Like many of the names in Star Wars, Thrawn actually means something. Here’s what the it means and how it defines the Grand Admiral’s character.
Apart from the Skywalkers themselves, few characters in Star Wars have a more storied history than Grand Admiral Thrawn. Introduced in 1991 by Timothy Zahn, Thrawn’s character did much to solidify Star Wars fiction as a category all its own. Unfortunately, since his introduction, all of the old Thrawn stories have been removed from canon, but Disney has reintroduced the Chiss grand admiral in a new capacity. Now, a whole new generation gets to experience Grand Admiral Thrawn and his tactical acumen.
While most Star Wars fans would know who Thrawn was, not everyone may know the details behind his name. The first thing to know is that Chiss names have three parts: a family prefix, a given name and a social factor suffix. So, Thrawn’s real name was actually much longer. With that said, here’s a look at Thrawn’s full name, how he got his shortened name and what it really means.
Thrawn’s birth name was Kivu’raw’nuru, meaning that he was born into the Kivu family – a small, poor family – and given the name “raw.” However, when he was at an academy on Rentor, Thrawn attracted the attention of another, richer family. In fact, it was the patriarch of the Mitth family — Mitth’oor’akiord – who offered him a place as a merit adoptive. Thrawn accepted, and thus, his name went from Kivu’raw’nuru to Mitth’raw’nuruodo by exchanging family prefixes and adding “odo” to the suffix to show a higher social status.
Going from “Mitth’raw’nuruodo” to “Thrawn” was actually a simple step and not something that just Thrawn did. Because Chiss names were so long (and because most other species had trouble pronouncing them) Chiss always went by shortened core names, except in the most formal situations. A Chiss’ core name was simply his given name surrounded by the last letters of his family prefix and the first few letters of his social suffix. Thus, using Thrawn as an example, the “th” from Mitth and the “n” from nuruodo sandwiched around his given name of “raw” became Thrawn.
That’s the technical side of things, but it’s not the most telling aspect. From an out-of-universe perspective, Star Wars is rife with names that mean something else: Vader meaning father and Maul meaning hammer are two of the most-ready examples, but it turns out that Thrawn means something too. A “thrawn” is a Scottish/Irish slang word that means stubborn, dishonest or hard to manage, which are ideal adjectives that explain Thrawn’s character.
When he was part of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet, Thrawn did get into some trouble, but one of the biggest things that he did was plan and execute his own “exile.” That alone showed his propensity for being dishonest when it helped a higher cause, but throughout his time with the Empire, Thrawn did the exact same thing. While proclaiming loyalty to the Empire, he was really acting in the interests of the Chiss Ascendancy. Thus, he was sometimes difficult to manage because he was acting with (and failing to hide) split loyalties. On top of all of that, Thrawn was just plain stubborn. No matter what he did – from learning at the Imperial Academy to managing a fleet or arguing with the Imperial Bureaucracy – he was going to do it his way, regardless of what his superiors or compatriots thought.
During the evets in the Star Wars Rebels finale, Thrawn went missing. However, from all indications, he will soon be back with all of his stubborn personality to boot. It’s possible that he could make an appearance in The Book of Boba Fett or Season 3 of The Mandalorian, but the most likely place for the Grand Admiral’s next appearance is the Ahsoka series. From all indications, he will play a substantial part as the series’ villain, as Ahsoka hunts for the missing Jedi Ezra Bridger.
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