Strangetown/Onomatology

The etymology (meaning study of the origin of words) of the Sim characters are sometimes hilarious, but always interesting. Many of the names had been intentionally chosen for etymology reasons. Simmers have found out many of the meanings, although a large-enough portion do not mean as much as the etymology of others. Some of the names came as a shock, other names didn't seem to have an etymological relation. Not all of the names were intended for the definitions researched, but it is still interesting (and sometimes coincidental) to see what the name meanings are. This etymology is only for the residents of Strangetown, because it has the most complex set of names.

The Specter Family

 * Specter: "Specter means ghost, or something that haunts the mind"

For Olive Specter's biological son, please look under the Beaker category.
 * Olive Specter: As in olive tree.
 * Ichabod Specter (Olive's late husband): Hebrew for 'without honor'. Could refer to the character Ichabod of Sleepy Hollow.
 * Rigger Mortis (Olive's second husband): 'Rigger' means to rig or dresses, while 'Mortis' refers to the French word 'mort', which means death. Rigor Mortis is a state in which a corpse's limbs become stiff and difficult to move.
 * Hugh Thanasia (Olive's first husband): From the word 'Euthanasia', means literally "good death" in Ancient Greek. Refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner.
 * Lou Thanasia :(Hugh's brother): A shortening of the given name Louis. Louis means "Famed Warrior."
 * Earl E. DeMise: (Olive's fiancee): Means "Early Demise", early death.
 * Tim Lee DeMise (Earl's brother): Perhaps could refer to "Timely Demise".
 * It is a coincidence that all of their names refers to death, because they are all dead, and it is possible that Olive murdered them all (And she did once woohoo with the Grim Reaper)
 * Nigmos -- Unknown
 * Ophelia Nigmos (Olive's niece): In Ancient Greek, it could mean help.
 * Willow Nigmos (Ophelia's mother, Olive's sister): Refers to the Willow Tree.
 * Creon Nigmos (Ophelia's father): In Greek, means 'ruler'.
 * Hecate Nigmos (Ophelia's paternal grandmother): Greek for far-shooting. Refers to the goddess of wilderness and childbirth.
 * Zog Nigmos (Ophelia's paternal grandfather): In Dutch, zog comes from "kielzog" which means wake, the white turbulent water behind a boat.
 * Muenda -- Could refer to Munda, which is a place in the Solomon Islands.
 * Lerato Muenda (Ophelia's maternal grandmother): Means love in Sesotho
 * Peponi Muenda (Ophelia's maternal grandfather): Means melon.

The Beaker Family
For Nervous Subject's biological mother, please look under the Specter category. For Loki's sister Erin, please look under the Singles category.
 * Beaker : Refers to a glass object used for measuring and holding fluids in a laboratory setting (after all, they are mad scientists).
 * Loki Beaker (Nervous' adoptive father): The god of mischief and trickery; growing progressively evil, he kills Balder, and is bound until Ragnarok, the end of the world.
 * Circe Beaker (Nervous' adoptive mother): In Greek mythology, Circe is a Queen goddess (or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea. In "The Odyssey," Circe turned Odysseus' men into swine.
 * Nervous Subject (Olive's son, Loki and Circe's adoptive son): Speaks for itself.
 * Bjorn Beaker (Loki's father): Germanic for Bear.
 * Gundrun Beaker (Loki's mother): Gundrun was a Norse Mythology character.
 * Canute Beaker (Loki's paternal grandfather): It is derived from the Old Norse Knútr meaning "knot".
 * Gertrude Beaker (Loki's paternal grandmother): Germanic for strength.


 * Halfdanarson -- A Germanic last name, meaning unknown. Possibly from Eystein Halfdansson, a king in an Old Norse King's Saga.
 * Leif Halfdanarson (Loki's maternal grandfather): Meaning 'heir' or 'descendant'.
 * Ingibjorg Halfdanarson (Loki's maternal grandmother): An Old Norse given name, means God's Salvation.
 * The only thing I'd like to point out is the old Norse and Scandinavian mythology names.
 * Salamis -- Salamis was a name of a nymph in Greek mythology.
 * Xanthos Salamis (Circe's father): Xanthos was the name of a city in ancient Lycia, the site of present day Kınık, Turkey, and of the river on which the city is situated. In early sources, "Xanthos" is used synonymously for Lycia as a whole.
 * Grainne Salamis (Circe mother): Means grain.
 * Andros Salamis (Circe's paternal grandfather): An island of the Cyclades, Greece.
 * Eurydice Salamis (Circe's paternal grandmother): In Greek mythology, Eurydice was an oak nymph or a sweet maiden.
 * McGork -- Meaning unknown. Possibly derived from the McGurk-effect.
 * Gwrtheym McGork (Circe's maternal grandfather): Was a 5 Century warlord in Britain.
 * Moira McGork (Circe's maternal grandmother): Greek for fate.
 * In Circe's family, the names all are Greek, and in Loki's family, the names are all Old Norse.

The Curious Family
For the oldest sister of the Curious brothers, please look under the Smith category. For the children of Glarn Curious and Pollination Technician #9, please look under the Singles category. For Glarn's abductor, please look under the Smith category.
 * Curious -- As in curious.
 * Pascal Curious : Hebrew for "associated with Easter (or Passover)".
 * Vidcund Curious (Pascal's younger brother) : Unknown
 * Lazlo Curious (Pascal's youngest brother) : Means rules with glory. Also spelled Laszlo.
 * Glarn Curious (Pascal's father): So the name sounds like darn curious.
 * Kitty Curious (Pascal's mother): Her name might be a play on the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat."
 * Notzo Curious (Pascal's paternal grandfather): So the name sounds like "not so curious".
 * Zo Curious (Pascal's paternal grandmother): So the name sounds like "so curious".
 * Hogleg -- means leg of a hog.
 * Hamm Hogleg (Pascal's maternal grandfather): Ham, meat of pig.
 * Annie Hogleg (Pascal's maternal grandmother): Means 'gracious', or so the name sounds like 'any hogleg'.

The Grunt Family

 * Grunt -- Means to grunt. "Grunt" is also a derogatory slang for "infantry".
 * General Buzz Grunt : his proper name could be Edwin, after Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin (1930- ). Edwin means rich, blessed friend. The name Buzz also might have something to do with the "buzz cut" haircut that a lot of army recruits get.
 * Lyla Grunt (Gen. Buzz's wife) : Persian for "dark princess'", Hebrew for night.
 * Tank Grunt (Gen. Buzz's oldest son): Probably a reference to his father being in the Army.
 * Ripp Grunt (Gen. Buzz's middle son): To rip or to tear. Possibly short for Tripp, means travel.
 * Buck Grunt (Gen. Buzz's youngest son): A young buck; an adventurous, impetuous, dashing, or high-spirited young man. Or refers to the male deer.
 * General Chip Grunt (Gen. Buzz's father): Means a lot of things, such as French Fries.
 * Missy Grunt (Gen. Buzz's mother): A young female; miss
 * General Rock Grunt (Gen. Buzz's paternal grandfather) : Rock, as in hard as rock, because he is in the army.
 * Wanda Grunt (Gen. Buzz's paternal grandmother) : From Polish, possibly derived from an ethnic term for " a Wend",a member of a Slavic people from the borders of Germany and Poland; a Sorb; a Kashub.
 * Mike Steel (Gen. Buzz's maternal father): Mike is short for Michael, means "who is like god", and steel as in steel,a metal alloy of mostly iron plus carbon, harder than pure iron but malleable when hot.
 * Mary Melons (Gen. Buzz's maternal grandmother): Mary means "to be bitter", while Melons as in melon, a type of fruit.
 * The reason why Mary does not have the same last name as Mike is that Missy was an illegitimate child. She was born outside marriage.

The Smith Family
This was only added to note that the twins have an alien decent, and to show the etymology of the Pollination Technician name. Other alien names we know of (Colony Drone and Birth Queen) seem to all have to do with reproduction. It is assumed that aliens in the Sims live only for the purpose of reproducing, although it cannot be determined exactly.
 * Smith -- An English surname derived from the trade name smith.
 * Pollination Technician #9:
 * Technician -- Someone whose occupation involves training in specific technical process. In the Sims; the Pollination Technician is an alien that operates a UFO and abducts Sims. Somehow (using advanced technology?) these Technicians can make male Sims pregnant with an alien-like form.
 * Pollination -- The process of which flowers reproduce.

For Jenny's side family, please look under the Curious category.
 * Jenny Smith : Short for Jennifer, means "white" or "smooth.
 * Johnny Smith : A diminutive of John, meaning God has favoured/God is merciful.
 * Jill Smith : Short for Gillian, which is the English form of Julia, which is the feminine version of Julian which means downy beard.

The name "Smith" happens to be the commonest name in the United States. This is quite ironic, seeing is the Smiths are anything but "common". It is rather likely that Pollination Technician #9 chose this name with such in mind, as he might have wanted to seem normal in some ways despite being an alien.

The Singles Family

 * Singles -- Because they are all Singles.
 * Erin Singles : From Eireann, meaning Ireland.
 * Lola Singles : Diminutive of Dolores, meaning grief.
 * Chloe Singles : Greek, green shoot.
 * Kristen Singles : from Christina/Christian meaning a Christian.
 * Loste --
 * Arty Loste (Kristen's father) : A diminutive of Arthur, meaning bear. Could mean "already lost".
 * Daisy Loste (Kristen's mother): Means 'day's eye'.
 * Goshem Loste (Kristen's paternal grandfather): As in " Gosh I'm Lost", considering he got abducted by aliens.
 * Vera Loste (Kristen's paternal grandmother): Borrowed in the nineteenth century from the Russian virtue name Вера, means 'faith'. Or could mean Very lost
 * Simnitch -- 'Nitch' a common misspelling for 'niche', means 'nest'. So perhaps the name means 'A Sim's Nest'.
 * Leonard Simnitch (Kristen's maternal grandfather): From Germanic leon, lion + hard, hardy.
 * Petunia Simnitch (Kristen's maternal grandmother): A flower.

The Loner Family

 * Loner -- Because he is on his own at the beginning of the game.
 * Ajay Loner : Indian, unconquerable/invincible.
 * Vikram Loner (Ajay's father) : Vikram may mean brave or victorious in Sanskrit.
 * Madhuri Loner (Ajay's mother) : Unknown
 * Kavi Loner (Ajay's paternal grandfather): Kavi (from a root kū "to cry out") is a Sanskrit term for thinker, intelligent man, man of understanding or a leader.
 * Jeevika Loner (Ajay's paternal grandmother): Unknown
 * Frehndly -- friendly
 * Bhu Frehndly (Ajay's maternal grandfather) : the act of becoming or arising, the place of being, space , world or universe or the earth.
 * Milony Frehndly (Ajay's maternal grandmother) : Could mean melon.