Godzillaand Kong have a lot of friends, foes, and fellow giant monsters. The Monsterverse doesn’t have quite the menagerie Toho built up over its decades in the game, but it does have an impressive selection of original Titans. Most of them don’t stick around long. There are a couple of villains who lead entire entries and several minor figures that pop up for brief cameos. How does the Monsterverse go about assigning codenames to these unique figures when they arrive to wreck a city?
It’s safe to assume that the Monsterverse will continue to invent new giant monsters. Most of the entries have added a few creatures to the bestiary.Godzilla: King of the Monstersrelied almost entirely on returning names for its major players while relegating newcomers to the back. It remains the worst-received film in the franchise.Godzilla x Kong: The New Empireinvented two new antagonists and several new characters and earned more money than any other kaiju film ever made. That certainly isn’t the only difference, but it is a notable metric.
How does the Monsterverse name Titans?
The Monsterverse doesn’t exclusively follow one rule when it comes to naming their Titans.Monarch, the in-universe scientificorganization, names all the Titans. They decide what does and doesn’t count, but they also handle the official designations. Each Titan gets a common name and a scientific name, which is usually just a Latin-adjacent version of the same title. The name “Titan” is a reference to Greek mythology, foreshadowing the main etymological trope of the group. Monarch often selects seemingly random mythological beings and borrows their names for the beasts they find and study. Here’s a short list of examples with brief descriptions:
The majority of monsters in the Monsterverse simply borrow their names from ancient myths. There are several possible explanations, but they all run up against the variety of options. Camazotz, who is extremely similar to his namesake, suggests that some of the monsters may have inspired the mythological figures in question. Others, like Scylla, suggest that the people at Monarch simply drop whatever labels they have in mind. It could work like real scientific taxonomy, in which a thing’s discoverer gets exclusive naming rights. In any case, the exceptions to this rule are a lot more interesting. Skar King and Shimo, for example, stand out against the others. It’slikely that the Iwi peoplegave them those names, suggesting that the more compelling Titan names won’t often come out of Monarch.
How do Toho films name kaiju?
There’s no one answer to how the Toho films handled this concept. They tried just about everything, naming each new beast as they appeared.Godzilla’s original name, Gojira, is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for “gorilla” (gorira) and “whale” (kujira.) The “ra” suffix became shorthand to describe something very large, leading to the names “Ebirah” and “Mothra.” A lot of kaiju are simply named after the thing they supposedly resemble. Anguirus and Titanosaurus take their names from real dinosaurs. Rodan was originally named “Radon,” which was a shortened form of pteranodon. Megalon, just called “Megalo” in Japan, is probably just a stem word meaning “huge.” Later examples got a little weirder. Destoroyah is the Japanese translation of “Destroyer,” which would have been too difficult to copyright. The sludge monster Hedorah got his name from the word for “slime,” which ishedoro. Gigan is a combination ofgai, which means “guy,” andgan, which means “goose.” Toho even occasionally used the Monsterverse method, sharing at least one inspiration with Yamata no Orochi.King Ghidorah takes his namefromhidora, the Japanese word for “hydra.” The Toho movies tried just about everything, frequently just making up words like “Baragon” with no inspiration to speak of. That “everything and the kitchen sink” approach is endlessly charming.
How could Titan names get more interesting?
The Monsterverse sticks to a theme most of the time. That’s practically the onlything Toho never did. The few unusual examples stand out because they feel as if they came from unique sources. Toho kaiju emerged from the sea, the earth, the sky, the depths of space, and the distant future. Almost everything in the Monsterverse comes from the Hollow Earth. Monarch is the only game in town, while a lot of Toho kaiju came with names attached. Sometimes, Toho wouldn’t announce the name of a monster in the movie. Fans would only find out years later in a book or a toy. TheMonsterverse should start playingfast and loose with their names to create a wider spectrum.
The language barrier between Toho and the Monsterverse absolutely contributes to the unique names. Almost every kaiju from the classics has a Japanese namethat was later Americanizedto sell better to a new audience. It’s worth looking at the ones that stick. The Monsterverse can consistently get weirder in its Titan names. Maybe the next one will last longer than one film.
