There are some gamers who just play games without giving any part of them outside of what is immediately going on any further thought. Then there are others who play games and wonder, as they stomp a Koopa, where did this thing's name come from?

Blogger Drew Mackie is one of the latter types. He has recently completed what was originally intended to be an innocently small study on the origins of various names and words that appear in some popular videogames. Titled "It's a Secret to Everybody", the one-man study now contains information on character and object name roots spanning over 20 different game series, including Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, and Animal Crossing. He even lists his picks for the "Worst Names in Video Games", basing the results on how poorly thought out the name choice was (though I still like the name choices of Pudding and Wander/Wanda, no matter how little thought they required).

As someone who is extremely into words, particularly those related to videogames, this compilation of Mackie's hard work and dedication to finding the linguistic roots of all these names and terms is as interesting as it is long. It may take a while to get all the way through it, but for those who love to learn, it's worth it. The name of the dog in Duck Hunt and how the Elemental Fiends of Final Fantasy IV relate to Dante's Inferno are just two of the thousands of tidbits of cool information you will learn from reading through this piece.

[via Back of the Cereal Box]