Anakin Skywalker creator George Lucas
Creation and development
Name
According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, he experimented with various combinations of names for the character built upon the phrase "Dark Water". He then "added lots of last names, Vaders and Wilsons and Smiths, and ... just came up with the combination of Darth and Vader". After the release of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Lucas stated that the name Vader was based upon the German/Dutch-language word vater or vader ('father'), suggesting "Dark Father" and the character's relationship with original-trilogy protagonist Luke Skywalker. Other words which may have inspired the name are "death" and "invader", as well as the name of a high-school upperclassman of Lucas's, Gary Vader.As no other character with the title "Darth" was introduced until the release of The Phantom Menace (1999), some viewers interpreted it as the character's first name, in part because Obi-Wan Kenobi addresses him as "Darth" in the original film. The moniker is bestowed upon Anakin in Revenge of the Sith (2005) upon his turn to the dark side of the Force.
Director Ken Annakin's films Swiss Family Robinson and Battle of the Bulge influenced the original trilogy, leading some to believe that Anakin was named after him. Lucas' publicist denied this following Annakin's death in 2009. Anakin and Luke's original surname "Starkiller" remained in the script until a few months into filming Star Wars, when it was dropped due to what Lucas called "unpleasant connotations" with Charles Manson and replaced with "Skywalker".
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