Issue 3 - Ninja Power! - Page 5 - Alex Meets the Satan Ninja

[Jessica Safron]

As I was delivering the "Do you know where Connor's party is?" line in the I Got Somethin' I Wanna Show Ya promo video, something about the way it sounded felt overwhelmingly modern to me. The feeling kept nagging me and I started wondering if the name Connor got way more popular after the 80s or something. I thought of Connor MacLeod from Highlander, whose name might have served to evoke a place and time far away from 1980s America, and Sarah Connor from The Terminator, but that one is obviously a surname, so it doesn't count.

So I turned to Google which directed me to The Baby Name Wizard, which sounds like the lamest wizard of all time. This wizard told me, through its "Baby Name Voyager" (I guess this site really wants to get the fantasy crowd pumped about baby names), that zero babies born in the U.S. were named Connor until the 80s, making it impossible for any American teen to have that name in the 80s. The name jumped in rank from 0 to 494 in the 80s, climbed to 67 in the 90s, and has hovered in the 50s ever since, peaking at 49 in 2010. What a modern-ass name. The Wikipedia article for the given name Connor confirmed this. Not a single Connor of note born before the 80s. So we decided to make our Connor go by his last name. Fuck Connor. He's Kyle Connor now.

[Rijst]

As I was delivering the "Do you know where Connor's party is?" line in the I Got Somethin' I Wanna Show Ya promo video, something about the way it sounded felt overwhelmingly modern to me. The feeling kept nagging me and I started wondering if the name Connor got way more popular after the 80s or something. I thought of Connor MacLeod from Highlander, whose name might have served to evoke a place and time far away from 1980s America, and Sarah Connor from The Terminator, but that one is obviously a surname, so it doesn't count.

So I turned to Google which directed me to The Baby Name Wizard, which sounds like the lamest wizard of all time. This wizard told me, through its "Baby Name Voyager" (I guess this site really wants to get the fantasy crowd pumped about baby names), that zero babies born in the U.S. were named Connor until the 80s, making it impossible for any American teen to have that name in the 80s. The name jumped in rank from 0 to 494 in the 80s, climbed to 67 in the 90s, and has hovered in the 50s ever since, peaking at 49 in 2010. What a modern-ass name. The Wikipedia article for the given name Connor confirmed this. Not a single Connor of note born before the 80s. So we decided to make our Connor go by his last name. Fuck Connor. He's Kyle Connor now.

No detail is too small is it?

I love how Eddie is suddenly hot on poses, he can't even throw a star sideways without striking one (and nearly killing that poor animal).

[Rae]

Name origin of Connor: "Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic Conchobhar, a compound name composed of the elements conn (wisdom, counsel, strength) or con (hound, dog) and cobhair (aid). “High, will, desire” and “hound lover” are other definitions attributed to the name."

What a weird name. But even weirder... the community comments about the name... who ARE these people:
"My son is a Connor and he likes his name. There are three Connors in his Boy Scout troop and they go by big, little and medium Connor or last names. His name is misspelled all the time by teachers, relatives and friends. He corrects it and jokes around about being rich if he got paid a dollar for every time he had to correct people. It is a great name for boys."

"More of a ninja and less of a satan." Hehe, nice line.

[Adam Dravian]

No detail is too small is it?

Unlike Jessica, I wasn't too concerned about Connor's name. After all, we could just say that his parents moved to the US from Ireland shortly after Connor was born. Problem solved. But I'm also fine with Connor being his surname. Now I just need to come up with a reason that his friends often call him by his last name instead of Kyle.

I love how Eddie is suddenly hot on poses, he can't even throw a star sideways without striking one (and nearly killing that poor animal).

Eddie producing a ninja star and tossing it off to the side and surprising an animal wasn't in my script for the page, but Jessica decided to add that in to have more visually interesting things to show instead of Alex and Eddie simply standing there talking. I suggested the creature he nearly impales could be a squirrel, but she made the point that chipmunks are more '80s (Alvin and the Chipmunks; Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers).

Name origin of Connor: "Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic Conchobhar, a compound name composed of the elements conn (wisdom, counsel, strength) or con (hound, dog) and cobhair (aid). “High, will, desire” and “hound lover” are other definitions attributed to the name."

What a weird name. But even weirder... the community comments about the name... who ARE these people:
"My son is a Connor and he likes his name. There are three Connors in his Boy Scout troop and they go by big, little and medium Connor or last names. His name is misspelled all the time by teachers, relatives and friends. He corrects it and jokes around about being rich if he got paid a dollar for every time he had to correct people. It is a great name for boys."

Haha. Good.

"More of a ninja and less of a satan." Hehe, nice line.

Thanks, I was proud of that one.

[Gregg Samsa]

No detail is too small is it?

Unlike Jessica, I wasn't too concerned about Connor's name. After all, we could just say that his parents moved to the US from Ireland shortly after Connor was born. Problem solved. But I'm also fine with Connor being his surname. Now I just need to come up with a reason that his friends often call him by his last name instead of Kyle.

I love how Eddie is suddenly hot on poses, he can't even throw a star sideways without striking one (and nearly killing that poor animal).

He's Kyle Connor II, so he goes by his last name because "[his] dad's Kyle".

[Rijst]

No detail is too small is it?

Unlike Jessica, I wasn't too concerned about Connor's name. After all, we could just say that his parents moved to the US from Ireland shortly after Connor was born. Problem solved. But I'm also fine with Connor being his surname. Now I just need to come up with a reason that his friends often call him by his last name instead of Kyle.

I love how Eddie is suddenly hot on poses, he can't even throw a star sideways without striking one (and nearly killing that poor animal).

He's Kyle Connor II, so he goes by his last name because "[his] dad's Kyle".

Wouldn't that make him Kyle Connor Jr.?

[Adam Dravian]

He's Kyle Connor II, so he goes by his last name because "[his] dad's Kyle".

Wouldn't that make him Kyle Connor Jr.?

Either works, I think. Maybe there's an income quota you need to meet in order to go with the II option instead of Jr., since that has more noble connotations to me.

But anyway, I thought of the solution. There are two dudes named Kyle in his grade/friend group, so to differentiate, they call Kyle Connor by his last name.