When Hideaki Anno created NGE, he borrowed from everywhere, which is more than evident with the way the characters were named. In the essay section of his personal website, he revealed most of the secrets for us fans with a ravenous thirst for such tidbits. This is a translation of some of the entries concerning the origins of the names of some of the characters in Evangelion. Some notes were added inside the square brackets as well as after the translated entry.

2000/11/02 (Entry 1)

Shinji Ikari (碇シンジ)

Ikari [anchor] is a component of a ship. It's also borrowed from the name of a friend from my college years. [[Shinji Ikari|Shinji] is also borrowed from a long-time friend [Shinji Higuchi]. Incidentally, since both his wife and daughter's names have been used for anime protagonists, I wanted to do the same for the husband and make them an anime family -- but, that said, my reasoning wasn't too logical. Sorry, Shin-chan.

Higuchi's given name is written 真嗣. Perhaps if Anno had not opted to write the NGE characters' given names in katakana, Shinji's would have been written like this, as well.

Rei Ayanami (綾波レイ)

Ayanami is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Rei is just a pun of rei 零 [zero], but actually named after Rei Hino of Sailor Moon [by Naoko Takeuchi]. At the time, this was a bait to invite Iku-chan (Kunihiko Ikuhara) to the staff, but he ran away. Too bad.

Rei's name is a pun about the Japanese “Zero” fighters. You think it's any accident Rei pilots EVA-00 (零号機)?

Soryu Asuka Langley (惣流・アスカ・ラングレー)

Soryu is from a warship of the former Japan navy [different kanji]; Langley is from the US navy warship. [[Asuka Langeley Soryu|Asuka] is borrowed from Shinji Wada's manga heroine [Chou-Shoujo Asuka].

The name of Wada's heroine is written 明日香.
The name of the warship Soryu is written 蒼龍.

Misato Katsuragi (葛城ミサト)

Katsuragi is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Misato is borrowed from a heroine of Minako Narita's manga [Misato Izumi of Aitsu].

The given name of Narita's heroine is written みさと.

Ritsuko Akagi (赤木リツコ)

Akagi is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Ritsuko is borrowed from a friend of mine in middle school.

Ryoji Kaji (加持リョウジ)

Kaji [rudder] is a component of a ship. Ryoji is also from a hero in Minako Narita's manga [Ryoji Sawada of Aitsu].

The given name of Narita's hero is written 涼司.
The ship part is written 舵.

2000/11/13 (Entry 4)

Gendo Ikari (碇ゲンドウ)

Ikari is the same as with Shinji. Gendo is borrowed from another anime project before Eva that was aborted. I didn't notice Gendo and Shinji is the same combination as in Ken Ishikawa's manga until one of my friends pointed it out. [I think he means Shin'ichi Kuruma and Genzo Kuruma of Majuu Sensen.] His former name Rokubungi 六文儀 [sextant] is also a component of a ship. Just FYI, Rei Asuka of Raideen is also a coincidence. I didn't do this knowingly, as until Super Robot Taisen was made, I had completely forgotten that Raideen existed. Sad, I know.

Kozo Fuyutsuki (冬月コウゾウ)

Fuyutsuki is from a warship of the former Japan navy. Kozo just has a nice ring to it.

Yui Ikari (碇ユイ)

Ikari is the same as before. Yui sounds similar to Rei, and it's also a simple pun on yui 唯 [only one].

Interestingly, at one point in the production, the prototype for the character Rei had dark hair, green eyes, and was named Yui Ichijo. “Ichijo” is believed to have come from Hikaru Ichijo of Macross, an anime which Anno had worked on.

Keel Lorenz (キール・ローレンツ)

Keel is also a component of a ship. Lorenz is named after a zoologist or something, but I can't remember clearly. Am I just getting old? Oh, well.

Anno remembered correctly: Konrad Lorenz was a famous German zoologist (1908-1989), whom you can learn more about here. Interestingly, Anno used the name “Konrad Lorenz” unchanged in a prelimary NGE scenario.

Naoko Akagi (赤木ナオコ)

Akagi is the same as with Ritsuko. Naoko is from a friend of mine when I was in elementary school.

Soryu Kyoko Zeppelin (惣流・キョウコ・ツェッペリン)

Soryu is from the same Japanese warship as Asuka. Kyoko is also from a character in Shinji Wada's manga. Zeppelin is from a warship of the German navy that was envisioned but never made.

Pen² (ペンペン)

Super straightforward naming, but I thought the repetition sounded cute. His name has officially become the 2nd power of Pen [Pen²]. I was reluctant at first, but we thought we needed a mascot character, so we had an animal appear in the show. As it happened, the show is set in Hakone, which one associates with hot springs, which in turn are associated with monkeys. But that is no fun, so we decided to make it a penguin, the animal most unsuited to a hot spring. I'm positive that "hot spring penguin" was Sadamoto's idea.

“Pen” comes from “penguin”.

2000/11/17 (Entry 6)

Makoto Hyuga (日向マコト)

Hyuga is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. But what was Makoto? I don't remember. Maybe because I liked Ryou[taro] Shiba's Shinsen-gumi? Sorry, I'm not sure about this one either.

Shigeru Aoba (青葉シゲル)

Aoba is from a warship of the former Japanese navy. Shigeru is a spoof of the movie title Aoba Shigereru directed by Kihachi Okamoto.

Okamoto's movie is written 茂れる, so if Shigeru's name were written in kanji, it would probably be 茂.

Maya Ibuki (伊吹マヤ)

Both Ibuki and Maya are borrowed from warships of the former Japanese navy because they sounded good. Ibuki is also a commanding officer in Kaette kita Ultraman whom I like, but that's a very minor reason. I chose Maya (摩哉) because I love Takao-class heavy cruisers best after Yamato-class battleships.

Toji Suzuhara (鈴原トウジ)

Borrowed unchanged from a Ryu Murakami novel I read on my friend's recommendation.

The novel by Murakami is Ai to Gensou no Fascism, within which Toji Suzuhara is a main character.
The given name of Murakami's character is written 冬二.

Kensuke Aida (相田ケンスケ)

Also from Murakami's novel. BTW, I was just interested in a character “Zero” in this novel, rather than the story about revolution and dictatorship itself.

The given name of Murakami's character is written 剣介.

Hikari Horaki (洞木ヒカリ)

Horaki also comes from Murakami's novel. Hikari, her older sister Nozomi, and her younger sister Kodama are borrowed from Tokaido Shinkansen express train names.

The name of the train is written ひかり.

Kaworu Nagisa (渚カヲル)

This character was named by the screenplay writer Akio Satsukawa. Nagisa [shore] is a word related to the sea. Also the kanji nagisa 渚 consists of katakana SHI シ and kanji SHA 者, therefore he's SHISHA シ者 [messenger 使者]. He said it also comes from the movie director Nagisa Oshima. But what is Kaworu? Sorry, I will ask him next time.

Here is some interesting stuff written by Patrick Yip on the name “Kaworu”:
I was flipping through the old Japanese classics Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) the other day. It's been quite some time since I looked at the final part of this monumental work, and I found that the name of the hero in this part of the story is “Kaworu”!! I did some more research on this name. These are the facts about “Kaworu” that I [found] out:
- The reason why “Kaworu” is written with a “wo” character ヲ is probably influenced by classics work like Genji Monogatari. In the Heian ages and medieval period, “wo” and “o” were quite separate [sounds]. At that time “Kaworu” was indeed written with “wo” character. The two characters merged in their pronounciation in the Edo period and thus created the confusion as to why “Kaworu” should have a “wo” character. It is possible that some Japanese may not even know this, and it has become common practice to write “Kaoru”. This creates more confusion.
- “Kaworu” is a serious but also romantic hero in the last third of the Tale of Genji. And literally the kanji for “Kaworu” means fragrance (of incense wood). Indeed in Tale of Genji, Kaworu was born with a very special bodily feature: His body bore a sweet fragrance smell. So the name “Kaworu” is commonly related to the idea of intelligent, handsome and romantic hero.
- And one more striking thing. “Kaworu” can be a girl's name as well!! This adds to the ambiguity of sex implicated by this name. Put it into the context that Kaworu is an epitome of shoujo-anime bishounen (handsome boy) with ambiguous sexuality. Now it seems to me that Gainax actually put some thought in choosing his name.
Interestingly, “Rei” is a unisex name, as well.

Miscellaneous

[Shiro] Tokita (時田), Manda (万田), and Yasugi (八杉) of episode #07 also come from Murakami's novel. Nozoku Takahashi (高橋覗) of episode #11 comes from the name of a production manager and my friend. It's a staff in-joke. [Takahashi Nozomu of Studio Ghibli. Actually, Ghibli did animation work for this episode.] The names of characters in episode #15, etc., also follow a hidden convention. Guessing the rule might be fun if you have the time.

Resources:Character Name Origins

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