Overwatch heroes' names?

Zenyatta and Mondatta were named after the Police album.

Zenyatta Mondatta.

Also why not.

Designation : OR-15- Alpha

2 Likes

Oh yeah!! I knew that, I totally forgot!

Similarly, Brigitte is a combination of the English word Bridge because she “bridges” the gap between healer and tank, and the Swedish word Gikt meaning “a reddish, inflammation of the joints” because Brigitte turns Genji into a paraplegic.

5 Likes

The root of the word may not have any relation to the idea of balance, but in design practice it most certainly does. Symmetry as a concept in design is about the perception that parts of a composition are weighted equally. It’s use relates to the idea of “perfection” and “correctness,” ideas that are central to Symmetra’s character.

Additionally I can’t imagine that the word Sumitra is not part of her name, it is a very common hindi word, hindi being the lingua franca of India. I always thought her name was the clever pairing of the two phonetically similar words, but I could be wrong.

Fun fact about Symmetry and Architecture. True Symmetry has been used throughout history and across many cultures globally to “invoke the divine” because of its perceived perfection. It can be seen in nearly every major faith’s churches, temples, mosques, shrine, etc.

Sombra means “shadow” in Spanish, that much I know!

Names in hat

Jeff pulls name =

Hero name

2 Likes

We made a list that had two columns: first names and last names, and then tried putting them together to make the Ultimate Cowboy Name. During this time, we’d been joking that the name of one of the designers at Blizzard, Jesse McCree, would be pretty good too.

Ultimately none of the names we came up with worked better than Jesse McCree, so we took his name away from him. :joy:

(His name’s not Joel.)

98 Likes

Can you record him saying high noon?

4 Likes

I would have guessed that McCree was a reference to MacCready from fallout 4 who Matt Mercer voiced as well

1 Like

So “Joel” is an easter egg for the nick of the Blizzard designer?

1 Like

LOL there ya go, I thought I read it in the Origins Visual Source Book but it wasn’t mentioned in the epilogue interview when I checked again (nice Capcom Design Works homage on the cover btw), not sure where I heard it now, totally forgot the part where you guys just used a co-workers name heh heh, that’s the creative process for ya. :grin:

Classic Blizzard, something so nice about simplicity

I wonder if somewhere deep in the recesses of a Blizzy dev’s mind the old arcade game “Mad Dog McCree” made the name stand out more as a possible cowboy name.

Soldier 76 was also based on a comic hero someone designed. I think he was an “all American” dude like Jack. American. Red white and blue aesthetic. (17)76.

1 Like

I’m still curious where they got the idea for “Torbjörn” - I thought it was some kind of rule that all Swedish men in pop culture had to be named Sven… :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

There is torbjörn in overwatch team, so they took his name too.

“Haaandsome Straaaangerrrr…”

Athena is obviously the Italian translation of the Roman city Athens.

By the gods of Olympus I’m surprised nobody has pointed this out.

1 Like

Soldier 76 was his number in his supersoldier program

Winston was the name of the researcher he liked

Widowmaker killed her husband

Doomfist has the doomfist

Orisa is a OR15 unit

Sombra hides in the shadows

D.va is a total Diva

Ana is just, like, named that.

1 Like

I think it must have been pretty similar to this one :smiley:

thesunshineroom.files.wordpress. com/2011/08/t-shirt.jpg

1 Like