot in connecting the name to the bot!)

Train- He does in fact act as a train for people.

OG analysis: Explosive Train? Sure I guess. This is the only one I can't really pick out a good fit for. Maybe it's a me problem and I just misunderstood his character.

New analysis: A fast, or timely, train. If I'm remembering right he was very time oriented in his introduction episode, and got upset when his schedule was needlessly interrupted, so this is a fitting name.

Flash Vector:

Flash- Yeah, he does that. Also in reference to his speed, so another double meaning where both definitions fit the bot.

Vector- Can mean to change the direction of something, which does often in his fighting style.

Very fitting and mostly describes him as a fighter and how he does so. Which honestly, works for me because it is very unique.

Spark Bit:

Spark- A flash of light, often caused by heat.

Bit- Could mean small. But more likely is in reference to the sharp end of an attachment to a tool.

Bright sharpness? Or something along those lines? I mean it sounds good to me? Could be a poke at his competitive nature.

Sky Gallop:

Sky- Yep they go there.

Gallop- Possibly to mean they travel quickly? Which does make sense with what they do for others.

Very straight to the point. I do wish it gave more characterization to them, but not much I can do about that.

Flame Nova:

(I don't get why people like him so much? He honestly sucks (not writing wise, but like as a person. Writing wise he's a decent villain.) Like he's worse than Heavy Iron. Like Heavy Iron's whole thing was he wanted his home back and didn't realize he would be allowed to make a new home on Earth with the others around (which makes sense how he got to that conclusion speaking his first interaction with the main cast was them stealing and hiding his body from him. Like shit I'd be mad too. But Flame Nova was told multiple times that humans and cardbots could co-exist, and he just ignored it? At that point he just wanted to commit genocide on the planet. Just my opinion though, so don't take any offence to this. I won't hunt you down for liking him lol.)

Flame- Fire; Something that's very hard to not notice.

Nova- The result of a star dying. Which one, wow that's fitting for his current character. Two, could be used as a metaphor for something that's of great significance and awe-inspiring.

So basically his name means a noticeable example of greatness, which I can very well see him both receiving that name, or giving it to himself. Either way it'd feed into his ego. And the supernova as the suffix honestly just foreshadows his betrayal towards the Star Guardians.

Season Three Cast:

(So far at least. Though it'd be a little late to introduce a new character at episode 25.)

Phantom Hornet:

Phantom- Usually means a ghost or something similar. Though I could see it meaning deceptive if they believed ghosts were an illusion. Probably in reference to her ability to create illusions of herself.

Hornet- A small creature with the ability to deliver a nasty sting in self-defense.

Very fitting name given her introduction to the audience.

Blaion:

(The name mash-up king himself. He's the most different of the different bots, because he fully committed and decided to do away with like half the consonants from his name)

Bla- Likely the beginning of the word 'blaze'. Probably in reference to his anger, if provoked enough. Vengeful would probably be a good synonym for him.

ion- Probably what's leftover from what was originally 'lion'. Lions are often seen as 'the most powerful predator' in Africa by most people or 'the king of the jungle' (they are not. they don't live there anymore. and they'd likely be outclassed to tigers due to their size.). I'll take it to reference the power instead of the leadership, since we don't know if he's actually led anyone in the past. Also lions are pride animals, meaning they form close social bonds. They will often become very violent if their pride is threatened in any way.

So a vengeful power. Very ironic given his role in episode 24, but it still fits him normally. He's a force not to be reconned with and he is fiercely loyal to those who've earned his trust.

Tigun:

(Why do we mash the name together? I mean I can let this one slide because it's a play on the word tiger, but still.)

Ti- Now at first this means nothing. But then you realize it's the symbol for titanium, and it quickly becomes a reference to his strength/durability.

Gun- He is in fact a gun. Well, he has a gun. attached to him. What's the difference?

So basically a strong/durable gun or fighter. That checks out.

Night Gryphon:

Night- Dark? Possibly in reference to his clouded judgement.

Gryphon- Usually in folklore/mythologies griffins (it's just an alternate spelling. When I was little I actually remember accidently combining the two versions into 'griphon'.) guard a stockpile of gold.

Misguided guardian, though I'm not sure what he actually 'guards'.

Solid Horn:

Solid- Yeah. Very tanky.

Horn- A strong/solid protrusion, often used as a weapon in nature. So probably supposed to mean fighter, similar to Tigun.

Again, probably just strong/durable fighter. I would say this might be a common naming theme for wild cardbots, but there's only two examples of it, and my personal rule for patterns is it needs to happen at least three times for it to become a pattern. Twice is simply a coincidence.

Savannard:

(Stupid trio picking a stupid combined name. /j)

Savanna- A grasslands biome, usually in reference to the grasslands in Africa. Said grasslands are actually home to the animals the three wild cardbots were inspired by.

ard- A noun suffix that means possessing the quality of, or being associated with the root word before it.

Very fitting collective name for him. He is a being that is literally possessed by wild cardbots inspired by those living in a savanna biome.

Saber Knight:

Saber- A sword. Probably means sharp (as in good fighter) or cutting. Most likely means well-trained or quick learner of fighting techniques.

Knight- Someone who protects someone of great importance. Likely in reference to his role as a Star Guardian.

I've noticed that each character who is a Star Guardian, whether past or present role, is heavily defined by their duty. Which leads me to the belief that maybe it's customary for them to not choose their own names, and they're instead given as a rewards for completing their possible training. It's very interesting that they seem to be raised to be blinded by their duty, and to follow the rules without question.

Tachi:

Tachi- From what I could find this is actually a Japanese sword that predates the katana. And from what I read it was smaller and somewhat lighter than the katana, which would likely make it faster.

Likely meaning swift sharpness. Which does make sense with literally everything about her.

Tachyon:

Tachyon- A theoretic particle that travels faster than light.

Weird names apparently run in the family. But seriously from what little we know of her, this is also a fitting name.

Bloodwing:

Blood- True, this is entirely a reference to his vampiric inspirations, however I have an alternative. Blood is the life force of many things. And it was his job to be a life source when others were severely wounded.

wing- I would say that maybe he could fly before the beast virus was in his system, and that he probably filled the role of mercy flight on Machina, but he doesn't have the hip turbines, in Mega Ambler's flashback. And I also can't say he changed his name after, because Mega Ambler already knew him as Bloodwing before he actually introduced himself. The only other use of wing I can thing of is a part of a building, usually noticeably separate from the rest of it.

The prefix of the name works exceptionally well, but I'm lost on the suffix. Which sucks because he's one of my favorite characters, and I can only find half of a meaning for his name.

Tyrant Zero:

Tyrant- Yeah he is. Probably leans more into the aspect of destruction for that than anything.

Zero- The beginning, or before the beginning.

The being of destruction from before existence. He is seen as a god of destruction so very fitting. I am curious to see if we get a name for the bot he's possessing at the end of the season.

Deus Machina:

Deus- Latin for god or deity.

Machina- Latin for machine, or device.

Taking it with no creative insight, the name means god of machines. Which for cardbots that title would alternatively mean god of creation/life. But there is a common saying in Latin 'Deus Ex Machina', which is a phrase that describes someone or something that's introduced as a sudden apparent solution to what appeared to be an insolvable situation. Which is exactly what happened with the destruction of Machina the planet. The Metal Breaths were introduced as a makeshift solution to the planet's imminent destruction. Basically Deus Machina told them to give up and find a new home, which is both horrible to say to people, and tragic given the deity had already accepted their fate.

Honestly I had a lot of fun doing this! I love learning about other cultures, even if said cultures are unintentional or fictional. I'll probably make another post going in depth on my personal headcanons for their culture (taking some inspiration from transformers, due to the similarities in the medias.) like how they're usually raised and how they behave towards one another for different relationships.

But yeah if you made it here thanks for reading the ramblings of someone who gets far too obsessed with medias for their own good!