Albertosia
I have no idea what that means, but it sounds cool.
Completely off topic, but I will punch the first person who thinks that the names from Hunger Games are "stupid". They are actually names, usually from mythology or nature.
<spoiler=Name list. Does contain some spoilers>
Katniss is a real plant. Its common name? "Arrowhead". And its scientific name is Sagittaria, which is a transparent reference to the Zodiac sign Sagittarius, a fire sign whose symbol is an archer.
Peeta the baker sounds like "pita," a type of bread.
Effie Trinket seems to be trivial and shallow.
Cinna was the name of both a doomed opponent of Sulla the dictator and a conspirator against Augustus Caesar.
One of the meanings of "Rue" is "regret." Her death haunts Katniss, who failed to protect her.
Avox means, in an awkward and incorrect mixture of Greek and Latin, 'without a voice.'
"Coriolanus," as in "Coriolanus Snow" refers to a hated Roman who betrayed both sides and died loathed and friendless.
Tigris had plastic surgery to look like a human-tiger hybrid. Katniss wonders which came first, the name or the look.
A mag is a type of nut. Mags knows a lot about plants and nuts.
Pollux and Castor, the twin cameramen from Mockingjay are named for the Gemini of Roman mythology. Like the myth, Castor dies and
Pollux is allowed to live - only with some horrible mutilation.
Titus and Lavinia are names from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Like their counterparts in the Shakespeare play, Titus was known for cannibalism, and Lavinia had her tongue cut out. Given Peeta's comments about 'fingers and toes' an unfortunate implication, given what other things happened to Lavinia in the play.
In Mockingjay, the expression "the opposite side of the same Coin" comes to mind.
Panem sounds like a mutilation of "Pan America", but is meant as a reference to the Latin phrase "panem et circenses", meaning "bread and circuses", or idiomatically, sustenance and entertainment - the two things you need to give a population to keep them happy.
In addition to any other possible meaning, a lot of the tributes' names related to their district's industry or their personal profession:
*District 1, luxury goods, gives us Marvel, Glimmer, Gloss, and Cashmere.
*District 3, electronics, has Wiress. And Beetee, which invokes "bit" and sounds like TV, CD, PC, etc. (Or BD, as in blu-ray disc). For British readers, it invokes BT - British Telecom.
*District 4, fishing, Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta.
*District 7, lumber, gives us the optimistically-named Blight.
*District 8, textiles, has Twill, Paylor (play on 'taylor) and Woof (another word for "weft").
*District 11, agriculture, has Rue, Thresh, Chaff, and Seeder. Chaff is a double example. Not only does it mean "the husks of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing," but it also means, "worthless matter." Chaff never becomes important to the plot.
*District 12 has no set theme for names; they're mostly things that are important to the parents. There's Peeta, after the type of bread (his parents are bakers), and Katniss and Prim were named after flowers their father was fond of. Gale Hawthorne's surname carries on the rose motif, with hawthorn being a less pretty, rugged member of the family. And of course Katniss' nickname, "The Girl On Fire", may refer to District 12's main industry: coal mining.
*The Capitol uses Roman names, in reference to their technological superiority as well as their decadent culture.
*District 2 is noted for having the closest relationship to the Capitol, and their tributes also have Roman names: Cato, Brutus, and Clove (derived from Clovis).
Caesar "Flick"erman and his long TV career. (Also possibly a reference to how the proverbial bright lights of the Capitol are soon to be flickering out).
Atala, the Training Center coach for the tributes, may be a reference to Atalanta, a great and almost undefeated huntress in Greek mythology.
Cressida goes from being a director in the Capitol to a top propagandist in District 13. Starting in Medieval retellings of the Trojan War, Cressida was in love with and pledged to a Trojan prince. But after finding herself among the Greeks, she falls in love with one of their own warriors.
Any connection between Katniss's therapist Dr Aurelius and Emperor Marcus Aurelius may seem stretched at first. But in his Analects the latter wrote extensively about the need to find an 'inner citadel' within oneself to which one can retreat in time of great difficulty. The doc seems to think it's best to leave Katniss alone and give her time to cope from within herself, and that suits her, too.
Plutarch Heavensbee makes some references to historical rhyming, making a direct reference to Juvenal's 'panem et circensis' quote and saying, 'We?re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction'. Fitting for a character named after a Roman historian who focused on how the morals of important men influenced the world.
Seneca Crane's namesake, Seneca the Younger, was a tutor and advisor to Nero, but was ultimately forced to commit suicide after being implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy to kill the mad emperor.
I blame Moviebob. I like him, but he needed to actually do research for that one.
