NINAH Cast Headcanon Names
Yello! 👋 I'm a pretty new NINAH fan who's spent the last few weeks scraping through naming websites, family registries, and Wikipedia articles to put together my own definitive list of headcanon names for the characters, and I'm finally satisfied with it enough to share it with others. I've seen potential names discussed for a number of the more popular characters, but I thought I'd take a crack at covering the entire roster, including a few guys that are unseen or only referenced.
I must of course preface this with the disclaimer that I'm an American, doing this with an American's perspective and tastes. It's entirely possible I've overlooked some cultural/historical references (as the extent of my knowledge comes from what I've learned from the wiki and posts from Russian fans), as well as connotations and/or stereotypes certain names may hold.
When taking on this project, it was important to me to both 1) give everyone a unique name and 2) keep my choices relatively logical in terms of both the time period of the game and the general popularity of the names themselves (with some exceptions, which I'll get into). I also purposely did not pick names for the FEMA Agent, as it's implied there's more than one who comes to the door and it's a vague situation overall, nor the Raincoat Child, as I don't know enough about Static Dread to have much opinion on its characters.
All that said, if you'll allow me to dump a few of my thoughts and reasonings down below:
- The Neighbor and the Vigilante's names both mean 'lion' with different etymologies. Lev I've seen used for the Neighbor by others and liked, and I chose Ruslan for his brother to match because I think they both suit that name in different ways - the Neighbor for his courage and willingness to help others even when it cost him his life, and the Vigilante for his ferocity and relentless pursuit of the Visitors (like a lion hunting its prey, you could say).
- I can see where some folks come from in wanting to call the Widow Jena, as it's a perfectly legitimate name in English, but it's just the word 'wife' in Russian. I've opted instead for the phonetically similar Zhanna, comparable to Jeanne (as in d'Arc). For her dearly departed I've chosen Fyodor (Theodore), after the many, many Orthodox saints and martyrs named the same.
- I really fought with myself over keeping Alkonost and Sirin for the Twins, but at the end of the day the chances of someone being named that in real life are too slim to justify. I finally settled on the names Anastasya and Irina, which I find similar-sounding enough to not be too bummed about letting the other names go.
- Seductive Woman I've named Nadezhda (hope) as a direct foil to Protag's wife, Vera (faith).
- A number of characters related to Death and her cult have been given Biblical names or names associated with religion, because I'm a sucker for allegories. The three Cultists are all named after Apostles - Cultist #2 in particular is named after Thomas the skeptic, in line with his doubt and anxiety about the cult's mission. In the same vein, Egghead/the Prophet is named Gavriil after the archangel Gabriel, AKA God's messenger. Angry Guy's wife, who joined the cult, is named after the biblical princess Tamar. The Cult leader, who I've called Konstantin, is named so both for the literal meaning (constant, steadfast) and because Constantine I was the first Roman leader to convert to Christianity.
- Initially I was going to keep the Morbid Romantic's name as it is in the files, Edgar, as it's not entirely unheard of for Russian or Russian-born folks to have the name (see Sevikyan, Streltzov, Prib - all footballers, funnily enough). After further consideration I decided instead to name him Orest after Orest Somov, a Russian author and literary critic who also dabbled in Gothic fiction as Edgar Allen Poe did.
- A more egregiously out-of-the-box choice is the Sleepless Man's name, Morfey, as it's simply the Russian form of Morpheus (AKA Greek God of sleep and dreams). Realistic? Probably not, but I'm allowing myself at least this sliver of leniency here for the bit. Also it's kinda difficult to look at a character like That and picture him with an average Joe name, even before the cataclysm--
- The Mushroom Eater is named Prokhor after the Saint Prochorus, whose name allegedly means 'leader of the dance/chorus.' Appropriately whimsical!
- Tattooed Woman and Rash Guy are named directly after their design references, 'Tosha' and Eldar Kaimarazov. I've chosen to overlook the similarity between Tattooed Woman and Conspiracy Theorist's names in this instance because I think it's kind of funny in an ironic sense that TW essentially has to share a name with her biggest opp.-- My other option for her was Natasha, which I think fits her just as well.
- Fairytale Enjoyer and his sister, Artyom & Diana, are both named after Artemis. I like to think they're also twins. :)
- According to the wiki, College Runaway's design reference says if he had to pick a canon name for him, it would be either Maksim or Andrey - so I used them both! I've chosen Maksim for the Runaway, while Andrey is his beloved brother.
- The Tourist is clearly East Asian, though his origin isn't known for certain beyond that. I've therefore developed the headcanon that he's from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, mostly to be contrarian as we hardly ever see or hear of Mongolian characters in a modern setting. The name Tsolmon means Venus or morning star.
- EnerJeka Addict's name is also based on his design reference, who goes by 'Seva Goblin.' I recognize it's more likely that in this case Seva is short for Vsevolod, but I chose the far less common Sevastyan instead because I think it lends well to Addict's overall bizarre nature. An unusual lad deserves an unusual name!
The rest are fairly straightforward, though if there's any question as to why I might have made certain choices, I'll be happy to explain myself! As I'm sure is obvious from this wall of text, I do love a good discussion 🕺